Food

Glazed Chocolate Doughnut Muffins | In Season

The secret ingredient? Potatoes, those heroes of early-spring cooking.

By Amy Traverso|Feb 17 2021|

Glazed Chocolate Doughnut Muffins

Photo Credit: Styled and Photographed by Liz Neily

Last March, as the first wave of the pandemic threatened to (maybe? possibly?) disrupt our food supply chain, I added a second farm share to our usual rotation. It seemed a good way to keep our pantry stocked while supporting local farms. And so it did. But it also brought to our door an abundant, self-renewing supply of carrots and potatoes, two late-fall crops that store well over the winter. I did my best to keep up, but I finally ended up spreading the wealth among our neighbors. We could eat only so many mashed potatoes.

I wish I had thought of this recipe back then. These chocolate muffins are modeled after my favorite kind of doughnut: chocolate with a thin wash of translucent sugar glaze. More specifically, they’re modeled after chocolate potato doughnuts like the ones they serve at the Holy Donut in Portland, Maine. This Down East tradition makes good use of mashed spuds, folding them into the batter to make the doughnuts more tender and moist. Any leftover mashed potatoes will work well here, as long as they’re not drizzled in gravy. To boost the “doughnuttiness” of these little cakes, you grease the wells of your muffin tin, then sprinkle in some sugar before adding the batter. It gives the exterior a bit of crunch without the mess and trouble of frying. Even better: You can serve these muffins for breakfast or dessert.

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