C'mon, jump on the pumpkin bandwagon! It's a bit crowded there, what with all the pumpkin things there are to make...but if there is only one, just one pumpkin recipe you need to make, it's this one. Baked, moist, delicious donuts with a cinnamon-shooogah coating...your family will thank you, your friends will thank you and the haters will have one more reason to hate... Pumpkin Donuts...share them only with those who are worthy.
Ahhh schucks, go ahead and say it, we've never looked better. So true. The mister, who is not amused by any type of Halloween hoopla was put on notice two weeks ago that he was going to participate. He grumbled and growled and threw his usual fits, daily, saying he wanted no part of any make-up or picture...but then I did the unthinkable...I wrote on his calendar ON the day we would take the pictures...IN INK, thereby sealing his fate. You see, as long as the mister has notice and it's written on his calendar, he will cooperate...not happily, mind you, but then, he's never happy, no surprise there. Maybe it's because he was promised donuts, I'm not sure, but as you can plainly see in the pic above...the mister looks down right jovial...for him!
The boy and his bride have a thing for skeletons...so when I saw this pan at Williams Sonoma I had to get one for them and one for me so I could have plenty of edible skeletons when they come to visit! One batch of donut batter made 8 skeleton heads - the mister was pleased as they were larger than the donuts...more to eat, man happy.
"Donuts" were also baked in my mini-Bundt pan...this recipe can be used in all kinds of bake-ware so if you don't happen to have a donut pan, no worries! Just use what you do have and it will turn out every time! I opted to glaze the skeleton heads with a simple vanilla-powdered sugar and milk glaze and the mini-Bundt "donuts" were glazed with an apple cider icing. So this is a versatile recipe...bake them and glaze/frost them any which way you want...they will all disappear as fast as you can make them!
Did I mention these are easy? One bowl easy. You have NO excuse not to make these! And since we are only half-way through Fall, you have plenty of time to ride the pumpkin bandwagon before it heads for the barn.
Pumpkin Donuts - Adapted From King Arthur Flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin)
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, or 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus heaping 1/4 teaspoon each ground nutmeg, and ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Sugar Coating:
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Vanilla Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
tiny pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two standard donut pans. Or you can use a standard muffin tin or mini-Bundt pan - they just won't be donuts but no one will mind.
In a medium bowl combine oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt and baking powder and beat until smooth. Add the flour, stirring just until smooth.
Fill the wells of the donut pans about 3/4 full; use a scant 1/4 cup of batter in each. If you're using a muffin tin or a skeleton pan (!), fill each well about 3/4 full. The recipe makes about 15 donuts so you'll need to bake in two batches, unless you have two pans.
Bake the donuts for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. If you're making muffins, they'll need to bake longer, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove donuts from oven, and after about 5 minutes, loosen their edges and transfer them to a rack to cool.
While donuts are still warm, but no longer fragile, gently shake them in a bag with the cinnamon-sugar. If you've made muffins or skeleton heads, sprinkle their tops heavily with cinnamon-sugar. Cool completely and store at room temperature for several days. Don't wrap leftover doughnuts tightly in plastic; they'll become soggy. If you're not going to consume all of the doughnuts at one sitting, add the final coating of cinnamon-sugar only to those you'll eat; store the rest, without their sugar, on a plate covered with a cake cover; or in a plastic bag that's not fastened shut. Add cinnamon-sugar coating just before serving.
"Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!" – Oscar Wilde
"Mmmmmm…doughnuts." – Homer Simpson
"Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit." - Haruki Murakami
