Spectacular Spudnut – Kelli’s Kitchen
In the summer of 2007, Lawyer Boy got to do an internship in Louisiana for the summer between his junior and senior year of college. When we were visiting, he brought some doughnuts to our hotel room. I thought they were doughnuts – but they were actually spudnuts! Spudnuts are crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. They are shaped like doughnuts but made with either potatoes or potato flour. I searched and searched the internet for a recipe and all of them had real mashed potatoes in them. I’m not chef but the ones I had were far to light and fluffy to have heavy potatoes and the consistency just wasn’t representative of something that had bits in it. Then one day, I found a recipe that was approved by Deb Andersen who was the daughter of one of the Pelton brothers, the inventors of Spudnuts. I decided that the daughter of the inventor would know something about the recipe and this recipe used part potato flour and at the end of the makin’ of the spudnuts I realized that this indeed was the spudnuts I had in Louisiana – score!
First I had to find potato flour. Now an easy thing to do and it took me some time to do it. Finally, two weeks ago I found it and then I promptly forgot about them. Then, earlier in the week a new friend Jen from reminded me of them. Another plus was that I had today off work – so plenty of time to make a whole bunch of these!
The Spectacular Spudnut!
Ingredients:
Spectacular Spudnut – Kelli’s Kitchen
• 1 cup warm milk
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 1/2 tsp Instant Yeast
• 1 Large Egg at room temperature
• 2 cups sifted All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup of bread Flour
• 1/2 cup of Potato Flour
• Oil – I used canola.
Method:
1. Heat a 1/4 cup of your milk in microwave for 20 seconds
2. Place yeast in a small bowl with one tablespoon of sugar. Place in warm milk and stir. Let it rest
for five minutes.
3. Set up your mixer with dough hook and add 3 tablespoons of sugar, butter and salt and mix until just
combined.
4. Add one large egg and mix ( do not over mix)
5. Add rest of milk (3/4cup warm)
6. Add the flours a little at a time and then the yeast mixture.
7. Mix until it is a smooth dough – it is SO important NOT TO OVER WORK THE DOUGH!!!
8. It must resemble a smooth dough texture like bread dough.
9. Place smooth dough into an oiled bowl and cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise in a
warm spot for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
10. Place dough on well-floured surface (sprinkle some flour lightly)
11. Roll out with rolling pin to approximately 1/2 inch – let rest for a good five minutes.
Spectacular Spudnut – Kelli’s Kitchen
12. Use doughnut cutter or the rim of a glass to cut out. Then cover with a dry kitchen towel and let rise for five minutes
13. Get your deep fryer cooker ready – heat to a maximum of 350 F
14. Add Spudnut dough a couple at a time and cook each side until golden brown.
15. Remove to drain on paper towels. Glaze while warm or you can sprinkle with powdered sugar.
The regular glaze.
Spectacular Spudnut – Kelli’s Kitchen
1 lb. powdered sugar
½ Cup boiling water
2 Tbsp. butter
2 teas. Vanilla
Whisk until smooth.
Spectacular Spudnut – Kelli’s Kitchen
And some chocolate now:
Spectacular Spudnut – Kelli’s Kitchen
1 ½ Cups Powdered Sugar
4 Tbl. Cocoa Powder
3 Tbl. Milk that’s a starting amount. It took me 4 Tablespoons.
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Spectacular Spudnut – Kelli’s Kitchen
Whisk together sugar and cocoa. Add water and vanilla and continue whisking until smooth. Can add a little more milk if needed.
Finger Lickin’ Good
Enjoy!
Spudnut 🙂 never heard of these before I read your post! 🙂 I had to google it too! 🙂 they look delicious just like donuts and love that you added chocolate to them! & I also learned something new ‘potato flour’ 🙂 & also thanks for sharing the answers from Anita 🙂
wish you a beautiful weekend Kelli 🙂
Thank you for the kind words Ingrid – you have a great weekend too!
I’ll also have to look for potato flour. I think I would love these Spudnuts.
Lillian
I think you would too and the Pelton Brothers had their warehouse right there in Ohio even though the first stores were in Washington State so you should be able to find it!
OH MY GOSH – Hungry Couple Anita bought YumGoggle????? I’m heading over now 🙂
Yay!! Register and get to submitting!
Funny story: Every time I read the name, I read it as Yum Google in my head. It’s like the Google of yummy things 😉 I need to start correcting myself before I start typing it that way, haha.
I must have these spudnuts. They sound AMAZING. I’m now going to watch for potato flour. I think Trader Joe’s may have some. That would be the first place I would look.
Pam – I had to ask her how it was pronounced because i was saying it just like you – now I too have to try to break myself from saying it that way! Yep, Mr. Picky Eater LOVES them. I couldn’t believe he would like them that much.
Is it wrong that I just licked my computer screen? Wow…I want one now!
Thank you! I love them and mine were a pretty darn good rendition of them!
you slay me–these look amazing!
Thanks Liz – one of the boys stopped by last night and between him and his dad they have eaten most of them!
After your comment on Facebook, I am embarrassed to admit I’ve never heard of spudnuts. They sound and look wonderful though. Especially covered with drippy melted chocolate!
I love Anita and YumGoggle and need to get better about posting my photos to the site. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your interview!
Stacy – when I did research, I found out that Spudnuts originated in Washington State and NOT the south! There are most spudnut shops in the mid-atlantic region and northwest than in the south. So, it was my mistake! 🙂 I’ve had all positive comments about going over to Yum Goggle – I even got some private emails from people who couldn’t believe it. I’m happy because I know Anita’s site will be properly run and that’s so important!
I do believe I have to try some spud nuts ASAP!! And thanks for the interview! I’ve already been using Yumgoggle!
yes, I know because I’ve pinned some of your lovely recipes/photos on there! 🙂 Thanks for dropping by!
I do love that Anita bought out YumGoggle, but I have to admit that I love the thought of popping a few of these spudnuts even more! 🙂
Thanks Becca – they are very tasty!
Great introduction and interview. I love those colorful mixing bowls. Those spud nuts look sinful!
I have had bowls like that for years – those are my newest ones from the Outlet Mall’s Kitchen Connection.
Thank you so much for the interview and the feature, Kelli! Um, did you say you’d be sending over some spudnuts??? 🙂
I said virtually – I’m sending them with my mind powers. 🙂
I love YumGoggle! It is really easy to use, and I think the inclusiveness of it is so nice. I spend so much time stressing over pictures and then they still get rejected by the sites, so YumGoggle is a welcome addition. I had no idea it was owned by a fellow blogger, so now I love it even more, and recently I have seen a spike in traffic from it. Thanks for sharing this interview – I found it incredibly interesting. And it goes without saying the doughnuts look crazy good!
Hey thanks Laura! If you want and you have a FB page or something, you can share the interview or I bet Anita would do one for you as well. I am thrilled you are seeing a spike in traffic from YG and I can only hope it had a little to do with my pinning skills! 🙂
When I come to your house for the pork, make these. 😉
I will! Just so I can have some myself again – they were fantastic!
I may have to make some of these for my mom for Christmas. She loves potato bread and potato rolls, so this seems right up her alley!
Thanks Rebekah for dropping by and please come again. If you make them for your mom – I know she will love them!
Probably really late in this post, but I’d like to know if this recipe makes a denser spudnut with more bite to it? A lot of the other recipes I’ve looked at seem to be more on the fluffy-melt-in-your-mouth kind.
Hi bob – well, it’s never too late to ask a question! I monitor my blog daily and it usually takes me less than 24 hours to respond and in your case, less than an hour! This is a dense doughnut although not like a cake doughnut. Somewhere between a fluffy kind and the cake kind. We love them and I hope you do too! Kelli
I will be trying this next weekend. My great aunt and uncle ran a spudnut shop in Nevada until the mid 1970s. I’ll try to find the potato flour this weekend.
How many spudnuts should I expect to get out of this recipe?
It depends on how big you make them but with this one I get about a dozen or so. I hope they like them and that you do too!
These turned out great! The donut cutter I bought was pretty small, so I got nearly three dozen out of this batch, plus the holes. I really liked the chocolate glaze.
Kelli, in the recipe for the regular glaze, you included “2 Tbsp. Vanilla”. Although this seemed a bit much, it is what I used. I think this should call for two teaspoons, not two tablespoons.
Thanks for the recipe. We really enjoyed our spudnuts this morning.
This is great news! I’m so happy you enjoyed them – in fact, if it weren’t already nearly 9AM this morning, I would make some for our breakfast! I will recheck about the vanilla. Thanks! Kelli
I remember Spudnuts on Mountain View Drive, Anchorage, Alaska. Haven’t had one since I left Elmendorf Air Force Base in 1965, but I’d love one now! Did I say one? Make it a dozen!
I think you should make a dozen and then let us know how you like them! Thanks for dropping by and please come again!
Help! I followed the recipe, and it’s drier and dense. More like sugar cookie dough than bread dough. Is that normal? What could I do to save it? (I realize you might get this too late to save this batch, but I still want to learn!)
Hi Kim — no that is not normal. I cannot figure out what must have happened. When you try it again, if it comes out dry like that — try adding more water by the tablespoon full until it becomes doughy consistently.
My grandmother ran a Spudnut shop in Farmington New Mexico for years and years. I can remember as a youngster going to work with her at two or three in the morning and then I had a job there when all through high school on the weekends. I think Spudnuts are far superior to donuts any day!
My grandmother ran a Spudnut shop in Farmington New Mexico for years and years. I can remember as a youngster going to work with her at two or three in the morning and then I had a job there all through high school on the weekends. I think Spudnuts are far superior to donuts any day!