These Italian-style fried homemade donuts — known as Graffe Napoletane — are incredibly soft, fluffy, and lightly scented with citrus zest and vanilla. Made with mashed potatoes in the dough (the secret ingredient!), they stay tender for hours and fry up beautifully golden with a delicate, airy crumb. If you’ve been searching for homemade donuts from scratch, soft yeast donuts, or the best fried donut recipe without shortening, this is the one to try.
Unlike cake donuts, these are true yeast-raised donuts, enriched with butter, eggs, and potato for a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Think pillowy brioche meets classic sugar-coated donuts — but even softer. Perfect for:
- Weekend brunch
- Carnival season (Carnevale)
- Special breakfast treats
- Holiday baking
- Anyone craving authentic Italian desserts
Watch the Video Recipe!
Watch this YouTube video to learn how to make these soft potato donuts:
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Making Fried Potato Donuts: Tips
When frying these potato donuts, keep the temperature at a low 160°C / 320°F. A slower rise during frying prevents the donuts from inflating, then deflating after you’ve removed them from the oil.
It will take about about 60 seconds a side to fry these donuts! Fry in batches.
The Best Potato Donut Recipe is Italian!
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer
- 1 3¾ inch cookie or biscuit cutter
- 1 1½ inch cookie or biscuit cutter
- 1 pan for frying or deep fryer
Ingredients
✨ Pre-Ferment (Lievitino) ✨
- 1¼ cups Bread Flour
- 1 tsp Instant dry yeast: 3 g / 1 tsp
- ⅔ cup Whole milk
✨ Dough ✨
- Pre-ferment all of it
- 3¾ cups Bread Flour
- 1½ cups Cooked potatoes riced and sifted
- 2 large Whole eggs
- 5 tbsp Butter
- ¼ cup Sugar
- 1 Grated orange zest
- 1 Grated lemon zest
- 1 Vanilla bean seeds only
- 1½ tsp Salt
Instructions
- Combine the milk, yeast and flour. Mix until shaggy.
- Proof the Dough: 2 hours at 22°C / 72°F
- Aromantics: Combine the orange zest, vanilla, lemon zest and sugar and set aside.
- In a stand mixer combine the flour, sugar, the preferment, the riced potatoes and the aromatics.
- Add the beaten eggs to the dough a little at a time, mixing on low speed with a dough hook.
- Add the butter a little at a time, continuing to knead until the dough ball is smooth and the gluten mesh is strong.
- Proof the Dough: 3 hours at 28–30°C / 82–86°F
- Roll the dough to a thickness of 1 cm / ½ inch
- Cut out donuts with a cookie cutter of 3¾ inches and a center hole using a 1½ inch cookie or biscuit cutter.
- Fry the donuts in batches at 160°C / 320°F for about 60 seconds a side.
- Coat both sides in granulated sugar while warm.