Baked Pumpkin Spice Donuts: The Ultimate Autumn Fantasy

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Since you’ve landed on this blog post, I bet you enjoy the “basic” stereotype of loving comfy sweaters, cozy mugs of warm drinks (particularly a good PSL), blankets, fires, and the colors of fall. Me too! But part of my autumn fantasy is a plate of pumpkin spice donuts. You in?

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Baked vs. Fried Pumpkin Spice Donuts

I actually thought really hard about frying my donuts for a minute. When you fry donuts, you get that crisp old fashioned donut bite on the outside. It’s nice, right? I love that! But, and it’s a big but (hehe), it is so hard to fry a donut correctly if you don’t fry things a lot.

So, 1 point for user experience goes to baking.

Then, there’s the fact that there’s an awful lot of fat in donuts as it is. And while I’m not shy about “unhealthy” food over here, I still figured we could rein it in a bit. I’m not about to call these donuts “good for you” because… I mean, I used real sugar. But we don’t have to go (do)nuts.

So, 1 point for slightly healthier choices.

And finally, there’s the mess. With fried donuts, you have to roll out the dough, cut them out, cover every surface in the kitchen with either flour or grease splatter. Eh. With baked donuts, the batter goes into a bag and is piped right into the donut molds. No mess, really.

So, 1 point for clean up to baking. Sorry, fried donuts. We’ll get you another day.

Picking Out the Perfect Donut Pan

I know a lot of people love their metal donut pans. A lot of great donut recipes have been built from those. For me, though, I have been obsessed with my silicone one since I saw that Five Daughters Donuts used them for their Paleo Donuts.

This is the one I have from Wappa, and it’s teal (because why have boring colored anything?).

I only give it a spray with cooking oil because I’m the numbskull who has managed to fail a baked donut recipe so hard they stuck to silicone. Now, it’s mostly a superstitious thing. But since I do it every time I make donuts, I am including it in the recipe.

Feel free to go without… just make sure you comment and let me know how it went!

And, if you want my secretly favorite kitchen tool, I use a Misto to spray my oil. That way nothing weird ends up baked into my good pans.

Getting Pumpkin Spice Donuts Out of the Pan

Start by letting the pan cool to the point where it’s not uncomfortable to touch it. Then, you can check by tugging the pan and seeing if the donuts stretch with it or pull cleanly away from the mold.

As soon as they look like they’ll readily come out, flip them onto a cooling rack. The longer they’re in that pan, the more they risk getting soggy on the bottom. Then let them cool completely before you decorate them.

How to Decorate Pumpkin Spice Donuts

In the recipe, I’ve included how to coat your donuts in cinnamon sugar. This was ultimately our favorite topping. It’s simple, it’s got texture, and it doesn’t add too much sweetness.

You’ll see from the pictures that we also tested out plain, glazed with sprinkles, and powdered sugar. These were all really good in their own right.

Plain Pumpkin Spice Donuts

You can’t go wrong with plain. It’s not very sweet, so it’s about like having a muffin for breakfast. No big deal.

Powdered Sugar as a Topping

Powdered sugar is the next level up for effort. Just dust on some! You can coat all the sides or just the top. Since you’re making them yourself, you can do what you want.

Pumpkin Spice Donuts Rolled in Cinnamon Sugar

Cinnamon sugar (which is in the recipe) is as simple as coating snickerdoodles. You either want to really coat them well while they’re still warm, or you can let them cool, brush them with melted butter, and then roll them.

Pumpkin Spice Donuts with Icing and Sprinkles

The final version is the highest level of effort. By that, I mean, there’s not really that much work involved… I just made it hard for myself. Whisk together 1/3 cup powdered sugar with 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon of milk.

You can add more if it’s really thick, but you’ll see in the pictures that I thinned it out too much and it looks more like glaze than icing. Oh well. It was still good.

The other thing is the sprinkles. Just buy autumn-color sprinkles (like these ones from SprinklePop. I’m obsessed with the sunflower ones).

Don’t be like me and stand there sorting out the brown, orange, and yellow jimmies like a dummy. I’ve done this before for lemon macarons, but apparently didn’t learn my lesson.

And that’s it! Really, it’s that simple. Please take lots of pictures and tag me on instagram. I’d love to see how yours come out. And as always please comment, like, and subscribe for a wicked cool freebie.

Baked Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Spice Donuts

Curl up by the fire with your favorite chunky knit blanket, a good cup of coffee, and a plate of cinnamon-sugar coated pumpkin spice donuts. The ultimate autumn fantasy!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 9 donuts

Equipment

• Medium mixing bowl
• Donut pan
• Sheet pan to support the pan
• 2 cup glass measuring cup

Ingredients

  

• ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
• ½ cup pumpkin purée
• 2 large eggs beaten
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2⅔ cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp pink himalayan sea salt
• 1 Tbsp butter melted
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 425°F. Spray the pan down with non-stick spray. If you're using a silicon pan, set it on a sheet pan for stability.
• Begin by beating together the brown sugar and pumpkin. Continue until the mixture is smooth.
• In a pourable container, beat together the milk, eggs, and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.
• Alternate adding the wet ingredients and the dry to your sugar mixture, a third of each at a time, adding the dry ingredients last.
• Spoon the batter into a gallon-sized bag. Cut one corner off, and pipe the batter into the donut mold about 1/2 full.
• Bake for 10 minutes. Allow the donuts to cool completely in the pan. This takes at least 20 minutes. Turn the pan over on a cooling rack to let the donuts fall out of the pan, or gently coax them, if they don't fall out on their own.
• Mix together the cinnamon sugar in a small bowl. Brush them with melted butter and coat in cinnamon-sugar mixture.
• ​You should be able to get 12 donuts out of this batter with just a little leftover.

Keyword Cinnamon, Donuts, Pumpkin, Sugar

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