• Dissolve yeast and 1 c. warm water.
• Allow yeast mixture to froth.
• In another bowl combine milk, mashed potatoes, butter, and honey.
• When mixture is lukewarm to the touch add in yeast mixture and 3 cups of all purpose, unbleached flour.
• Let stand until mixture starts to bubble up and has a sponge like consistency.
• Add in salt, egg, and 4 cups of flour. More flour may be necessary if your kitchen is humid.
• Dough should be soft.
• Turn out on floured counter and knead until satiny, and pliable.
• Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.
• To make doughnuts, Roll out dough until 1 inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter or other round shape.
• Place on greased and floured baking sheet. Cover and allow to rise until not quite doubled in bulk.
• When doughnuts are ready to fry, put 2 inches of coconut oil in the bottom of a deep skillet.
• Heat to 375F – oil should not smoke.  Do not leave oil unattended –
• Carefully place doughnuts 3 to 4 at a time into hot oil.  Oil will bubble rapidly, so be careful not to get burned with splattering grease.
• Cook on each side until lightly browned, about 45 to 60 seconds.  If oil is too hot, doughnuts will brown too fast and remain doughy in the centre.  If oil is too cold, doughnuts will get greasy and absorb too much oil instead of browning.
• Remove the finished doughnuts from the oil and drain on paper towels.  I put 3 to 4 thicknesses of paper towels on a shallow pan to catch the excess grease.  Remove and fill with the jelly or custard filling of your choice.

How to fill jelly doughnuts:

• You’ll need a chopstick, a small metal funnel, and a ziploc bag as well as your filling of choice.
• Using the chop stick, make a small hole in the side of the doughnut.
• Insert the chopstick into the hole and wiggle it back and forth and up and down to tear the crumb inside the doughnut.
• Make a small hole in the corner of the empty sandwich bag.
• Insert the metal funnel and put the spout through the hole.
• Fill the bag with 1 cup of jelly, jam, pie filling, or custard.
• Insert the funnel spout into the hole that you made with the chop stick.
• Put gentle pressure on the closed Ziploc bag to exude some of the filling.
• Watch carefully, so that you don’t overfill the doughnut.
• Release the pressure on the bag, before removing the funnel spout from the hole.
• Gravity will force more of the filling out of the bag, so once you remove it from the doughnut cavity; turn it with the funnel spout pointing up.
• Repeat with each doughnut.