Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts

In a family, each member will have different preference of foods and it's unavoidable.  But in case of doughnut or donut, depending on which spelling is preferred, all of us here love it so much.  My son, especially; he's not one to look for cakes but he'd ask for doughnut every so often.  His favorite is the plain and glazed, my favorite is the Boston creme whereas my husband will go for chocolate glazed.

So far I haven't tried making yeast doughnuts at home.  I wanted to try this baked doughnut recipe first because it's easier and slightly healthier--if you can ignore the amount of sugar, oil and eggs.  I bookmarked the recipe from King Arthur Flour website a while ago because it looked yummy.  Now, I know that I've said my family didn't like pumpkin before.  They don't really like it in a pie form but in cakes or doughnuts or muffins form or in anything that doesn't taste truly like pumpkin, they'll tolerate.  I know, I know, what can I do?  They're family :)

So we had these for breakfast today, and you know what, they're not too bad.  They're soft and moist with the right note of spices and pumpkin.  Of course, these won't replace the traditional deep-fried ones but they're easier to make and still come out superb.  I didn't mind eating it with black coffee just like the real doughnuts.

Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts

Yield 12 baked doughnuts


For the doughnuts:
½ cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 ½ cups pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin)
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, or ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon plus heaping ¼ teaspoon each ground nutmeg and ground ginger
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ¾ cups + 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

For sugar coating:
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 350F.  Lightly grease two standard doughnut pans.

Beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt, and baking powder until smooth.

Add the flour, stirring just until smooth.

Fill the wells of the doughnut pans about ¾ full; use a scant ¼ cup of batter in each well.

Bake the doughnuts for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean.

Remove the doughnuts from the oven, and after about 5 minutes, loosen their edges, and transfer them to a rack to cool.

While the doughnuts are still warm (but no longer fragile), gently shake them in a bag with the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Cool completely, and store (not wrapped tight) at room temperature for several days.


Source:  King Arthur Flour