Braaied sweet potato doughnuts
12
Easy
30 minutes, plus 1 hour’s proving time
30 minutes
"You know that feeling you get when you’re done braaiing, but the coals are still glowing-hot, and you wish you had something more to throw on them? Well, now you do! These braaied sweet potato doughnuts are a solve for two different problems – what to do with still-hot coals, and what to have for dessert at a braai – and they can be prepared while people are eating. They’re up there with some of the finest doughnuts I’ve ever eaten. The sweet potato gets deliciously smoky on the coals and retains its full sweet flavour. The duck fat caramel is something that I love to make; it’s just so creamy and lush – and the duck fat takes these doughnuts to a savoury-ish place, which I really like. You don’t even have to braai the sweet potatoes – but I saw hot coals and knew I had to act fast." – Khanya Mzongwana
Ingredients
Method
- 2 Kara orange sweet potatoes
- 1 cup milk
- 360 g flour, plus extra for dusting
- 10 g instant dry yeast
- 200 g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
- 1 t ground nutmeg
- 1 t ground ginger
- 1 t ground cinnamon
- 1 t ground cardamom
- 2 t salt
- ½ cup warm water
- 75 g butter, melted
- 1 t vanilla essence
- ½ cup warm milk, plus 1 cup extra
- ¼ cup buttermilk or amasi
- canola oil, for frying For the duck fat caramel:
- 60 g free-range duck fat
- 125 g brown sugar
- ½ cup cream
- sea salt, to taste
Method
Ingredients
1. Prepare the braai or grill. Cook the sweet potatoes directly on the coals, turning often, for about 25 minutes, until charred and cooked through. Remove from heat, chop roughly, place in a blender with 1 cup milk and purée until smooth.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, sugar, spices and salt. In a separate bowl, mix sweet potato purée with the water, butter, vanilla essence, warm milk and buttermilk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a metal spoon until a soft dough forms. Cover with a tea towel and set aside to rise in a warm place for 40–45 minutes, until almost doubled in size.
3. Punch down the dough and turn out onto a floured surface. Gently roll out the dough to a thickness of 2 cm. Cut out rounds using a cookie cutter or a glass tumbler, and gently fashion holes in the centre. Place the doughnuts on a flour-dusted baking sheet, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise again for about 15 minutes.
4. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat – if you have a candy thermometer, keep the oil at about 165–180°C. Deep-fry the doughnuts in batches for 2 minutes, turning continuously to ensure they cook evenly and all the way through. Drain on kitchen paper and dust with caster sugar.
5. To make the caramel, heat the duck fat in a saucepan, and stir in the sugar until melted and slightly caramelised. Stir in the cream and whisk gently until the caramel is smooth and slightly thickened. Drizzle over the doughnuts and sprinkle with salt – or use the caramel as a decadent dipping sauce. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Find more sweet potato recipes here.
Food assistant: Lerato Motau
Videographer: Romy Wilson
Photographer: Shavan Rahim
Production: Amy Ebedes-Murray
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