Does it feel like “baked doughnuts” are an oxymoron? How can something not fried be better than something baked? It IS possible. And its name is Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts.
Pumpkin is such a love/hate flavor. I enjoy pumpkin-flavored treats. But know what I like better? The spices that make the pumpkin taste good. Look how pretty those spices are! I spent a good 30 minutes at Bob’s Red Mill today, filling up little baggies of spices. Everything smells so good there! It’s easy to get sucked into the wonderful smells coming from their kitchen. But I was on a mission today. I needed spices and ended up with ten baggies of organic spices! Clockwise from top left: ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg.
And those simple flavors, all combined to make a wonderful, custom pumpkin pie spice.
I ended up making baked donut holes as well. I only have one donut pan, so I piped the rest of the batter into a mini muffin pan! I have a super large one from Pampered Chef, which worked perfectly.
The donut holes, aka mini muffins, were brushed with melted butter and dipped in cinnamon sugar.
Look at that lovely cinnamon sugar! I want to eat them all up. Unfortunately for me, my daughter got to them first. She snacked on about 8 of them while doing her school. Then after dinner she noticed that I had finished coating the remaining donut holes and grabbed the rest of them. Sheesh. Growing teenagers.
The donuts were dipped in a yummy ganache frosting and finished with chocolate sprinkles.

Baked Pumpkin Donuts
Ingredients
For the doughnuts:
- 1 1/2 cups|7.5 ounces all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- generous pinch allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/3 cup buttermilk, shaken
- 1 large egg
- 1 large yolk
- 1 cup|7 ounces light brown sugar
- 1 cup organic pumpkin puree
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For the chocolate ganache:
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- chocolate sprinkles
Instructions
For the doughnuts
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a doughnut pan.
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin spice in a large bowl.
- In a medium bowl, whisk butter, oil, buttermilk, eggs and yolk, brown sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla.
- Stir wet ingredients into flour mixture with a whisk until no lumps can be seen.
- Use a pastry bag for piping batter into doughnut pan. Cut off about 1/4″ of tip of bag and fill each well.
- Bake for 16-18 minutes until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
- Transfer pan to wire rack and cool for 5 minutes. Invert pan on rack and cool doughnuts.
To make ganache:
- Place chopped chocolate in small bowl.
- Heat cream on stove until scalding (just about to boil).
- Pour hot cream over chocolate and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit at least 5 minutes, then stir with whisk to combine.
- Dip cooled doughnuts into chocolate and add chocolate sprinkles.
Notes
This recipe makes enough for 12 doughnuts. You could also bake this batter in a mini muffin tin and coat with melted butter and cinnamon sugar.
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