Baked Pumpkin Donuts are a delicious way to start your day and they are full of fabulous fall flavor. Not only are these donuts irresistible, they are quick and easy to make. You can have a batch on your table in far less time than it would take to run to the local donut shop. They can be topped with glaze or covered in a cinnamon sugar mixture, and either way will bring rave reviews.
If your family loves pumpkin as much as mine does, print out this recipe – your family will thank you for it!
Even though we aren’t quite into September, I am more than ready for fall. I love the flavors this time of year brings, from pumpkin to apple, cinnamon to cider. When it comes to baking, I truly believe it’s the most wonderful time of the year. And when it comes to breakfast, these baked pumpkin donuts are shining stars!
Homemade Donuts
If you’ve never made homemade baked donuts before, you are in for a treat. They are surprisingly easy to make, and this recipe comes together in a matter of minutes. These are pumpkin cake donuts, versus a risen or yeasted donut, so making them is very similar to making muffins or cake. Dry ingredients are combined with wet ingredients, and then you are good to go. Ideally, you will have a donut pan. If possible I recommend two so that you can make the entire batch of donuts at one time. I have this donut pan set, and it’s held up very well for three years so far. No donut pan, no worries.
Glazed Or Cinnamon Sugar
One of the things I like most about this recipe is that it is delicious both glazed or sprinkled in a cinnamon sugar mixture. If you really want to take that delicious pumpkin flavor to another level, replace the cinnamon with pumpkin pie spice, and you have a deliciously fall flavored donut. These are so easy to make that you can easily do half a batch glazed and half a batch cinnamon sugar.
How To Make Pumpkin Cake Donuts
To make these donuts, start by gathering your ingredients. Make sure you used canned pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, which is often found next to it on grocery store shelves. As you can see the ingredients are common and simple. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice on hand, grab my pumpkin pie spice mix recipe.
Ingredients are then combined and mixed.
I prefer to pipe my batter into the donut pans instead of scooping. No fancy tools are required for this, I simply use a large Ziploc bag. In order to get my batter from the mixing bowl to the bag, I use an ice cream scoop to transfer.
Then the edge of the bag is cut off and the batter can be piped in. The batter isn’t terribly thick, so just be careful – as soon as you snip that edge off, the batter will start coming out. I try to hold my bag so that the cut edge is facing up, only turning it down when ready to pipe.
Then into the oven they go. Easy peasy! Once removed from the oven I give them a minute or two to cool. Then pop them out of the pans and onto a wire cooling rack. Next, it’s time to sprinkle with a sugar mixture or dip in glaze. Tip, if you are glazing, I recommend sitting a baking sheet under the wire rack. This helps catch any glaze that drips off. This makes for easier clean up.
Storing and Freezing Donuts
These are best served within a day or two of making. When storing, these donuts should be loosely covered. Unlike many other baked goods, tightly covering these donuts is not the way to go, it leads to too much moisture and can make them soggy. If you’d like to freeze these donuts, do so before glazing or covering in the sugar mixture. Instead, do those after thawing these donuts.
Baked Pumpkin Donuts
Equipment
- Donut Pan
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree
- 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
Cinnamon Sugar Topping
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice mix
Glaze Topping
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray donut pans thoroughly with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a mixing bowl, combine oil, eggs, sugar and pumpkin and mix well to combine.
- Add flour, spices, salt and baking powder and stir by hand until well combined, but do not over-mix.
- Transfer batter to a large Ziploc bag, snip off a bottom corner of the bag, and pipe batter into the wells in donut pans. Fill each well approximately 3/4 of the way full. Alternately, batter can be spooned into the wells also.
- Bake approximately 15-18 minutes or until donuts spring back when lightly pressed. Remove donuts from oven and allow to cool for approximately 5 minutes then gently remove donuts from pan and place on a wire cooling rack.
For Cinnamon Sugar Topping
- While donuts are warm, but no longer fragile, place them in a Ziploc bag with cinnamon sugar mixture and gently shake to coat each donut. Place back onto cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Repeat with remaining donuts.
For Glaze Topping
- In a bowl that is large enough to dip donuts into, combine powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Stir until well combined and smooth. When donuts are cool enough to handle, dip one donut a time into the glaze, then sit back on wire rack, with the unglazed size on the rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Rick says
These turned out great!