Sweet Potato Rice Donuts
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.
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. Just like other Korean desserts, 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.
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
Let’s make our donuts. Get sweet potatoes 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
Cook sweet potatoes in any method; boiling, steaming, microwaving, baking or simply twitching your nose if you are a wizard
Peel the potatoes and mash them without mercy.
In a large bowl combine rice flour, 1/3 cup of wheat four, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Add the mashed sweet potatoes to the rice flour, and start rubbing them together with your hand.
You will soon see them forming fine crumbs.
Add the scalding hot milk, about 3/4 cup first. The amount of milk varies depends on the moisture level of your sweet potatoes.
Mix with a spoon. Add more milk, if needed, and start kneading 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.
Roll them into 1″- 1 1/4″ size balls.
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.
You need to roll them around in oil with a metal utensil so they can be browned evenly.
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.
Keep rolling in oil, about 5 minutes, until they form a brown crust outside.
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?
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.
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
- Korean Sweet Rice Dessert (Yakshik) – Instant Pot
- Dalgona (Korean Sugar Candy)
- Gluten-free Pumpkin Rice Donuts
- Hotteok (Korean Sweet Pancakes)
- LA Style Sweet Rice Cake Bars
Sweet Potato Rice Donuts
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.
Sounds yummy 🙂 Can’t wait to try it. Thanks for such an amazing recipe.
I made these using the gluten free version and eveybody loved it more than any gluten donuts or Loukoumades. Thank you
Can we say delicious???? OMG! These sweet potato donuts are SO GOOD!!! Made this for my church and everyone loved them and couldn’t stop eating them. These are very addicting. Thanks Holly!
Made them this morning. Wasn’t sure how many sweet potatoes to use since I don’t own a kitchen scale. One picture showed 2 and another showed 3. I went with 2. I fried them in batches of 5. First batch was still doughy inside. It’s very difficult to determine when the donuts are “done.” All in all, very good donuts! Even my skeptical husband, who saw the sweet potatoes being added, liked them.
I am trying this today!!! =D
Wow can’t believe I found this recipe. Been craving for this! Would love to try and recreate it. Have you try freezing the dough? Do you know long the dough would keep or whether we can freeze the the doughnut after frying and reheating it to get the same chewy texture?
Thanks so much for your answer!
I have not tried freezing the dough, so I can’t tell you how it will turn out. I would say it would be okay as long as you thaw out completely.
Hi holly
How long do these dough last and how to store it? Can I prep the dough ahead of time for tomorrow or it has to be used as soon as I’m done making the dough?
Thank you.
Yes, you can make the dough ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. It will make the crust more crisp. Thanks.
I know this recipe is from an old post, but thanks for posting it! My son has severe milk and lactose allergies, and as such has been restricted from many baked goods, including donuts. Due to the moist consistency of the sweet potatoes, I’m going to try this recipe for him by substituting rice milk for the regular milk, and hope the texture will remain true to the original recipe. I’ve had a hard time substituting milk alternatives in other donut and baked good recipes because rice, soy, almond, and coconut milks are much waterier than milk. This one’s worth a try! I hope it will be a keeper for our family!
Hi, I totally understand the pressure you have on food restriction due to the allergies. I have a good friend who is Celiac and it was not easy to go out and pick any restaurant to dine in or pick any food to eat at the parties. She always has to watch carefully for what she eats.
Rice donuts are very forgiving, and any milk can be used if you don’t mind the slight flavor change. Rice milk will work greatly with this recipe. Hope it will turn out great, and your son will like these little yummies. Thanks!
Good looking sweet rice/sweet potato Chewy Balls – have been making Sesame Balls/vietnamese, who where chewy in a really good way;) instead of all purpose-flour they used Potato Flakes (used make instant potao mash),- same amount as flour – this makes it gluten free. This recipe is one of my favourite.
Looking foreward to make your Chewy Sweet Potato Balls who looks really good!
Wow! I’m so glad I found your website. I made these donuts along with the hotteok and they both came out delicious and the best part is that they’re vegan!
Thanks for the recipe! Mum was mind blown that a sweet potato donut exists ahha. To begin, I was skeptical as to it’s minimal oil retaining properties but found that only the outer edge, which constitutes less than 1mm forms a crisp crust that when you drain each donut, literally no oil comes out!! In Australia the grocers sell the orange kumera sweet potato- these hold a lot more moisture- I added virtually no milk, though I would have liked for them to be sweeter.
Thanks for the amazing recipe I used Okinawa purple sweet potato and rolled it in just sugar and it was awesome 🙂
Thank you for this awesome easy-to-follow recipe and beautiful pictures! I don’t think I could have made these without the pics because my potatoes were so watery. I just eye-balled everything so it looked like your step-by-step photos and my family devoured the finished product. I’ve eye-balled this recipe a few times now and it works every time. Such a great treat that my body loves.
If anyone is attempting a “clean” diet I can recommend the following substitutions. Because my sweet potatoes had so much moisture I tried substituting potato starch for the flour (and because I wanted a GF product) and it worked out! My KorAm family is a big fan of dduk so we LOVED the end texture. I also added maple syrup to the sweet potatoes instead of sugar to the flour mixture and put some extra syrup on the side for dipping. I fried them in organic extra virgin coconut oil using your pan tip and you’re right, this recipe uses very little oil! I’ve also used either unsweetened almond milk or whole milk and they both work great.
Thanks again!! >.<
I love the sweet and creamy taste of Korean sweet potatoes. My kids and I had fun making them together today. They were delicious – crispy on the outside yet soft and chewy inside. Even my husband, who is generally not a big fan of sweet potatoes, couldn’t resist. Do you think it would be possible to make these with a filling similar to Ho-ddoek? I think you’re a culinary goddess! Thank you.
Hi bmint
yes, you can add the hotteok fillings inside and eat the donuts while they are hot to enjoy the hot syrup inside.
Usually Koreans like to add sweetend red bean paste or white bean paste filling inside.
Thanks for your compliment. Do you see my cheeks are turning red out of shyness? Haha!
Can you bake these sweet potatoe donuts too?
Thanks for your time.
Darlene
I am not sure if baking these donuts will work. They will puff but with very dry surface. You can try a few first to see how they turn out.
Can you bake these instead of frying?
It is hard to say. I haven’t tried with baking yet, so I can’t tell you. However You will need to coat with a little oil to get the crisp texture on the outside. Give it a try. It might work.
Just did these delicious donuts and they’re soooo good ^^. Thank you Holly for sharing this recipe 🙂
Hello,
I wanted to make a simply yet healty-ish treat for a friend I haven’t seen for a while. If i make the donuts tonight, do you still think it will still taste the same if I bring it to my friend tomorrow? Or if I pre-made the dough, refrigerated, and then fry it in the morning, is the frying process still the same?
It is better to make the donut on the same day you want to serve. Otherwise they get hardened if left too long.
Thank you for the recipe. I used Trader Joe’s all-purpose gluten free flour, light brown sugar + unsweetened almond milk; it turned out great! 🙂
Tried to make this today however it didn’t turn out well :(. Idk what I did wrong as I followed the recipe well.
Sorry to hear that it didn’t turn out well. May I ask what kind of flour you used?
You mentioned about being gluten free to omit 1/3 cup of wheat flour. Should I add 1/3 cup of glutinous rice flour to replace the wheat flour?
Yes. Just add 1/3 cup more of glutenous rice flour in place of wheat flour.
Can i use sweet rice flour i don’t know if it’s the same but it’s the only thing i could find
Yes, you can use sweet rice flour.
hey holly it me and my mom are making the recipe but it is becoming to soupy because of the milk what should I do please help reply back asap
Did you use glutenous rice flour? I wonder you used regular rice flour. They are different. Regular rice flour won’t give the right texture.
I wonder why it turns our so soupy. Was your sweet potatoes have lots of moisture in them?
I would say if your dough seems very soupy, add more rice flour and the sweet potato (if you have more). A little sticky dough are fine to make these donuts, but no so soupy. Let me know if you need more help.
o yea can u answer all my questions from my previous comment if u don’t
no it is fine have a blessed day
hi im 12 years old and im making these for my social studies class on Friday may 17 2013 we are in the unit of japan and Korea and u have to make a japan or Korean dish i am planning to make this but said they taste better warm but mine cant be warm because i have school now that i have that out the way i have 6 questions
1. how do these donuts taste cold
2. do u think my class will like them btw they are 12 and 13
3. where do find rice flour
4.do you have any suggestions to make this recipe better
5. what is the serving size and how many calories are in there
6.is there any mistakes that u made that u can tell me what not to do
thank you for this recipe i would like u to reply ASAP because its coming up soon
Hi Kalisea
Wow, I am so impressed that you are going to try these donuts. My daughter is 12 years old as well and I need to tell her that she needs to up-notch her cooking skill (She can barely make grilled cheese sandwich!) 🙂
Anyway here are my answers to your questions.
1. These donuts actually taste better in the room temperature. Therefore you can make ahead and take them to school. (DO NOT keep them in the fridge though, otherwise they will get hard) They can go stale next day so I suggest eat them same day you make.
2. They are rice donuts which has very different texture (very chewy and sticky yet soft) than donuts made with the usual wheat flour. So some kids who are not used to the chewy-sticky texture might not like them.
3. Any Asian grocery store should carry them. Look for glutenous rice flour or Mochiko flour. If using Mochiko flour, add a little more milk.
4. These can be gluten free donuts if you omit the little amount of wheat flour in the recipe. Just take out the wheat flour and replace with the same amount of rice flour.
5. The recipe will yield about 3 dozen donut balls. I think one person can easily eat 2-3 balls. So I would say 10-15 servings?
6. I didn’t make any mistake but I need to warn you to be VERY CAREFUL when you make these. They need to be deep-fried. Make sure a grown-up is supervising there for you or doing the deep-frying job for you. Please, be very careful, Okay?
Have fun making these donuts. Hope you and your classmates like them. keep me the update posted. I would love to hear how they turn out!
What a lovely posting. Your reminiscing about Phyllis made me think of both of my Grandmothers … one a feisty Scots-woman, the other a warm, loving Irish-woman – both a big part of my heart and life growing up.
I look forward to trying these donuts (I’m GF) … and am looking for a recipe on Korean GF rice buns. I don’t suppose you have heard of them? I buy them often at T&T – the large Asian market in our city. They are unbelievably delic with butter!
hi holly, i just want to ask how to make homemade glutinous rice flour and its procedures.i really want to try this recipe of yours but there is no glutinous rice flour in our market.pls help..
Well, in order to turn rice into flour, you will need a grain mill to grind rice into fine powder-like rice flour. I never made myself so I don’t know how to to help you. I would suggest to search online Asian grocery stores to find it. Glutenous rice flour is very common grocery item for Asian food, so I bet you will find it easily. Sorry that I couldn’t help you much with this 🙁
ok..just one question, was your glutinous rice flour wet or dry? for this recipe. and how do you store your rice flour? i wanted to make my own since there’s no asian grocery stores here in our area.
It is dry long grain glutenous rice flour. You can use mochiko flour which is from short grain rice but will need more liquid to moisten. I just store my flour in an air tight container inside the cupboard. You can store in the fridge if you live in hot and humid area.
Hello, Holly!
You have an awesome website, and thank you for sharing these recipes with us!
I’m anxious to try this one as it is, but I also am not very fond of sweet potatoes, and my grandmother reminded me that I have some canned pumpkin, so would this be an okay substitute? Would I need to warm up the potato? I look forward to the recipe either way, and thanks for everything!
Take care~.
Hi Martina
Yes, you can use canned pumpkin instead. Adjust the amount of milk as you mix together to get the right consistency of the dough. You will provably need less milk since pumpkin is looser than sweet potato. The dough should not be so sticky. However Rice flour dough is very forgiving to work with and it is very easy and quick to form balls.
There is no need to warm up the potatoes as long as you can mash them down.
I would love to hear how they turn out. Thanks!
Ahhh, I’m so glad you threw the note in about being able to leave out the wheat flour for gluten free donuts! I must try making these! I love sweet potatoes, and I haven’t eaten anything vaguely donut like for the past five years because I need to eat gluten free. If it goes well, I know what I’ll be making next year for the fried donut things at Hanukkah! Thank you for the recipe and the lovely story about your grandmother in law, she sounds like she was lovely. 🙂
I am making this recipe tomorrow morning, Dec 14. The recipe, as it’s written, calls for 3/4 pound of sweet potatoes however, 3/4 pound sounds like sweet potato in its raw, uncooked state.
The recipe is unclear.
Is sounds like 3/4 pound of sweet potato, uncooked. How much of the “cooked”, mashed sweet potato do you need for this particular recipe? 2 cups, 3 cups????
Hi Cheryl
The 3/4 lb of sweet potato in this recipe is starting with raw sweet potato, then cooked and mashed. It will be about 1 1/2 cup or so (more or less) when mashed. The amount doesn’t have to be exact. When you pour the milk to mix the dough, pour little by little to pull the dough together to make bread dough consistency. Depends on the moisture level of sweet potato you use, the amount of milk will differ. Hope this helps.
hello, I’m Indonesian. i found your blog accidently when i look for korean cuisines’s recipe. i really like your blog. thanks to you i learn so much. thank you. 😀
oh yea, i made this sweet potato donuts. and i make my own creation with fill the donuts with red beans paste, and it delicious! i gave some of donuts to my housemate and an aunty in front of my dormitory, and she said it’s delicious. i really happy to hear that.
well, actually i have a photo of it, but i don’t know how to upload it for you.
How wonderful Riska! These donuts with red bean filling is wonderful combination. I am sure it made you feel very happy when everyone enjoyed what you created. That is a pure joy!
So I adore your blog. I am always looking for new cuisines to develop my cooking skills in, and as I’ve started working on my Korean dishes, your blog has been a treasure. I don’t often have time to read blogs, but when I do I be sure to catch on every delicious post and beautiful story you share. I want to thank you for writing!
These look positively scrumptious. I have one quick question – do you know if this recipe would work if soymilk were substituted for real milk?
Hi Shelle, You can use soy milk instead of cow’s milk. Thank for your comments. I do appreciate all my readers for their encouraging words for what I am doing. Hope you get to find many more Korean recipes for you to try.
Thank you! That means it can be made vegan – which is lovely; I have a vegan friend who’d love to make these with me!
There’s a 焼き芋 (baked sweet potato) stand near my work, and I’ve been tempted to just buy baked sweet potato there and take ’em home to mash up into something (because I cannot eat a whole bag in one sitting)- I may turn them into your donuts!
hello !!! i live in Africa i don’t know if this reason explains the following THERE IS NO RICE FLOUR HERE ahhh i feel bad for my stomach because it seems all the yummy foods are made of rice flour ! i would like to know if there are some desserts that could possibly be made of plain flour THANK YOU ^^
Hello cristinaronalda! Rice flour will bring different texture to the desserts. There are plenty of desserts made with plain flour. Just look under my recipes on the Navi bar and you will find “Baking” tab. There should be some recipes you are looking for.
Ha! Another person that mixes with gloves on. I’m not alone! :p
Just made these this weekend. They were so easy and delicious-not too sweet. I love that they take on the color of the potato. I made lots of people happy on Sunday. Thanks for the recipe.
Just came across your website via foodgawker and I love it.
New favourite recipe site? I think so!
These donuts are so cute, and if they really are chewy, they’d be just the snack for me.
Can I please make one suggestion, though, Holly? Would you be able to put the korean name of your dishes, in addition to the english names, on the original post, rather than in the comments? I like knowing the proper native names of dishes, more than their anglicized counterparts. Not sure if anyone else feels the same.
I always try to put the Korean name of the dish in the post but I guess I miss out sometimes. Thanks for the reminder. It is important to know the original name of the dish. I will keep in mind.
once the cake is delicious
I love all things sweet potato, i use it in my soups, roast, dessert, and now i must try making this. Perfect for a snack. You are right, it would go down so well with a warm cup of citroen tea. This reminds me of those banana puffs being sold at the malay staffs, but heaps better!
i just love your site so much. everything i’ve made from here has been exceptional and your photos and words are inspiring. this is such a touching post, and even though i’m not wild about donuts i just might have to make these to eat with some tea on a thoughtful afternoon.
Thank you Nico for your kind words. Readers like you make my day happy.
Oh I love this! Beautiful recipe! I hope to make this for my mother and father, I simply love recipes like this!
Lovely recipe — and lovely doily! I think you’ve done Phyllis proud. I’m still a little scared of deep frying, but I appreciate your tip about tilting the pan to create a deeper well of oil.
Oh my goodness! These look perfect! how lovely! thank you for this recipe!
These look amazing!! I can’t wait to make them!
These are super cute looking donuts. Can’t believe they are made out of sweet potatoes. I’d love to make them if it’s not very labor-intensive.
They are not that labor intensive recipe. You can easily make them with only a few ingredients. Hope you get to give them a try. Thanks.
Phyllis sounds like a wonderful woman. And those donuts – amazing! I love Korean sweet potato!
I got to make this one day. I simply just loves sweet potato and I know it is super delicious!
i LOVE goguma. o man…we are home in california in 2 weeks and i am going to eat korean food for one month straight. I NEED kimchi like NOW!! and these delicious little treats too…and you know what one of my favorite treats is?!?!? Soon-deh. my mom laughs that this is something i love….
Oh, Leah, Out of all the Korean food that I eat, I am so sorry to say this but, Soondeh is NOT my love. I just never liked it. Many Koreans love it though. I do get picky for what I eat sometimes…
yes i think there are koreans who love it and those who hate it…not in-between!!
Such a nice tribute to your grandmother! Very well written. Old stuff can be good. My parents are elderly and are beginning to downsize, so I just inherited some gorgeous crystal glasses that were once my great-grandmother’s – so nice to have them. It’d also be nice to drink something from it as I ate these donuts! Really excellent recipe, and I agree they look gorgeous on the blue plate with the doily. Thumbs up!
Hi Holly! Thanks for another awesome recipe. You are my most trusted source of Korean cooking knowledge! 🙂 Can I ask if there’s a Korean name for these donuts? (My husband always asks!) Oh, and can I suggest a non-Korean dish that I’d love you to make for the blog? Ma Po Tofu. I’ve tried making it twice now and it’s not quite right. Do you know how to make it? 🙂
Hi Tiffany
The Korean name for these donuts are called “goguma chapssal donuts (고구마 찹쌀 도너츠)”. I love Ma Po tofu and make it at home sometimes. It is on the list of recipe I need to make soon. Thanks.