Pumpkin Spice Doughnuts For The Win!

Okay we are in the final stretch of the pumpkin flavored bakes for the month of October. I knew I was going to do a doughnut and I settled on these, and I love using my doughnut pans that I bought from Michaels. I'm actually not a fan of pumpkin desserts, but I will tolerate a yummy baked pumpkin doughnut. I made a dozen of these pumpkin spiced doughnuts and made three different toppings for them. I also wanted the chocolate dipped one to have sprinkles so I ended up making some delicious chocolate sprinkles last night. I also made a yummy maple glaze and topped them with some toasted nuts. I finished the dozen with a simple cinnamon + sugar mixture for 1/3rd of the doughnuts.  I think they look amazing.

Pumpkin Spiced Doughnuts

Here's what you are going to need to make these

Pumpkin Spiced Doughnuts

• 2 cups  all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon all spice
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin 

Maple Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 2-3 tablespoons of milk

Chocolate Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-3 tablespoons of milk

Preheat your oven to 350F

Spray doughnut pans with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together flour, baking powder, salt and spices until combined. Set aside.

all whisked together

In a large bowl whisk together vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, and  pumpkin until combined.

Whisk in flour mixture until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture

you'll be left with a thick batter

Place your mixture in a piping bag or ziploc bag  and fill doughnut pans with mixture. Give the pans a tap on the counter top to level out doughnut mixture.

I really love these doughnut pans

Doughnuts ready for the oven

Bake in 350F oven for 18 minutes (check doneness with a toothpick in the center of a doughnut, if it comes out clean they are done).


Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then let the doughnuts completely cool on a wire rack.

Cooling on the racks

Ready to be glazed

Now time to get your glazes and toppings ready for your doughnuts.

This is a bowl of toasted coconut, almonds, hazelnuts and cinnamon.

For the Maple Glaze take your powdered sugar and maple syrup and give it a little whisk, mixture will be thick.

Powdered sugar + maple syrup 

Mixture will be very thick, add milk one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is achieved.

mix in a little milk

I used about 2 1/2 tablespoons for this consistency which was great.

ready for the doughnuts.

Just repeat the steps for the chocolate. If your glaze is too thick add a tablespoon of milk, if your glaze is too runny add more powdered sugar.

So here are the doughnuts, for the cinnamon+sugar doughnuts, I just melted a little butter and brushed them on the doughnuts and then dipped them in a bowl with cinnamon and sugar (really simple right?)

Overall I'm super happy with these.

Let the glaze set before moving these.... which takes a few minutes. Also you need to place any additional toppings, like sprinkles or nuts before the glaze sets, so keep the bowls close.

close up of the delicious pumpkin spiced doughnuts

Cinnamon + Sugar Dusted Pumpkin Spiced Doughnut

Chocolate Glazed Pumpkin Doughnut with Chocolate Sprinkles

Maple Glazed Pumpkin Doughnut with Toasted Nuts

Look at how beautiful these are

I really love how the sprinkles came out

Fall Flavors

I really love how these doughnuts look. They are deliciously fall inspired. These doughnuts would look great on any fall table, and you can eat these for breakfast too.

Pumpkin Spiced Chocolate Chip Cookies For The Win!

So for October I did say that I was going to bake a pumpkin dessert every weekend for the whole month. I've been slacking on that part, I've just been baking other things. Technically I'm on track because I did bake these last week, but I need to make two more pumpkin things. Well these are really simple to make and they really taste like fall. The interior is cake like in texture and the spices are warm and inviting. 

Pumpkin Spiced Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ok let's go over what you need.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed)
• 1 large egg yolk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin NOT pumpkin pie filling
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon each ground cloves and nutmeg
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips

First mix your white and brown sugar together

Take your stick of butter and microwave it until it is liquid.

Melted Buttttttttteeeeerrrrr!

Take your sugar mixture and whisk it into your melted butter

Add in your vanilla and egg yolk, and whisk until smooth

you can save the egg white for breakfast

Now add in your pumpkin

Whisk it all up.

Add in your spices.

Mix whatever spices you like

In a separate bowl mix together your flour, baking soda, and salt.

Mix all the dry ingredients together

 Pour your flour mixture over your wet mixture.

Keep whisking, it will be tough, just switch to a wooden spoon

 Mixture will be thick and now stir in your tummy chocolates

why are chocolate chip cookies so good?

Yeah I ate some of this dough... I'm a bad person

 Preheat your oven to 350F




Place your dough on your parchment or silicon mat lined baking tray (I refrigerated my dough for about 30 minutes)

I used a little cookie scoop to save time

 I gave these a little roll

rolled into bite sized balls

Bake for 9-12 minutes

Leave them on the tray for 2 minutes

Then let them cool on a cooling rack for about 5 minutes.

These are so good and they make your home smell wonderful too.

This is what they look like when your don't roll them in a ball

I love this plate and all the yummy chocolate

Still yummy but not as pretty, I also made these a tiny bit bigger. I think these are cool to make when you are just at home and you want a fall cookie. You also don't need any fancy kitchen gadget just a whisk and a wooden spoon.

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes For The Win!

So this is part one of my pumpkin recipes for the month of October. I thought it would be cool to focus on one ingredient for a month. I like pumpkin flavored things and I know a lot of people do as well. I choose to make mini pumpkin cheesecakes because I thought they are the perfect little fall dessert. I added spices like fresh cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and Chinese five spice. People really love my pumpkin cheesecake, I normally make a gingersnap crust but I switched it up and made a pretzel crust. I wanted to use my mini springform pans so I made three 4 inch cheesecakes and topped it with caramel, chocolate ganache, and a white chocolate glaze. I also made mini cheesecakes using my mini cheesecake pan and then sandwiched  them together and covered them in dark chocolate. Those were truly bite size.

Bite size pumpkin cheesecakes

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

These tasted amazing, I really like making mini desserts because you can plate these beautifully and you don't have to worry about slicing a giant cheesecake. You can just set the mini's on a platter and let people grab them. Also these are something different that you could make this fall or for a Thanksgiving party to impress your friends.

Here's what you are going to need

Pretzel crust

• 1 cup crushed pretzels
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 stick melted butter

Pumpkin Cheesecake

• 2  8oz cream cheese (softened)
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 can of pumpkin puree (8oz)
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 1teaspoon of allspice
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of cardamom
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon

toppings (optional)

• chocolate ganache
• dulce de leche

First take your crushed pretzels and add brown sugar and melted butter and stir together

to make a cup of crushed pretzels I used about 2 cups of whole pretzels

It will have a wet sand texture

Place in a sprayed springform or muffin tin and back in 350F oven for 8 minutes

 Take out of the oven, but don't turn off oven and set aside.

Take your softened cream cheese and add your sugar, vanilla, and spices and blend until combined.

when you can make an indention with your finger the cheesecake is softened enough

I always add a ton of spices

Taste it here

This is where I like to taste to  make sure that the spices are prominent, remember when you bake that the spices will subside, so I like to make the spices a little stronger. I also like to taste this before I add the eggs.


Add in your pumpkin and mix until combined.

give it one last spice taste before you add in those eggs

Add in your eggs and mix one at a time

don't overmix your batter or you will have cracks when your cheesecake bakes

Place the cheesecake mix in the pans

I just love how small and cute these are

Place cheesecakes in a 325F for 1 hour
Then let them cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator for a few hours

these are good as is but you could add a little whipped cream, or chocolate drizzle and serve them right up

I added a little dulce de leche and sprinkled sea salt on top (totally optional)

Add a little dulce de leche

They look so yummy

Here are the tiny ones before they were sandwiched together

I used a mini cheese cake pan for these with the leftover cheesecake filling

Here was some chocolate ganache I had in the fridge, I just whipped it  up and pipped that on top of the bigger cheesecakes

There is no better thing than whipped chocolate ganache

I didn't take a picture but I placed the cheesecakes in the freezer for 1 hour and  once they were completely frozen I melted dark chocolate with a little cream and poured that over the bite size cheesecakes and crumbled pretzels on top. ( you have to work fast because the chocolate ganache sets really fast since they are frozen)

these were gobbled up so fast

Here's what the inside looks like, you get those wonderful fall spices with the pumpkin cheesecake layers, salty from the pretzel layers, buttery sweetness from the dulce de leche and then it's all incased in chocolate. It's the perfect two bite desert.

I love how the dulce de leche oozes out

 As for the 4 inch mini cheesecakes I colored white chocolate ganache and added gold dust and little chocolate pearls, These were so yummy and something different.

I love looking at the fall layers

This is an easy recipe that you could change, if you are wanting to bake a 9in or 10 inch cheesecake you can with this recipe it just needs to be doubled. The baking times remain the same.