Soft and fluffy, scrumptious doughnut holes made with ricotta cheese. These simple doughnuts don’t require any yeast, only take about 30 minutes to make and finger-licking-good!
RICOTTA DOUGHNUT HOLES
This is one super treat for breakfast. These little ricotta doughnut holes will quickly become a family favorite. They are quite addictive for two reasons:
1. They are SO tasty! The texture is wonderful, they are soft, moist and fluffy inside. They have a mild sweet flavor that goes with coffee, tea or milk. And, you can easily fill them with some jam or custard as soon as you pull them out onto a wire rack. (Just use a long pastry tip to fill the doughnuts.)
2. These doughnuts are unbelievably easy to make. First time I made them, I was really surprised just how fast it was to make these from start to finish. Dough takes about five minutes and cooking will depend on the size of the pan you are using and how many doughnuts can you cook at a time. Each batch takes about 5-7 minutes to cook. All in all, it’s an easy, tasty treat for breakfast.
When my mom first gave me this recipe, I thought that the only way to make easy, no-yeast doughnuts was to use refrigerated biscuit dough. This is much, much better. The original recipe actually calls for farmer’s cheese. If you’re not familiar with farmer’s cheese, it’s kind of a pressed cottage cheese. It’s very firm, grainy and quite tasty. I grew up eating a lot of dishes that use farmer’s cheese, so I’m very familiar with it. As I was planning on making this recipe and sharing it with my readers, I realized that there is probably only a small portion of you who are familiar with farmer’s cheese. So I decided to use ricotta cheese and make the appropriate adjustments for the dough. The doughnuts turned out beautiful!
Don’t even think twice! Make these doughnuts as soon as possible. Make them for your family on Christmas morning and it will be the most hassle-free breakfast that everyone will love. After all, you spend most day on Christmas in the kitchen already.
MORE DOUGHNUT RECIPES TO TRY
Black & White Glazed Doughnuts
Baked Lemon Blueberry Doughnuts from The Recipe Rebel
4 Ingredient Apple Cider Doughnuts from The Food Charlatan
Baked Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Doughnuts from The Gunny Sack
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Easy Ricotta Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 10 oz whole milk ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp white granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Oil for frying
- 2-3 tbsp Powdered sugar for topping
Instructions
- Preheat about 5 cups of oil in a medium sauce pot, over medium to medium-high heat. Heat oil to about 315 degrees. (350 will cook doughnuts too fast on the outside and leave them raw on the inside.)
- Set out a wire rack and cover it with a paper towel or two.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk ricotta, vanilla, sugar and eggs until all incorporated.
- Add flour baking soda and salt. Mix with a rubber spatula until completely mixed throughout.
- Lay out a piece of parchment paper and lightly grease it.
- Grease your hands with some cooking spray as well. Scoop out some dough and make about 1-inch balls. Lay them on the parchment paper while waiting to be fried.
- Fry doughnut balls in batches of about 6 (as fitting to your sauce pot) for 5-7 minutes, until deep golden brown.
- Take out the cooked doughnut balls and place them on a paper towel. After they are cooled for a couple of minutes, dust them with powder sugar.
Video
Nutrition
A. Menth says
Would it be ok if I doubled the recipe, to make more of them?
lyuba says
Of course! Go for it 🙂
Airis A says
Hi, I love donuts, but I don’t eat fry food, well it’s not to. Can I bae the donut instead? Please let me know. They look so delish! Am an amateur Baker and I want to try to make them. I hope they come out looking and tasting like yours.
lyuba says
Hi Airis! I haven’t actually tried baking these doughnuts but I would think you would be fine baking them. The batter is a little thicker than the baked doughnuts I make though so the doughnuts might come out denser.
Here is one of the baked doughnuts recipes I have https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/apple-pie-baked-doughnuts/
I have a few more that you can search for or let me know and I’ll send more.
djr says
I was wondering if these can be made using an ebelskiver pan-is the consistency like pancake batter? If so, it may be doable, and you can use a lot less oil/fat to cook them.
lyuba says
Hi there!
The consistency is actually thicker than pancake batter. You can see the consistency of the batter in the video. I’ve never used that pan before so I don’t want to give out a wrong suggestion.
renata says
yes, but where is the video, or a link. in the recipe above there is only written the word
“video”, but no link. you can’t click on it.
thanks a lot for the response
renata
Donna says
I made these exactly and fried to deep golden brown and some of them came out under cooked what a waste. You cant leave in for too long or they burn, i reduced temp even to 300 degrees. I was wondering can these be baked instead of fried? I felt bad for the kids.
lyuba says
Oh no, I”m sorry it came out that way. I wonder if maybe they were a little too big? I’ve made these so many times and I haven’t had them under-cook. I lat them sit to deep golden brown.
If you have a doughnut pan, you can definitely try baking them. Try about 11 minutes and do a toothpick test. Let me know how it works out!
Gillian says
Is the recipe correct to use baking soda instead of baking powder?
lyuba says
Hey Gillian!
That’s a very old recipe from my mom but that is the way we always made them 🙂 If you want, you can use baking powder and it won’t hurt it, you may need to increase baking powder to 2 tsps.
I hope you enjoy them!
Donna says
Can I use whole milk cottage cheese instead of Ricotta cheese ?
lyuba says
Hi Donna,
I would definitely not substitute cottage cheese for ricotta cheese because it’s a completely different consistency. The result will be quite different 🙂
You can try farmer’s cheese but I’m not 100% sure of the result.
Is there a reason you can’t have ricotta cheese?
Donna says
Could I used Whole milk in place of Ricotta cheese?
elisabeth valenti-sorbara says
I have made these twice and if we weren’t trying to watch our “fried” intake i would have them weekly. I buy fresh ricotta weekly as it is a wonderful cheese that is low in fat so when i found this recipe and made them i did not feel so guilty eating them because “they are cheese”.
They were extremely easy to make, they fry so very easily, keep well on a cake plate and dont go soggy although they dont last long enough to go soggy.
I will be making them for friends for our annual Good Friday Lunch
Reign says
These were not nice to eat at all. They were bland in taste and very dry. I followed the recipe exactly and made sure not to do anything different because I wanted to have this donut the way others would have it. What a waste of ricotta.
lyuba says
I’m sorry you didn’t like these doughnuts, Reign!
I make these very often and I haven’t had a problem with dryness but you can always fill them. I’ve filled these ricotta doughnuts with lemon curd and cheesecake mixture before. That will definitely add more flavor and moisture. If you’d like to give them another shot, here are some recipes for filled doughnut holes and you can use the same ricotta doughnut recipe of regular doughnut holes recipe:
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2017/06/bacon-brown-sugar-cream-doughnut-holes.html
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2016/08/lemon-curd-filled-doughnut-holes.html
Amy says
Could these be baked at 350 degrees instead of fried?
Josir says
Try putting a few drops of anise oil and have an Italian castinoli. After sprinkling the powdeer sugar drizzle with honey.
lyuba says
Oh I can practically smell it!! Great suggestion 🙂 Thank you!
Maria says
Thank you for this recipe! It looks delicious. I will be making the Ricotta Doughnuts!!!!!