Recipe Corner: Baked Pumpkin Donuts

Some mornings you wake up and think, "Hey, it's Halloween. I should make pumpkin donuts." And you look online, find a recipe for which you have all the ingredients already, and give it a try.

These donuts are super easy to make, delightful to eat, and fun to share, although I plan on tweaking the recipe a bit next time I bake them. (I'd reduce the amount of sugar and substitute half the oil with plain yogurt or buttermilk to give them a bit more flavor. I'll also add a 1/8 teaspoon more of each of the spices. And I want to try them with the King Arthur flour to see if that makes any difference.) I sprinkled these with a sugar and cinnamon mixture but think they'd be very yummy with a powdered sugar, cinnamon, and milk glaze.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil*
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons (8 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease donut pan.

Combine the oil, eggs, sugar, canned pumpkin, spices, and salt in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add the flour and baking powder and stir just until smooth.

Using a scant 1/4 cup, fill the wells of the donut pan. Bake the donuts for 15-18 minutes (in my oven they were done in 15 min).

Remove donuts from the oven and let sit in pan for five minutes. Loosen the edges and transfer donuts to a rack. Once they are cool enough to handle, dip in the sugar cinnamon spice mixture (or try the glaze). Do not store in a tight container. They are extremely moist and this will make them soggy. Blech.



*I use canola oil instead of regular vegetable oil. I'm curious to try a baking olive oil to see how that'd turn out.