Quick Cut-Out Donuts

Ingredients

¼ cup (1/2 stick) softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg (room temperature)

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

¾ cup of mashed potatoes (fresh, leftover or made from instant)

¼ cup milk

2¼ cups all purpose flour plus more for the work surface

2½  teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg (½ teaspoon if grated fresh)

Vegetable shortening or oil for frying

Cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, icing et cetera as desired.

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until the mixture is glossy. Add the mashed potatoes and milk and beat until well blended. In a separate smaller bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and whisk until thoroughly blended.

Add the dry ingredients to the potato mixture and beat just until evenly combined. The dough will be soft and fairly sticky, rather like cookie dough. Allow to rest in the bowl for ten minutes.

Generously dust a counter or board (wood is best) with flour and turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Sprinkle the top with flour as well. Flour your hands and press the dough into a rough oval, about ½” thick. Cut out the donuts using a donut cutter. (I like to use a small one about 2½”  across. Gather up the scraps and press them together into a ball, then flatten again to cut out more donuts. The remaining scraps can be rolled into balls to go in with the doughnut holes.

You’ll need about 2½” of oil to fry the donuts, so use a Dutch oven or a deep cast iron fryer over medium heat. Bring the oil temperature up to three hundred and seventy-five degrees. A thermometer is really necessary here unless you have a calibrated electric skillet. Fry the doughnuts three or four at a time, turning once, about two to four minutes per side until browned. That may seem like a wide range of time, but a cast iron fryer, a deep skillet and an electric fryer all behave differently. So you’ll need to experiment a bit. Keep an eye on your oil temperature. If it’s too cool the doughnuts will be oily. If, it’s too hot. They’ll be dark on the outside and doughy in the middle.

Transfer the cooked donuts to paper towels to drain. Fry the doughnut holes at the end all at once, stirring constantly so they are cooked on all sides, then drain on paper towels. These donuts are just sweet enough that you can enjoy them without any topping or glaze, but you can toss them in cinnamon sugar, sprinkle them with powdered sugar, dip them in a glaze, et cetera.

Notes

I love yeasted donuts (plain glazed, thank you very much) but they require a commitment of several hours, and I can’t always fit them into my schedule. Cake donuts are quicker, but often require special equipment, either a batter dispenser for fried donuts or special pans for the baked version. So when I saw a recipe for a cake donut that used a soft dough instead of a batter, it quickly moved to the top of my recipes to try list. I was especially attracted to this recipe because it makes use of mashed potatoes, a common leftover in the monastery and the school cafeteria.