Gluten Free Sweet Potato Donuts Recipe, Refined Sugar Free, Vegan

Yes, I know, I just posted a sugar free, gluten free, vegan donut recipe last week- do we really need another one... But I'll have to say- absolutely yes! These donuts are absolutely delicious, don't have either any eggs or any egg replacers like ground flax seed, so they're naturally vegan without trying too hard... And they get their sweetness from sweet potato, for the most part, so they end up being cheaper than other sugar free donuts...
I made these this week for a party, and got rave reviews... and when I posted about it on Facebook, friends were begging me for the recipe, so here it is.
I based it on this recipe from Nanette Raw, which was a good base, but was woefully lacking when it came to instructions.
I am absolutely sure that you can make this with wheat or whole wheat by replacing the brown rice flour, white rice flour, potato starch, mochiko, and xanthan gum with 2 1/4 cups wheat flour or whole wheat flour- if you try it out that way, let me know how it worked for you.

Sweet Potato Gluten Free Donuts

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of warm water
5 teaspoon dry yeast
1 pinch of coconut crystals, rapadura, sucanat, jaggery, brown sugar, or white sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown rice flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons white rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup sweet/sticky rice flour/mochiko (flour made from short grain white rice)
1 scant teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 cup of mashed sweet potatoes (about one medium sweet potato)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup of jaggery, coconut sugar, rapadura, brown sugar, or white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Oil for frying

Instructions:
1. Bake your sweet potato in the oven until soft.

2. Peel the sweet potato, and mash it with a fork or potato masher until it is uniform.

3. Let the sweet potato cool.

4. Mix warm water with yeast and whatever sugar you're using, to allow it to proof.

5. If using jaggery, grate and pour 1/2 cup boiling water over it, and allow it to sit for 10 minutes to soften. If using other sweeteners, skip this step.

6.. Mix all the flours and starches together.

7.  Mix the flour mixture with the sweet potato mash, water (mixed with jaggery, if using that), sweetener (if you're using something other than jaggery, salt, vanilla, and proofed yeast. You should have a sticky dough.

8. Let rise for 30 minutes.

9. Heat up oil in a deep frying pan. You don't want the oil to get too hot or stay too cold either. The oil should be somewhere between 275 and 300 degrees Faranheit.

10. Cut parchment paper into little squares.

11. Put the donut dough into a plastic bag, tie the ends shut, cut a small hole in the corner of the bag, and pipe out a donut shape onto one of the parchment paper squares. The width of the donut "snakes" should be no more than an inch. Do this with all the dough.

12. Drop the parchment paper with the donut rings into the hot oil a few at a time, cook for a few minutes, slip out the parchment paper, flip over, and cook without the parchment paper for another few minutes.

13. When the donuts are a uniform light/medium brown, remove them from the oil carefully, and put them on a towel to absorb excess oil.

14. Once all the donuts are cooked, decide if you want any toppings or to leave them plain. Frosting works, as does powdered sugar, once they've cooled down. I chose to shake some in a mixture of coconut sugar and cinnamon, and the rest I shook in a chocolate milk mix (cocoa, powdered sugar, vanilla) for a lazy chocolate donut.

These were a smashing success. They don't have the strongest sweet potato taste, so even if you're not a sweet potato fan, I still recommend trying these out.

I haven't tried it yet, but I am sure this recipe would also work terrifically with baked butternut squash in place of the sweet potato.

What was the weirdest ingredient you ever put in a baked good? Does sweet potato donuts sound great or weird to you? Does this look like a recipe you'd try?