Ingredient: lukewarm water, divided

Savory Sweet Potato Donuts

Crullers. Fritters. Old-fashioned. Cake. Twist. Glazed. Jelly-filled. Whatever style and flavor of donut comes to mind when you’re craving one, odds are that it is something decadently sweet and sugary. But have you ever tried a savory donut? Instead of glazing your donut with sugar or filling it with cream, top it with some herbs and coarse sea salt for a change.

Donuts are a perfect food. Whether they’re raised or cakey, frosted or glazed, stuffed or iced, they are grand. Each and every one of them. We could subsist on sweet donuts for days, only we would miss the taste of salt (and the ability to see our toes).

Enter the savory donut. Savory donuts are not new to the world. People have been experimenting with making donuts viable lunch or dinner options for a long time. I personally am not a fan of deep-fried things whether they are sweet or savory. So, my recipe challenge today was to make a savory raised baked donut. Since potato dough is one of my favorites, why not go with a savory sweet potato donut!  

Print Recipe
 Savory Sweet Potato Donuts
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Rate this recipe!
Course Brunch
Keyword savory sweet potato donuts
Servings
Ingredients
Dough
Topping
Course Brunch
Keyword savory sweet potato donuts
Servings
Ingredients
Dough
Topping
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. In a bowl, combine yeast, 1/2 cup flour & 1/2 cup lukewarm water. Let sit for about 20 minutes until frothy.
  2. Cook & mash sweet potato; add it along with the remaining 3/4 cup lukewarm water, 4 cups flour, olive oil & salt to the yeast mixture. When dough forms, knead for about 7-8 minutes until the dough is soft & satiny. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap & allow to rise in a draft free area until doubled in size.
  3. Lightly grease your work surface with olive oil. Put the dough on it & pat it out with your hands or rolling pin into a 12 x 14-inch rectangle. Using a donut cutter make 12 donuts. With the remaining scraps, divide equally into 8 portions and form into balls. You can either leave them as is or cut holes in the centers for the donut 'look'.
  4. Place the donuts in 'donut' pans or on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and allow to raise until doubled in size.
  5. 1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  6. Add the rosemary to the olive oil. Very lightly brush the tops with the olive oil and rosemary mixture. Sprinkle with sea salt.
  7. Bake for about 20 minutes. The tops will be lightly browned. Remove to a rack to cool.
Recipe Notes
  • Beauregard is the most common sweet potato sold at grocery stores. The skin is reddish, and the flesh is bright orange and is the sweetest for orange types. The slightly stringy, soft, and moist texture makes it great for mashing into a puree for baking.

Sweet Potato Focaccia

Focaccia, known and loved in Italy and abroad, is yeasted flat bread which belongs essentially to the northern shores of the Mediterranean and has its origin in classical antiquity. Early versions were cooked on the hearth of a hot fire, or on a heated tile or earthenware disk, like the related flatbreads. Bakers often puncture the bread with a knife to relieve bubbling on the surface of the bread. Also common is the practice of dotting the bread. This creates multiple wells in the bread by using a finger or the handle of a utensil to poke the unbaked dough. As a way to preserve moisture in the bread, olive oil is then spread over the dough, by hand or with a brush prior to rising and baking.

The Latin root of the word focaccia is ‘focus’ and refers to cooking by a fireplace or hearth, literally a focal point for the family, a place where dough was baked over hot stones, fire and ashes.

Focaccia is not pizza and is about 2000 years older, a sort of missing link between traditional flat bread and pizza. Above all it is distinctly Italian. Focaccia has undergone many upgrades and evolutions, however, the basic recipe has remained unchanged.

Today, focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread similar in style and texture to pizza. The interesting part, however, is that Focaccia started out as a side dish but over time it became part of the main dish as sandwich bread. If we go further back in time, focaccia was the only star of the show and was originally the prototype of early pizza.

This sweet potato focaccia with fresh rosemary and sea salt is perfect for making turkey sandwiches.

Print Recipe
 Sweet Potato Focaccia
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Course Lunch
Cuisine American
Keyword sweet potato focaccia
Servings
Ingredients
Dough
Topping
Course Lunch
Cuisine American
Keyword sweet potato focaccia
Servings
Ingredients
Dough
Topping
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. In a bowl, combine yeast, 1/2 cup flour & 1/2 cup lukewarm water. Let sit for about 20 minutes until frothy.
  2. Cook & mash sweet potato; add it along with the remaining 3/4 cup lukewarm water, 4 cups flour, olive oil & salt to the yeast mixture. When dough forms, knead about 7-8 minutes until the dough is soft & satiny. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap & allow to rise in a draft free area until doubled in size.
  3. Add a little bit of additional flour to your cutting board. Put the dough on it & pat it out with your hands into a 12 x 16-inch rectangle. Cut the dough into 16 pieces.
  4. Place the pieces on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover and allow to raise until doubled in size.
  5. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  6. Punch holes in the dough. Add the rosemary to the olive oil. Brush the tops with the olive oil and rosemary mixture. Sprinkle with the sea salt.
  7. Bake for about 20 minutes. Tops will be lightly browned. Remove to a rack to cool.