I finally made them! That’s how I begin the introduction to today’s recipe: fried donuts, recipe without potatoes, soft and delicious like those from the café! Do you know why I start like this? Because this is one of those recipes that I marked down in my big notebook of notes years and years ago, but then every time I read it, I would move on. The excuses were the following: four hours of rising, come on, do something else, we can’t waste that much time. Then, you have to fry and the smell lingers in the house all day! And then I would tell myself that they wouldn’t turn out well, that I wouldn’t be satisfied with the result, and so on. Well, I was wrong and lying to myself, clearly knowing that all of these were obviously, and blatantly, excuses!
In the end, however, I decided, and do you want to know why? As a Christmas gift, Luca gave me a Kenwood stand mixer, a tool that was missing, or rather, I had a stand mixer but it was outdated. It no longer had the leaf hook and the movements were limited, the poor thing had many years of service behind it. I haven’t scrapped it yet, out of affection and gratitude, I keep it in its box in the garage. But I had to try the new one, and so this forgotten recipe came back to mind. I obviously waited for a day off work because, let’s admit it, four hours of rising is not little, and here I am telling you, showing you, and guiding you through the softest fried donuts recipe without potatoes!
Why donuts without potatoes? Because my grandmother Licia always made them like this, without potatoes and super soft, with the sugar making them even more delicious and that vanilla scent making them irresistible! Of course, try it to believe it! Do you call them fried donuts? We don’t, the word carnival donuts never became part of our family life, as women in the kitchen, in our jargon, in short. So I am very curious to know what you call this dessert. Essentially, we are talking about a dough similar to a brioche that is then fried instead of baked. If you’d like, let me know in the comments.
Since Carnival is approaching and fryers, pots with oil, or air fryers are heating up, I thought I’d leave you with some other Carnival recipes to try. Think of the Carnival fritters or castagnole, the krapfen or cream-filled donuts, the Carnival chiacchiere or carnival lies, to end with the Carnival peaches with Nutella and the Carnival arancini fried or baked.
All these recipes can be found in the links below. Each link is clickable and will take you directly to the recipe you choose to read. Additionally, of course, there is the recipe collection where you will also find the Carnival Masks filled with Nutella, super delicious and easy to make with the little ones.
Now, since I have already talked a lot before the fried donuts recipe, I think it’s time to get straight to the point.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 4 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 20 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Carnival, All seasons
- Energy 579.02 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 24.48 (g) of which sugars 7.18 (g)
- Proteins 3.96 (g)
- Fat 52.96 (g) of which saturated 10.16 (g)of which unsaturated 40.13 (g)
- Fibers 0.67 (g)
- Sodium 63.20 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 44 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients to make 20 soft and delicious fried donuts without potatoes
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups bread flour
- 2 eggs (medium at room temperature)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 1/2 tbsp butter (at room temperature)
- 3/4 cup milk (at room temperature)
- 3 1/2 tbsp water (at room temperature)
- 2 tsp fresh yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 bean vanilla (or a vial or sachet)
- 1 quart peanut oil (or frying oil)
- 1/3 cup sugar
Tools to prepare soft fried donuts without potatoes like those from the café
- 1 Stand Mixer
- 1 Food Scale
- 1 Work Surface
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 Cookie Cutter
- 1 Stovetop
- 1 Frying Pan
- 1 Slotted Spoon
- 1 Tray
- 1 Paper Towels
- 1 Dish
- 2 Dish Towels
Steps for the fried donuts recipe without potatoes
I start by weighing all the ingredients and placing them on the work surface near the stand mixer, so I can quickly proceed with the preparation of the donuts dough without potatoes. Remember, where specified, ingredients must be at room temperature. I pour the milk, water, and sugar into the bowl. I crumble the fresh yeast by hand and start the mixer, choosing the leaf hook for this preparation. I let it work until the yeast is completely dissolved.
Now I can proceed by adding the flours, cracking the two eggs, and adding the vanilla bean seeds. I let the mixer work the dough while I start adding the butter. Piece by piece until it is fully absorbed. Lastly, I added the pinch of salt. I turn off the mixer and detach the dough from the leaf hook.
Let the dough ball rise in the stand mixer bowl for at least 3 hours covered by a dish towel. It should double in volume. After this first rest, I can proceed.
I flour my hands and dust the work surface. I deflate the dough by pressing with a fist in the center. In the video recipe, you can clearly see all the steps I’m describing. I retrieve the dough from the bowl and, with the help of my hands first and then the rolling pin, in my case silicone, roll out the dough creating a nice rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. I take a small cookie cutter and cut out many dough discs. Then, with an even smaller cookie cutter or, as in my case, with a nozzle, I cut a hole in the center of the discs.
Anti-waste tips: don’t throw away the scraps. The central circles cut from the donut holes I fried, obtaining super delicious and soft little bombs. I don’t like waste, so I also used the leftover dough, re-rolling it into a ball with my hands and rolling it out again to create more donuts. This way, I utilized all the created dough and obtained 20 not too large donuts.
Now I arrange the donuts on two baking sheets, covered with a sheet of parchment paper. I cover them with a dish towel and let them rise for another hour. After this time, I can proceed with cooking. If you don’t want to take one donut at a time by hand because you think they might break, you can cut the parchment paper with scissors and gently place the donuts in the oil using the paper.
I place a frying pan on the stovetop and fill it with a quart of seed oil. I recommend choosing a high oleic oil, like sunflower or peanut oil. These are oils with “good fats”, if you can say that since it’s still oil, which help achieve quality frying: crispy, dry, and tasty.
The most delicate phase: cooking. We should fry a maximum of one or two donuts at a time in the pan to avoid them becoming dark on the outside because we can’t flip them easily. Then they won’t be as soft as we wanted. So I take a slotted spoon and a fork to flip them with a single motion. I let them cook for a couple of moments on each side, turning them frequently. Then I drain them and place them on the tray where I arranged a sheet of frying paper before dipping them into the plate where I poured the sugar.
Doing this step while the donuts are still warm is essential; otherwise, the sugar won’t adhere to their surface.
I finished cooking the donuts I had prepared, and after taking photos, I gave them to family and colleagues who, in both cases, devoured everything. All that’s left is to wish you bon appétit and remind you that I’m waiting for you every day here on my blog with many easy, quick, and delicious recipes like this one!
Don’t want to fry? You can bake the donuts without potatoes or potato-free donuts in the oven. You just need to proceed, after the second rising in the tray, in this way. Preheat the oven to 355 degrees Fahrenheit and let it reach temperature. Then brush the surface of the donuts with beaten egg or milk, using a kitchen brush. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. One baking sheet at a time, positioned in the middle of the oven. You should get beautifully puffed and golden donuts. Then, while hot, roll them in sugar and let them cool on a cooling rack or on a tray covered with frying paper or kitchen paper towels.
Tips, Storage, and Variations
Recipe Tips: as mentioned, ingredients must be at room temperature where indicated. The dough processing is essential, as is adding the butter in pieces while waiting for it to be absorbed slowly. Keep an eye on the oil temperature during cooking to prevent the donuts from becoming dark and hard instead of soft like those from the café.
Variations: if you don’t have bread flour, you can use all all-purpose flour, but I recommend always mixing flours and choosing those with a higher power than W300 when making leavened doughs that last more than two or three hours, as in this case. If you don’t want to use butter, you can replace it with 50-60 ml of seed oil. Vanilla I wouldn’t eliminate: the aroma of the donuts is also due to the presence of this ingredient. If you want to use dry yeast, the one in sachets of dehydrated yeast, you’ll need to add about 10-12 grams. Read the dose indicated on the sachet for 500 grams of flour because it often varies from yeast to yeast.
Storage: you can store the fried donuts in a cake container with a lid, being careful to only close it when they are completely cold, otherwise, they will become too soft. You can store them for a couple of days.
