Honey Doughnuts, or a little late Carnival tradition

When it comes to desserts, I moved my first steps in the kitchen quite early, but there was a category I never put my hands on while my mom was the kitchen queen in our house. Sweet yeast dough. Croatian tradition is rich in this type of recipes, like the Walnut roll I posted here a while ago, and similar stuff. Doughnuts, however always had a special place for me. My mothers hands knew perfectly how to make them, never using any kind of measurment, cups or scales, and never, not even once, did these things come out wrong (ok, except that time she sprinkled the yeast kipfers, with fruit jam inside, with salt instead of sugar :))). Now that I think about it, she always prepared the sweet yeast dough on days when she cooked soups or stews, and I thought it was simply because they were just great after such a meal. But now I realize it was simply because on those days the conditions in the kitchen (humid and warm) were perfect for dough to proof.
Unfortunately, those recipes are lost for me, I've tried to recreate some of them, but unsuccessfully. I'll probably never be able to make doughnuts the way she made them.
But since I cannot forget the tradition of making something fried during the Carnival period (and I really did make these a month ago), and I'm trying to limit myself to that period of the year only, I decided to try out some of the recipes I found around. And this one was different enough to catch my attention. I had never before used potatoes in sweet dough (I did make bread, pizza and focaccia, however), and the curiosity had to be satisfied.
Although I expected to get something almost inedible, they turned to be wonderfully soft and tasty, and were great even the following day.
It was one of those little satisfactions, when you know you can't really reach your mother's perfection, but at least you tried and you know you might do even better next time.

Potato Doughnuts with Honey
(recipe from Sale & Pepe magazine)

350 g flour
150-200 ml milk
25 g fresh yeast (or 1 package dry yeast)
30 g sugar
a pinch of salt
400 g potatoes
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2-3 spoonfuls of acacia honey (I used lemon honey)
juice of 1/2 lemon
peanut oil for frying

Dissolve the yeast in the lightly warmed up milk (the recipe said 150 ml but that wasn't enough for me and I added 50 ml more).
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl or on a kneading board, mix in the sugar and form a well.
Add the milk with the yeast in the middle and a pinch of salt, bring everything together using your hands or a wooden spoon initially, knead shortly to form a smooth dough. Place the dough into a clean bowl, cover it with a piece of plastic wrap and let it proof for 1 hour in a warm place (I usually put into a cold, closed microwave oven, it's the most perfect place in my kitchen).
Put the carefully washed potatoes into a pot of cold water, bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender. Peel them and mash with a potato ricer.
Take the dough and put it on the lightly floured kneading board.
Add the mashed potatoes, the eggs and the cinnamon. Knead these ingredients into the dough - initially, I used the wooden spoon because the potatoes were hot and then continued kneading with my hands. Add a little flour as necessary for your dough not to be too sticky, but it should stay soft, however.
Take pieces of the dough, and shape little balls size of an apricot approximately.
Put the ball on the kneading board and using a well floured index finger make a whole in the middle, all the way through. Rotate the piece of the dough around your finger to enlarge the hole a little.
Place thus shaped doughnuts on a floured kitchen towel or kneading board, cover and let proof again for 30 minutes.

When they are ready, heat the oil for frying, and fry a few doughnuts at a time shortly (a minute or two) on each side.
Take them out with a slotted spoon and place on several layers of kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil.
When you've prepared all the doughnuts, put the honey and the lemon juice into a small sauce pan, mix and heat until liquid.

Pour the honey lemon mixure over the doughnuts placed over a cooling rack or directly on a plate. Sprinkle with coloured sprinkles if you like and serve.

Ciambelle di patate al miele
(ricetta tratta da Sale & Pepe)


350 g di farina
150-200 ml di latte
25 g di lievito di birra fresco
30 g di zucchero
400 g di patate
2 uova
1 cucchiaino di cannella in polvere
2-3 cucchiai di miele di acacia (io messo il miele al limone)
succo di 1/2 limone
olio di arachidi per friggere


Sbriciolate il lievito nel latte tiepido.
Setacciate la farina, mescolatela con lo zucchero e disponete a fontana sulla spianatoia.
Versate al centro il latte, unite un pizzico di sale e impastate fino a ottenere una pasta omogenea.
Formate una palla, incidetela a croce, ponetela in una ciotola e lasciatela lievitare per un'ora, coperta con pellicola, in luogo tiepido (io lascio sempre lievitare tutto dentro il forno al microonde, chiuso e spento).
Lessate le patate, scolatele, pelatele e passatele allo schiacciapatate.
Riprendete la pasta, sgonfiatela, aggiungete le patate schiacciate, le uova e la cannella. Lavorate tutto insieme, aiutandovi all'inizio con un cucchiaio di legno, e poi impastate con le mani aggiungendo un altro po' di farina se l'impasto dovesse risultare troppo appiccicoso.
Ricavate delle palline della dimensione di un'albicocca, premetele al centro con un dito infarinato, forandole e allargate il buco leggermente. Lasciate lievitare le ciambelle coperte sulla spianatoia leggermente infarinata, per 30 minuti.
Friggetele in abbondante olio ben caldo, poche alla volta, un paio di minuti per lato.
Lasciatele sgocciolare sulla carta assorbente.
In un pentolino scaldate il miele con il succo di limone.
Irrorate le ciambelle con il miele profumato e cospargetele con i confettini colorati.

Krafnice s krumpirima i medom
(recept iz časopisa Sale & Pepe)


350 g brašna
150-200 ml mlijeka
25 g svježeg kvasca
30 g šećera
400 g krumpira
2 jaja
1 žličica cimeta u prahu
2-3 žlice meda
sok 1/2 limuna
ulje za prženje


napomena: u receptu je pisalo 150 ml mlijeka, meni je trebalo više (oko 200 ml) za zamijesiti tijesto, ali sam zato kasnije, nakon dodavanja krumpira morala dodati još brašna.
Namrvite kvasac u mlako mlijeko.
Prosijte brašno u zdjelu ili na dasku i pomiješajte sa šećerom.
Dodajte mlijeko s kvascem i zamijesite tijesto.
Oblikujte kuglu, zarežite vrh u križ, stavite u čistu zdjelu, pokrijte plastičnom folijom i ostavite da se diže na toplom mjestu oko 1 sat.
Skuhajte krumpir i protisnite ga/ propasirajte.
Uzmite opet tijesto, kratko ga premijesite pa dodajte protisnut krumpir, malo razmućena jaja i cimet i izmijesite sve skupa. Meni je trebalo još brašna jer je tijesto postalo premekano. Dodala sam koliko je bilo potrebno da se tijesto može mijesiti, ali da nije ljepljivo.
Kidajte komadiće tijesta i oblikujte loptice veličine marelice (kajsije).
Stavite lopticu na pobrašnjenu površinu. Umočite kažiprst u brašno i pritisnite lopticu na sredini, skroz do kraja.
Zavrtite tijesto oko prsta tako da se oblikuje prsten.
Složite sve tako oblikovane krafne na pobrašnjenoj dasci, pokrijte čistom platnenom krpom i ostavite da se dižu 30 minuta.
Zagrijte ulje i pržite krafne par minuta sa svake strane dok ne dobiju lijepu boju.
Vadite ih rupičastom žlicom i stavljajte na nekoliko slojeva kuhinjskog papira da se ocijedi višak masnoće.
Pomiješajte med sa sokom od limuna i lagano zagrijte (u receptu je pisalo bagremov med, ja sam stavila med od limuna).
Prelijte žlicom med preko krafni, ukrasite ih po želji šarenim šećernim perlicama i poslužite.