MALAYSIAN SWEET POTATO DOUGHNUTS ~ KUIH KERIA

These actually made it to the Top 9 on Foodbuzz. Scabs and all! Thank you Foodbuzz community :) Happy Buzzday.

I remember sugar scabs being made in a black, heavy, demented looking wok in our wet kitchen. On a gas stove right below a chimney. My god. We actually had chimneys!?!

Anyway, for years I never could figure out how those sweet scabs  materialized. It looked easy and obvious enough but when you expected them to stick to the fried doughnuts when you chucked them in they wouldn't. Not unless you put the doughnuts in at just the right moment. While the crystallized sugar was still damp and bubbly. 

When the bubbly sugar solidified and if too much caked the doughnuts like an armour you could always knock or peel the excess scabs off the doughnuts before serving. 


(This is getting a little too rustic for comfort)

Anyway, I think we, as in Malaysians,  may be the inventors of sugar scabs. I haven't seen it anywhere else except on Malaysian Sweet Potato Doughnuts. I am so glad we did. It gives such an exciting contrast in textures. Crunchy vs chewy.

These are the doughnuts I grew up with.

If you were expert enough like our maid of old you would know to make just enough sugar scabs for the amount of doughnuts you had fried earlier. If you didn't, like me, you could provide a year's ration for the Malaysian Ant Army. Ten times over. 

Recipe..........my version

Yield : 6 medium doughnuts


1 1/2 cups of steamed, completely cooled and mashed sweet potatoes ( I used slightly more than 1 1/2)
About 3/4 cup of plain flour or less
1/2 tsp salt


Mix all above ingredients together. Press together until you get a soft but firm ball of dough. There is no need for any liquid. (I used the red/purple skinned Japanese sweet potato for this. It is less fibrous than the local yellow variety so you don't need to press it through a sieve). You could add less flour if you prefer a less chewy doughnut. If the mixture is sticky flour your hands while shaping if you don't want too chewy a doughnut.


Shape into rings or roll out on a board to about 1/2 inch thick and cut using a doughnut cutter. (This is what I did).


Heat a pan. Add about 1 inch of any vegetable oil and heat the oil till hot. Drop the doughnut dough rings in gently and fry until golden on one side. Turn over and fry till other side is golden as well. Lift out and drain on kitchen paper.

Sugar Scabs.........

You might want to halve this recipe.

1 cup sugar
2 T water


Pour one cup of sugar into a heavy based pan. Add the water. Heat over medium heat and stir until the sugar melts. Keep stirring until the sugar thickens, gets gloppy and shows signs of becoming crystallized. Drop in the doughnuts and mix into the thick sugar paste. Cook a little while more until the sugar crystallizes completely and solidifies and turns completely white. Lift off the doughnuts and and knock off excess sugar scabs. Serve.


Note :

If the sugar crystallizes before it adheres to the doughnuts simply add a few drops of water and stir again.

As much as I dislike posting dull and un-sharp photographs I have to. It's been really grey outside from morn to dusk. For many many days. Especially on days that I decide to make, bake and photograph. Please bear with me. 

I am submitting this to Muhibbah Monday. Find out more here...