Chocolate is one of my weaknesses in life. Or maybe it's a strength hidden behind a weakness? Either way I love the stuff, and chances are that you probably do too.
For this week's Steemit Culinary Challenge, hosted by the one and only @woman-onthe-wing, with the CHOCOLATE theme, thought up by this week's judge @leotrap, I made chocolate into a breakfast item we all know and love, DONUTS!
However, so that we all don't get started on our day feeling sluggish and guilty, these chocolate donuts are made without the use of refined sweeteners, and actually incorporate sweet potato in the dough!
There you have it, guiltless chocolate donuts for breakfast!
These chocolate donuts are filled with a maple creme anglaise, which is a vanilla maple custard cream. Yeahh.
Served with a side of dark chocolate dipped fruit and nuts, and your breakfast is complete!
Are you like me, and have never heard of potato donuts? Well they ARE A THING! Until recently, I haven't heard of potato donuts, but I don't think I'll ever make "un-potato donuts" again! They have an extra toothiness and bite to them that it irresistible!
Here's how to make this decadent dessert (I mean breakfast)!
Chocolate potato donuts
Ingredients
1 sweet potato and 1 red potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces (about 1 1/4 cup when mashed)
3 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 t yeast
1/2 c maple syrup
1/3 c honey
2 T butter
1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt
Directions
Cook the potatoes in boiling water until soft and mash with a potato masher until nearly smooth. Allow to cool.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or just a bowl), add the milk, yeast, and 1t honey, stirring to combine. Allow the yeast to proof for about 10 minutes, or until frothy.
Add 2 cups of the flour and the rest of the ingredients, and slowly mix to combine.
Then slowly add the remaining cup of flour until it is incorporated.
The mixture should form a ball that clears the sides of the bowl. If it is too wet, then add a bit more flour.
Knead for about 5 minutes, and then allow to rise until doubled, about 2 hours.
Press the mixture out with your hands and cut into the shape you'd like! I used a 3 inch circle.
Allow to proof for about an hour or less, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
Fry for about 3 minutes (1 1/2 minutes per side) in vegetable oil at roughly 325F.
Maple Creme Anglaise
I used a maple creme anglaise to fill the cute chocolate donuts. I had thought that I had never made creme anglaise before, but essentially it's just custard! So it's pretty straightforward. For this one, I cooked it a bit longer so it had a little more thickness to hold up inside the donuts. I decided to stick with natural sweeteners, which is why the creme anglaise is sweetened with maple syrup rather than granulated sugar.
Ingredients for Maple Creme Anglaise
3/4 c milk
1/3 c cream
1/8 t salt
1/2 t vanilla
2 egg yolks
2 T maple syrup
Directions
In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk, cream, and salt just to a boil, then reduce to a simmer right away.
Whisk your egg yolks, maple syrup, and vanilla, and slowly add about 1/3 of the hot milk mixture to the eggs to temper them, while whisking, so not to scramble the egg yolks.
Then, add the egg mixture back to the milk mixture, while whisking.
While stirring pretty consistently, cook over low heat until the creme anglaise is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, and then continue cooking a few minutes more, so that the mixture is nearly the consistency of pudding.
Strain the creme over a jar to remove any solids, and cool in the refrigerator until you're ready to fill the donuts.
Fill the donuts using a pastry piping bag once the donuts have cooled for a few minutes. (You don't want them too hot because they'll melt the creme and it'll run right out!)
For the chocolate-dipped fruit and nuts, I used pomegranate seeds, sliced banana, and salted pistachios. I melted a bar of 87% dark chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, and poured it onto parchment paper before placing the fruit on top of the chocolate.
After a few minutes in the refrigerator, the chocolate was set and the fruit was ready to go!
For the chocolate glaze, I simply added about 1 T of honey to the melted chocolate I used for the fruit.
Once the chocolate and honey were combined, I dipped the filled donuts into the glaze.
And just in case you're not a chocolate glaze person, I tossed some of these little chocolate donuts in some powdered sugar while they were still hot. Here's the pile!
I hope you've enjoyed this chocolate concoction! Many thanks to our host @woman-onthe-wing for bringing this challenge to the community, as well as our kind host @leotrap, and our generous sponsors @gringalicious and @sirwinchester. This wouldn't be possible without all of your support!
@woman-onthe-wing, with the CHOCOLATE theme, thought up by this week's judge 
@leotrap, I made chocolate into a breakfast item we all know and love, DONUTS!
@gringalicious and 
@sirwinchester. This wouldn't be possible without all of your support!
