Pumpkin Donuts
This is a great recipe for pumpkin donuts. You bake them instead of frying them which might have made them more healthy if you didn’t then brush them in butter and dip them in cinnamon and sugar!
But it makes them so much simpler!
You can use canned pumpkin in this recipe if you want to. Be sure to buy the 100% pumpkin and not the pie filling that has sugar added.
You will also need a donut pan. I know this seems like something you wouldn’t use much, but if you make muffins, it’s just as easy to make donuts. I have the Wilton pans (2) that each make 6 donuts. They also come in silicone. (If you really object to buying a donut pan you can always do this in muffin tins, it’s just not as much fun!)
As with all home baking, these will only last a few days on the counter top. If you don’t plan to eat them right away, freeze them.
Yield: 15
Equipment: donut pan
Ingredients
Donuts:
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
¾ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups pumpkin puree
Cinnamon sugar coating:
⅔ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 tbsp melted unsalted butter
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Mix the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and spices in a large bowl and whisk them until they are well blended. In a second bowl mix The sugars, butter, eggs and pumpkin. Mix the wet ingredients together until well blended.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until there are no pockets of flour, but don’t overbeat. (Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl when mixing because that is where the flour pockets hide!) I like a silicone scraper for this.
Get a gallon zip top bag and turn town the top to help it stay open and to keep the threads clean. Spoon the batter into the bag and try to work all the air out. Seal the bag.
Spray your donut pans with non stick spray and fill them with batter. Cut a corner off the bag and squeeze out the batter into the donut molds. The bag makes it easy to get the batter in the mold and nicely formed for the donuts.
Bake at 350 for 14-15 minutes. I used convection bake. If you don’t have this function, you might need to turn them once to bake evenly and add a minute or two. This will depend on your oven.
While the donuts are baking, prepare the cinnamon/sugar and melted butter for coating. Place the cinnamon and sugar into a bowl large enough to hold a donut and mix well. The butter can go into any microwave save container. Melt it and pull out your pastry brush(or clean BBQ sauce brush) to apply it.
Once the donuts bounce (about 200° internal temp), remove them from the oven and turn them out onto a cooling rack. Repeat everything with any remaining batter.
While they are still brush the donuts on each side with butter, then dip each side in the cinnamon/sugar blend. Set the dipped donuts back on the cooling rack to cool.