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When I started making babysitting money around the age of 12, one of my favorite things to spend it on wasn’t clothes or toys, it was donuts. There were two bakeries in town that sold the most unbelievably decadent donuts and I was addicted to them.
Even before entering either shop, the rich, delightful smell of the light, sweet, floury treats would envelope me and once inside I would press my face against the glass case, trying to decide which flavor was calling my name the loudest. Both bakeries were pretty amazing and while all of the flavors were yummy, the seasonal donuts were some of my favorites.
Now that fall is here, so is my love of making all things pumpkin. And why not pumpkin donuts? And while fried donuts are a nostalgic treat, I’ll leave that kind of preparation to the bakeries.
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Baking them in a donut pan is simple and it allows you to remove all the danger and mess of a pot of hot oil but retain the same fun factor of eating a delicious donut at home!
If you make these beauties and post them on social make sure to tag #weelicious so I can see them!
Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts
Ingredients
Pumpkin Doughnuts:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/3 cup milk
- Cinnamon Icing:
Cinnamon Icing:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- In a standing mixer or bowl using a hand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar.
- Add the egg, the pumpkin puree and milk.
- Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
- Place the dough in a large zipper bag, seal the bag airtight and then cut off ½ inch of one corner.
- Pipe the dough into a greased doughnut pan. Bake for 15 minutes and allow to cool.
- To make the icing, place all of the ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
- Drizzle icing over each doughnut and serve.
Wondering about using white whole wheat or wholr wheat pastry flour as well. Sounds delish!
Canned pumpkin is usually in the baking aisle with pie fillings, not in the fruit and veggie section. You can substitute fresh or frozen sweet potato or butternut squash. Just cook and puree. Hope that helps.
Cant wait to try in my donut pan. (We can’t get canned pumpkin all year round here in my part of California– only pumpkin pie filling).
Made these for breakfast this morning! They were sooo good! My 2 year old and I enjoyed every last bite! Thank you sooo much for all of your fun and always delicious recipes!
You just pipe them into a doughnut shape. It’s actually easier then you think. I’m doing a video recipe of them for this Friday to show exactly how it works.
These sound delicious. How do you pipe the dough into a doughnut – as simple as making a circle? Should it be a certain thickness, or will it work no matter how ugly they look on my mat?
I have pretty good luck with mixes by replacing all the added ingredients with 1-15oz can of pumpkin puree. Don’t add the eggs, oil, butter or whatever the mix calls for, just the pumpkin. They might need to bake a little bit longer, keep an eye on it.
We have to eat gluten free here…and usually use a pre-made GF ready cake mix (like Betty Crockers GF yellow) for our baked donuts. Would anyone know how to convert the mix ingredients to add the canned pumpkin?
I used whole wheat flour for this recipe and it worked great!
Can I substitute whole wheat for all of or half of the flour?
Oh, and meant to add that it can be found in my store’s baking aisle all year round. I never thought to look there when I was first searching for pumpkin….
ooo, I can’t wait to try this. I always buy cans and cans of pumpkin puree this time of year, and add it to my smoothies (with a dash of cinnamon – yum), make pumpkin bread, etc. This is just another great way to use pumpkin. And I agree with the other commenters….this is my one exception to not buying cans. Butternut squash is where I draw the line with wrestling with squashs! Pureeing a fresh pumpkin? No thank you! 😉
I am so happy you shared this recipe with your fans. I will try to make these today if not tomorrow. Would it make any difference if we swapped in pastry flour or cake flour? I happen to have several types of flour on hand and wondered if it would work too.
Should work fine with rice milk. I made them for 20 of Kenya’s friends and they loved them. Not crumbly at all!
Awesome! I Googled baked donuts a few weeks ago and the recipe I selected TASTED great, however the donuts crumbled as soon as I tried to take them out of the pan. My son called them delicious, and gave them a new name…BUSTED DONUTS. The recipe is a keeper, we just won’t serve them to guests:). We simply sprinked our Busted Donuts with powdered sugar and closed our eyes… delicious. Thanks for the new recipe, can’t wait to try it! (I am going to try it with rice milk, I hope it works.) Happy Halloween!
I was thinking the same thing! I am definitely going to do that next time.:)