One of my favorite seasonal treats, something I get at the orchard whenever we go, is a set of donuts. We have a great donut shop in town, but their donuts are big and elaborate, and sometimes I just want one dusted with some cinnamon sugar.
The orchard donuts are, as you might expect, cider donuts. They’re great! But what says autumn more than pumpkin spice?
In this case, the donuts have pumpkin in them, and the batter is full of pumpkin spice. You could even add more pumpkin spice to the cinnamon-sugar dusting, but I chose to just use cinnamon in this case.
The nice thing about these donut holes is that they’re baked, not fried. They come out basically the same, but they’re easier to make. To get them all the right size and shape, use a mini muffin pan (like this one, Amazon link), and fill each cup about halfway. The batter puffs up as it bakes and you end up with something just about the right size and shape, it’s perfect.
I highly recommend giving a batch of these a try! Here’s how.
Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes
Equipment
- Mini Muffin Tin
- Mixing Bowls
- Cookie Scoop
- Cooling Rack
Ingredients
- 1¾ Cups Flour
- 1½ Tsp Pumpkin Spice Mix
- ½ Tsp Cinnamon
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- ¾ Cup Pumpkin Puree Not pie filling.
- ½ Cup Milk
- ½ Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- ⅓ Cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 Egg
- 4 Tbsp Butter Melted
- 2 Tbsp Cinnamon
- ⅔ Cup White Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉. Use a nonstick spray to prep your muffin tin.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, ½ tsp cinnamon, and baking powder. Make a well in the center of this for the liquid ingredients and set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk the pumpkin puree, milk, brown sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla. Mix it until fully combined and smooth. Pour this mix into the well in the dry ingredients and stir it until it just comes together.
- Using a cookie scoop or spoon, fill the muffin wells about halfway up each. This helps them stay donut holes rather than mini muffins.
- Bake for 12 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Pull them from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes, then move to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Melt your butter and in another bowl, mix in the cinnamon and sugar. Dip each donut hole in butter, then roll in cinnamon-sugar to coat. Enjoy!