Baked Pumpkin Spice Donuts

I finally jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon and I’ve been pinning up a storm. I was noticing a lot of my blog traffic was coming from Pinterest and search results over the past year have shown me that lots of Foodiddy photos and recipes have been pinned. So instead of fighting it for years like I did with Facebook,  I decided to just get an account. That is where I found the recipe for these wonderful baked pumpkin spice donuts.

My SIL got me a donut pan last Christmas and I’d only used it one other time. My obsession with Fall and all things pumpkin (ex: mainlining Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes) led me down the baked donut path. I recently purchased the following pumpkin products, fueling my pumpkin obsession even more.

The English muffins were pretty good… a little doughy, I liked them super toasted with a little butter. The bagel thins were also good toasted – in the event that you have been pulling your bagel thins apart and toasting each 1/2 separately… Stop. Right. Now! I used to do that and they would turn out like sheets of poster board. Now I just toast them whole, it made a huge difference. I put a little cream cheese on each 1/2 and I was good to go. The Entenmann’s pumpkin donuts were also good, but the baked definitely gave them some competition. The glaze on the Entenmann’s was borderline too sweet. Is that even possible? Who am I?

The Limited Edition Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Cheesecake cookies were great. I cracked open the bag and the spicy cake like smell that followed was pure heaven. They were soft and chewy with tasty bites of cheesecake. Probably a one time buy, but worth it.

The Planters Pumpkin Spice Almonds have been one of my favorite pumpkin finds this season. The perfect sweet snack. If you are looking for savory, you’ll need to add salt :).

O.k.. back to the baked pumpkin spice donuts. The recipe was pinned from the King Arthur Flour website. While I didn’t use King Arthur Flour, I did follow the recipe with only a few substitutions.

I had all of the ingredients except I was low on canned pumpkin and sugar. I’d been adding Libby’s pure pumpkin to smoothies and knew I didn’t have enough. I ran to the store and got a few more cans. Can’t wait until the cans are on sale pre-Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

3 Large Eggs

1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar

1 1/2 Cups Pumpkin Purée (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) – I ended up using the pumpkin pie spice and fresh ground nutmeg and a pinch of ginger.

1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt

1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1 3/4 Cups + 2 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour

Coating Ingredients

3 Tablespoons Cinnamon and Sugar Mixed Together
1 Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray/grease donut pan. If you don’t have a donut pan, you can bake muffins instead using a standard muffin tin.
• Beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt, and baking powder until smooth.
• Add the flour, stirring again until smooth.
• Fill the wells of the donut pan about 3/4 full; use a scant 1/4 cup of batter in each well. If you’re making muffins, fill each well about 3/4 full; the recipe makes about 15, so you’ll need to bake in two batches (unless you have two muffin pans).
• Bake the donuts for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean. If you’re making muffins, they’ll need to bake for 23 to 25 minutes.
• Remove the donuts from the oven, and after about 5 minutes, loosen their edges, and transfer them to a rack to cool.
• While the donuts are still warm (but no longer fragile), gently shake them in a plastic or paper bag with the cinnamon-pumpkin spice-sugar. If you’ve made muffins, sprinkle their tops heavily with cinnamon-pumpkin spice-sugar.
• Cool completely, and wrap airtight; store at room temperature for several days.

I measured out my pumpkin into my handy Alton Brown measuring contraption… love it!

I got all of my ingredients into the mixing bowl and mixed on low until smooth.

I measured out my flour and slowly added it to my pumpkin mixture.

I used my large cookie scoop (Yes, I’m a kitchen gadget freak) to place the donut batter into the wells.

I used a small rubber spatula to even out the batter in the wells.

I popped them in my 350° F. oven and checked them at 15 minutes. They were done, the toothpick came out clean. I then placed the donut pan onto my cooling rack for a good 5 minutes.

I poured my cinnamon-pumpkin spice-sugar mix into a plastic bag and gave each donut a good coating.

A plate of donut heaven… they were awesome straight out of the oven… and even hours later.

Cake like moist centers… love the bright orange color.

Enjoyed by all – even little Halloween critters. Yes, I busted out some of my Halloween decorations and the countdown begins to one of my favorite holidays to decorate for.

Now if only it would stop being 100 degrees out.

Dear Fall Weather,

I need you in my life.

Love,

Foo

Questions… Are you a doughnut, donut or doh-nut person? What’s your favorite type of donut? I have always been a donut person… pretty sure it’s because as a kid Winchell’s and Manley’s Donuts were my favorite places to go after church on Sundays. Had they been doughnut places… maybe I’d be typing/saying that. As for my favorite donut,  I’m a rainbow sprinkled cake donut girl with an occasional sugar or glazed. Dan is all about the jelly filled. Yuck.

Now I just need to try my hand at deep frying donuts.