These Korean style sweet potato rice donuts are made with fresh sweet potato and rice flour. With just a few ingredients, they are easy to make and yields soft and chewy texture. You can make them gluten-free donuts if you omit the wheat flour in the recipe.

Sweet Potato Rice Donuts are coated with cinnamon sugar.

I made donuts, which I don’t make that often. I mixed sweet potatoes with rice flour, rolled into balls, then deep fried in oil, and coated with cinnamon sugar. These are Korean style sweet potato rice donuts (goguma chapssal donuts, 고구마 찹쌀 도너츠).

They are very chewy, almost doughy, and the textures is something that you don’t find in donuts made with wheat flour.

These sweet potato rice donuts became a wonderful afternoon treat with a cup of Korean citron “tea” I had. Along with Korean twisted donut (kkwabaegi), these rice donut is another popular Korean desserts.

And they looked absolutely gorgeous with a blue and white plate over my grandmother-in-law’s doily.

I received a package from my mother-in-law the other day.  In the package there were several vintage brocade tablecloths, napkins, some other linens, and a few crocheted doilies.  They used to belong to my dear grandmother-in-law, Phyllis.

Phylis died over 10 years ago and I miss her dearly.  She was a genuinely kind, loving and funny woman.  She was a type of person who can make friends with anybody regardless who they are and what they stand for.  Born as the oldest daughter she helped her parents raise 8 little brothers together.  She was a tough lady with tender heart.

I still remember her heart-warming welcome when I was introduced to her by my husband as we were dating.  She cherished the pair of hand-made Korean slippers that I gave her and I saw her wearing them every time I visited.

Phyllis loved her life and lived in full until she died of brain tumor.

I must be getting old.  I used to prefer everything new and trendy.  But as I get older, I get emotionally attached to things that is old and has stories in them.  Some of her linens has faded spots and some parts torn.  But I love it.  By knowing her I know she has used those linens to entertain her family and friends numerous times.

Sweet Potato Rice Donuts have soft and chewy texture inside.

A quiet afternoon, with the entire house myself, a peace came to my mind as I was thinking of ‘family’ in an eternal perspective.  And you know what?  Happiness sometimes comes to you in a very simple and humble way.  And that happiness can be doubled when a sweet treat is waiting for you at home.

My son raised his thumb up as soon as he bit into one when he came home from school.  I guess that means – it is good, isn’t it?

Sweet Potato and Glutenous Rice Flour

Korean sweet potatoes and glutenous rice flour is used to make the donuts.

Let’s make our donuts. Get Korean sweet potatoes (or Japanese) and rice flour (glutenous rice flour). You will also need a little bit of all purpose flour, too. It brings better texture.

To make These Donuts Gluten-Free: I added a small amount of wheat flour in the recipe to get the texture I like. You can omit the wheat flour if you want them to be gluten-free. Your donuts will have chewier texture like mochi and still delicious!

How to make Sweet Potato Rice Donuts

Sweet potatoes are cooked and peeled

Cook sweet potatoes in any method; boiling, steaming, microwaving, baking or simply twitching your nose if you are a wizard

Cooked sweet potatoes are mashed.

Peel the potatoes and mash them without mercy.

Glutenous rice flour and sugar are combined in a bowl

In a large bowl combine rice flour, 1/3 cup of wheat four, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Mashed sweet potatoes and rice flour are mixed by hand

Add the mashed sweet potatoes to the rice flour, and start rubbing them together with your hand.

Sweet potato mixture is rubbed with hands.

You will soon see them forming fine crumbs.

Milk is added to the sweet potato and rice flour mixture.

Add the scalding hot milk, about 3/4 cup first. The amount of milk varies depends on the moisture level of your sweet potatoes.

The sweet potato donut dough is mixed with a spoon.

Mix with a spoon. Add more milk, if needed, and start kneading by hand.

The sweet potato rice donut dough is kneaded by hand.

Knead the dough until it forms a bread dough-like consistency, about 1 minutes. Rice doesn’t have any gluten so you don’t need to knead them long.

Sweet potato rice donut dough is formed into small balls

Roll them into 1″- 1 1/4″ size balls.

Sweet potato rice donuts are ding deep-fried in a hot oil.

Heat oil but not overly hot. You want to fry these balls a little lower temperature than usual deep frying recipes. If the oil is too hot, it will burn the outside while the inside is still raw.

Donut balls are being rolled with a strainer while deep-frying.

You need to roll them around in oil with a metal utensil so they can be browned evenly.

Sweet potato rice donut balls are deep frying in oil to golden brown.

One trick I use when I am deep frying is that I tilt over my pan (I use a stir-fry pan) to collect the oil to one side. This created deeper space for oil, which means less oil is needed to cover the pan.

Sweet potato rice donut is deep-fried to golden brown and crisp.

Keep rolling in oil, about 5 minutes, until they form a brown crust outside.

Sweet potato rice donut is deep-fried to golden brown and strained from the oil.

Done! Perfectly fried rice donuts. Take them out and transfer to a plate lined with paper towel to wipe out the oil residue on the surface.

BTW, do you know that rice doesn’t absorb as much oil as wheat do when deep frying? I should have taken the picture of the before and after status of oil level in the pan to show. Unlike wheat flour donuts, rice donuts will have far less oil consumption. How divine?

Sweet potato rice donuts are coated with cinnamon sugar.

When the donuts are still hot, roll them in cinnamon sugar until coated evenly all over. They are good hot, but I prefer to eat them at room temperature. The chewiness will develop better as it cools down.

Sweet Potato Rice Donuts shows the soft and sticky texture inside.

Chewy, gooey, and sticky, with a crunch bite of granulated sugar…

Phyllis would have love them.  She would be so impressed with me making these Korean style donuts, and… she and I would have chat for hours about pretty much anything while enjoying these goodies. I really miss her.

More Korean Desserts You Might Like

Sweet Potato Rice Donuts are great afternoon treats with a cup of tea.
Sweet potato donuts are coated with cinnamon sugar and served with a tea.

Sweet Potato Rice Donuts

These sweet potato rice donuts are made with fresh sweet potato and rice flour. They make soft and chewy donuts coated with cinnamon sugar. Omit the wheat flour if you want them to be gluten-free.
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Ingredients

  • 3/4 lb sweet potato, cooked and peeled
  • 2 cup sweet rice flour (chapssal-garu), glutenous rice flour
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, can omit for gluten-free
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1-1 1/3 cup hot milk
  • Oil for frying

For the cinnamon sugar

  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

Equipment

Instructions 

  • Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
  • Mash sweet potato and add to the flour mixture and rub together until the flours become fine crumbs.
  • Slowly add hot milk (1/4 cup of milk each time) to the mixture and mix together with a spoon first, then using hand bring the dough together to form a ball shape. The amount of milk depends on the moisture level of your potatoes. It should resemble the bread dough consistency.
  • Make them into 1″ balls with the dough. Set aside and cover with a towel.
  • Heat oil in a wok or fryer over medium low temperature. Drop a few dough balls and start rolling with a metal utensil to brown them evenly, about 5 minutes. Make sure your oil is not too hot. About 145ºC is ideal temperature.
  • Transfer the donuts to a plate lined with paper towel to remove extra oil on the surface. Roll the donuts in cinnamon sugar and coat evenly. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Did you make this recipe?Tag @beyondkimchee on Instagram. I love to see your masterpiece.