Much as I want to cling onto the last rays of summer, I think there can be no disputing that autumn is definitely here and every hope of an Indian summer is fading fast. However, I do not despair! Autumn brings with it its own richness and flavours. I have an abundance of apples and quince from a friend that are begging to be transformed into something scrumptious; a pile of recipes for delicious looking soup; and today I couldn't resist bringing back my favourite autumnal flavour. Pumpkin.
It's been a busy few weeks planning and making celebration cakes (see my Jimmy Choo Cake here and Laser Tag Cake here) and I haven't been able to do everyday baking just for us. But I've been desperate to treat us to some mini doughnuts and I'm hoping that the use of pumpkin in these counts as one of our five a day :) And these are baked doughnuts rather than fried so are healthier in this respect too.
They're made from a simple cake batter which has pumpkin in it and I also use a pumpkin pie spice to add flavour - I use Clubhouse Pumpkin Pie Spice which we picked up in Canada a while ago but you could use a mix of cinnamon and cloves or allspice according to taste. The recipe is very straightforward where you mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another and then mix the two together. I have a couple of KitchenAid Doughnut pans (6 holes per pan) and I piped the batter in a ring in each hole.
They only take 10 minutes to cook and then the trick to giving them the doughnut crust is to brush the tops with melted butter and then gently roll the buttered part in a mix of sugar and cinnamon. It works best if you just lightly brush them with butter because if they're soaked it tends to seep through the sugar. And you need to do this when they're just out of the oven.
They're best served straight from the oven, lovely and warm, and eaten on the day they're made. As they're mini doughnuts, they kind of call out to you to keep eating them so there's not a great chance they'd last longer than a day in your house!
The boys loved them. They didn't raise an eyebrow at the mention of pumpkin and declared them delicious, begging for their third one as an after school treat.
I haven't shown hubby yet. I don't think there's any chance they'll last longer than 5 mins when he sets his sights on them :)
Mini Pumpkin Doughnuts Makes around 20 mini doughnuts (adapted from Baking Bites Pumpkin Donut Muffins)
Doughnut Ingredients
- 200G PLAIN FLOUR
- 1 TSP BAKING POWDER
- 1/4 TSP SALT
- 2 TSP PUMPKIN SPICE
- 115G BUTTER, MELTED
- 70G LIGHT BROWN SUGAR
- 100G CASTER SUGAR
- 1 LARGE EGG
- 115G PUMPKIN PUREE (I use Libby's tinned pumpkin puree)
- 1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT
- 120ML SEMI-SKIMMED MILK
Cinnamon Sugar Ingredients
- 30G MELTED BUTTER
- 100G CASTER SUGAR
- 1 TSP CINNAMON
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 dregrees (fan)
- Melt the butter for the doughnut and set aside to cool for 5 mins
- In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice
- In a separate bowl, whisk the melted butter, sugars, egg, pumpkin puree, vanilla extract and milk
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until combined
- Put the batter into a piping bag
- Pipe a ring of batter into each doughnut hole (be careful not to over-fill them as you don't want them rising up and the centre hole closing up
- Bake for 10 mins in the oven (check with a toothpick that it comes out clean when inserted into the doughnuts)
- Leave them aside for a couple of minutes to cool slightly
- Melt the butter for the Cinnamon Sugar topping
- Mix the caster sugar and cinnamon on a plate
- Turn the doughnuts out of their tins and then lightly brush the tops with melted butter
- Roll the buttered side lightly in the cinnamon sugar until well coated
- Leave aside to cool - or eat them as they are!