An oldie, but a goodie. Awhile ago I hauled out my deep fryer and made a batch of sputnuts. Spudnuts, for those of you who have never heard of them, are potato doughnuts. You read right – potato doughnuts. Instead of a yeast dough, these babies are made using mashed potatoes instead of flour as the starch.

Spudnuts:

I got this recipe from my mother-in-law a few years ago, and of course haven’t a clue where she said she got it, but I think it might be from the master baker/boss she and I both worked for (a few decades apart). I hold onto this recipe for almost two years before I dusted it off and took it out for a spin. I remember thinking I have a deep fryer and beyond fries and breaded zucchini sticks, I had nothing else to make in it. That’s when DH reminded me his mother gave me a perfectly good recipe for these spudnuts, and I jumped out of my chair with such excitement, I scared him. Hee.

These doughnuts turned out to be easier to make than I ever thought possible, and they plumped up nicely in the hot oil, but the best part of them is they didn’t really taste much different to me than yeast based doughnuts. That was an interesting and fun fact for me to discover as I sampled the finish product. I packaged up a lot of them and took them to work at the college kitchen I used to work at. Even the chef and master baker agreed they tasted like regular yeast doughnuts. Fun stuff. Make a batch and see for yourself.

Ingredients:
3 Eggs
3/4 C Sugar
3 Tbsp Shortening, softened
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 C Water, hot
1 1/2 C Instant mashed potato (or 1 1/4 C potato of your choice cooked and mashed up)
2 C Flour, all-purpose or bread, sifted
4 Tsp Baking powder
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg

Prep:
1. Chill dough for recommended time.
2. Heat oil to 375 degrees.
3. Set up paper towels on plates or cooling racks.
4. Melt fondants and assemble toppings station.

Directions:
1. Beat eggs well. Gradually add sugar until mixture is thick and light in colour.
2. Blend in Shortening and vanilla.
3. Sift the rest of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl; set aside.
4. Blend hot water with instant mashed potato mix and let stand 3 minutes, or boil and mash potatoes.
5. Blend egg mixture into the potato mixture. Add sifted dry ingredients, mix well to form dough ball.
6. Chill dough at least 4 hours or overnight.
7. Roll dough out to 1/3″ thick on lightly floured workspace.
8. Heat deep fryer or oil in a pot on the stove to at least 375 degrees.
9. Cut dough up into small chunks you can roll in your hands before dunking into the hot oil to fry.
10. Fry each doughnut roughly 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown – whichever comes before the doughnuts rise to the surface of the oil.
11. Scoop the doughnuts out using a metal slotted spoon or an Asian birds net spoon.
12. Lay each doughnut on paper towel lined plates or cooling racks.
13. While cool enough to touch but still warm enough to slightly melt toppings to the surface, sprinkle with either powdered sugar, sprinkles or melted fondant of your choice – or cool completely for plain old fashioned doughnuts.

Yields 1.5 to 2 dozen doughnuts.