baked pumpkin spice doughnuts
September means ALL HAIL THE PUMPKIN KING.
Alright, now that we’re out of August, I can safely say the Pumpkin Apocalypse is justified. Proper autumn is, after all, only 21 days away. I’ve been itching to start sharing pumpkin recipes since I have three in my queue, and today is finally the day.
And we all know at this point that I’m a doughnut ho. I love baking doughnuts, they’re effectively my culinary love language. If I’m in a rut, or feeling demotivated and uninspired, I can nearly always think of a new doughnut flavor with which to play. Sometimes the concept is obvious – like pumpkin here – and other times I tool around with ideas before I land on one that’s fun, a little different, and obviously tasty as hell.
Say hello to my little friend, these Baked Pumpkin Spice Doughnuts. I know PSL has been out for about a week now so likely you’ve gotten your fix if you’re one of those fanatics, but if you need a doughnut to go with your PSL, this is the ideal companion. Simple, perfectly spiced, and dipped in a tasty maple glaze to finish. I could go for one of these with my afternoon coffee that I’m sipping right now. Which’ll probably put me to sleep in a few minutes.
PSD
For Pumpkin Spice Doughnut.
Pumpkin can be tricky to work with since it holds quite a lot of moisture – like zucchini, if you’ve ever made zucchini bread or the like. My best method for removing some of the water is to place a paper towel in a strainer, plop my needed amount of pumpkin onto the towel, and placing a second paper towel on top. Let that hang for a few minutes. You’ll be surprised how moist the towels are. Removing some of the water prevents a puffy, tough texture in the baked doughnut.
If you’ve made my doughnuts before, you know the drill. Whip melted butter and sugar, then a couple eggs. Mix in the dried pumpkin (that sounds weird), vanilla, and Greek yogurt.
Next: dry ingredients. Flour, pumpkin spices – we’re going cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove – baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With your mixer running, stream in some buttermilk. I usually need 1/4 cup or maybe a tablespoon more. The batter should be thick and scoopable, like muffin batter.
Grease two 6-slot muffin tins and pipe the doughnut batter, filling 2/3 of the way full. Bake 10-12 minutes until firm and no longer gooey. Cool in the pan 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Iced Iced Doughnut
Once the doughnuts are cool (like sunglasses and tophat cool), time to decorate!
I went back and forth about what kind of glaze to make, but landed on the maple version because it’s minimal ingredients-wise and doesn’t overpower the spices in the doughnuts.
For the glaze, mix up powdered sugar, plenty of pure maple syrup, a touch of cinnamon, and vanilla extract. You don’t want the glaze too runny, it should be thick enough to not soak right into the doughnut. If it’s still too thick and not glossy, add another tablespoon or two or maple syrup to get the right consistency.
Slice a piece of parchment under your wire rack to catch any rogue glaze. Dunk one side of each doughnut into the mapley goodness and place on the rack to set.
Eat one straightaway with some coffee or tea. If you’re prepping ahead, wait to glaze until just before serving: any amount of humidity will cause the glaze to sink right into the doughnut and, while they’ll taste fine, the texture will become sticky and awkward.
How about that? A good start to fall, right? A little pumpkin, a little doughnut, a lot of awesome.
Tried this recipe out? Leave a rating and comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you made!
Make that dough:
Baked Birthday Funfetti Doughnuts
Baked Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Doughnuts
Baked Biscoff Cookie Butter Doughnuts
baked pumpkin spice doughnuts
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup plain whole milk Greek yogurt, at room temperature
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground clove
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4-1/3 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
maple glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Place a paper towel in a fine mesh sieve. Measure the pumpkin over the paper towel, then add another paper towel atop. This will drain extra moisture from the pumpkin for a better doughnut texture.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 6-slot doughnut pans with oil or butter.
- In a large bowl, whip the butter and sugar until combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla, drained pumpkin puree, and yogurt. Add the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, baking powder, and baking soda. With the mixer running, stream in 1/4 cup of buttermilk. If the batter is extremely thick, add additional buttermilk 1 tablespoon at a time. It should not be pourable, but scoopable.
- Transfer the batter to a piping bag, or a ziptop bag with a corner snipped out. Pipe the batter into each doughnut slot about 2/3 of the way full.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the centers are set and an inserted toothpick emerges with just a few moist crumbs. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then carefully run a butter knife around the edges and move each doughnut to a wire rack. Cool completely.
- When the doughnuts are cool, make the glaze. Combine the powdered sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon. The glaze should be thick, but still slightly drippy. If it's too thick, add maple syrup a tablespoon at a time to get the desired consistency.
- Place a piece of parchment beneath the wire rack. Dunk each doughnut into the glaze, letting excess drip back into the bowl, and set back on the wire rack. Serve immediately, preferably with coffee!
