This my friends is a Sweet Potato Fasnacht! Light & crispy with a thick coating of powdered sugar & still warm from the fryer! DELIGHTFUL! The flavor is terrific & has just a hint of nice spice! Fry some up you will be GLAD you did, I know I am!
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Mashed Sweet Potato ( with nothing added just mash up the sweet potato that you peeled & boiled until soft, drain BUT reserve the water you cooked them in you will need it!) This took 2 nice sized sweet potatoes to make the 1 cup mashed!
1/2 Cup Shortening
3 Eggs
1 & 1/2 TSP Salt
1 TSP Vanilla
1/4 TSP Nutmeg
1 TSP Cinnamon
3 Dashes each Ginger, Allspice & Cloves
2 Packets Yeast
1 Cup Warm Potato Water
5 Cups + Flour
Powdered Sugar to coat your Fasnachts!
Shortening to fry about 3/4 of a 3 pound can
Lots of Paper towels, & wax paper or parchment paper
Beat the cooled mashed sweet potato with the 1 cup sugar. Add 1/2 cup shortening & beat again. Dissolve the yeast in the warm potato water ( NOT HOT just warm!) set aside. Now beat the eggs, salt, & vanilla into your potato mixture! Beat in the yeast that has melted in the water adding all of it! Now add spices to the 5 cups of flour stirring well, beat in 3 cups to your mixture. Now add the rest by hand kneading it into the dough just enough so the dough is no longer heavy, wet & sticky. I ended up using about 7 cups of flour all together but the weather will affect your dough too! You do not want dry dough just not very wet & sticky a middle ground is what you want! Now cover dough & let rise until double a nice warm spot is best! A QUICK rising tip is turn on oven to warm & let it come up to temp. Place a pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven about 2 inches of water will do. Now turn off the oven & then place your covered dough in the middle rack of the oven. Close the door & let rise. I did this & my dough was ready in about an hour & 1/2!
This is dough just mixed & needing to be raised!
This is the dough now doubled in size!
Now that your dough is double divide into about 6 pieces.
Roll out each piece so you have a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick! Cut into rectangles as large or as small as you wish. I cut mine in 3 x 5 inch rectangles not precise just eyeballing them. Lay on parchment or wax paper covered cookie tins & place in a warm spot until almost double in size but not completely doubled! Once they have risen you are ready to fry!
These are ready for their second stage of rising! take them to just about double in height & then FRY! I did the warm oven trick with these & they rose fast!
Place shortening in a large deep skillet & heat. Shortening should be 2 inches deep once melted. Make sure oil is hot enough to fry by dropping in a small piece of your dough that you pinch off a Fasnacht. it should sizzle & float, do not have oil so hot that it is smoking I fried mine on medium high! Drop in 4 or five Fasnachts at a time. Let them get golden crispy brown & then flip them carefully to their other side. Once both sides are very brown & Fasnacht is puffy carefully remove from oil onto a tray that you have covered with a double thickness of paper towel, blotting each Fasnacht to remove extra oil. Set them aside to a paper towel covered surface & continue to fry up the rest. Let them cool as long as you can BUT I always eat a few warm covered in powdered sugar! Once cool place a good 3 cups of powdered sugar in a gallon size zip plastic bag or a container that has a lid. Add one or 2 completely cooled Fasnachts in the bag or container & shake until Fasnacht is coated well! REMOVE & GOBBLE!
Three Dozen Fried Fasnachts ready for their SUGAR COATING!
HAPPY FASNACHT DAY & CELEBRATE with a traditional or a Sweet Potato Fasnacht! The traditional recipe is on the February 2011 Archive of this blog! BOTH ARE YUMMY!
