October is here! I love October. I love the vibrant colors of the changing leaves and the cool, crisp air. I love needing a sweatshirt, but not needing the winter gear just yet. I love seeing pumpkins on door steps and leaves on the walkways. Most of all, I love the coziness that is an inherent part of the season. There’s just nothing like going for a walk in the cool air outside and then coming in and warming up with a baked pumpkin donut and a hot cup of coffee.
Freshly baked pumpkin donuts with hot coffee
Cinnamon sugar topping for the pumpkin donuts
These donuts are easy to throw together, so you can make a batch anytime. They’re a good alternative to making fried donuts if, like me, you don’t love the frying process. I admit that a fried donut can’t be beat, and I would never turn one down if someone else was making them. But if I’m the one doing the making, I prefer to go the baked route.
These use a whole can of pumpkin for maximum pumpkin flavor and the recipe makes 24 donuts, so you can make a batch for the whole soccer team pretty quickly. When they come out of the oven, they get a quick brush of butter and then they’re dipped in cinnamon sugar. It sounds tedious but it goes surprisingly quickly and is well worth the extra effort.
Stack of freshly made pumpkin donuts
Baked Pumpkin Donuts Recipe
Makes 24 donuts
Ingredients for the Donuts:
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/3 c. oil
1 ½ c. sugar
15 oz. pumpkin puree
3 eggs
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. cloves
1 tsp. salt
Ingredients for the Topping:
1 ¼ c. sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
Process:
Heat oven to 350°F and grease a standard sized donut pan. If you have more than one, it makes the process faster, but I only have one and I just reuse it 4 times, greasing lightly in between batches.
Stir together the melted butter, oil, sugar, pumpkin puree, eggs, and vanilla until well-combined and smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir together. Stir gently until your batter is mostly smooth. It’s okay if you have a few lumps, but it should be more like a thick cake batter than a lumpy muffin batter.
Fill the wells in the donut pan approximately 3/4 full. I use a pastry bag and pipe the batter into the wells to make this job easy and it creates a more uniform-looking donut when it’s baked.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in one of the donuts comes out clean. Turn them out of the pan immediately and very gently. Let them cool until you can handle them and they are slightly more firm. While the donuts bake, mix together the sugar and cinnamon for the topping. A rimmed plate or a pie dish works well for this. Melt the butter in a small dish and dip each donut into the melted butter. For this step, I use a pastry brush to lightly brush the butter onto both sides of the donut, but you can dip them on each side if you prefer. As soon as they are brushed with butter, dip them in the sugar mixture to coat on each side, and place them back on the cooling rack.
These donuts are best eaten the day they are made and especially when they’re still warm.
Baked pumpkin donuts for a chilly, October afternoon
Pumpkin donuts with cinnamon sugar topping
Irresistible baked pumpkin donuts
Enjoy!
Warmly,
Kate
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