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.

Doughnuts For The Win!

A few weeks ago I was walking down the isles of Michaels when I came upon a doughnut pan, I don't remember if it was on sale or if I used the Michaels app and used a 50% off coupon, anyways it came out to like 6 bucks. I just stored it away in a cabinet with my other pans never to see it again. Well Nisha's birthday morning rolled around and I didn't feel like making birthday cinnamon rolls (takes about 4 hours) I wanted to sleep in. Nisha also loves chocolate so I figured hey let me try this pan out. I also wanted to try this new gunmetal grey luster dust I had just bought. That's why I went with the Galaxy glazed chocolate doughnuts.

Galaxy Glazed Doughnuts

I love doughnuts and I thought it would be something special to bake. It was actually pretty fast, the doughnuts only take about 9 minutes to bake ( nowhere near 4 hours for birthday cinnamon rolls) and then once you glaze them about 6 minutes for them to fully set. Oh and aren't they a tiny bit healthier since they are baked and not fried. I actually went back to Michaels and bought another pan so I can back 12 doughnuts at a time now.

Galaxy Glazed Chocolate Doughnut

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons melted butter ( cooled to room temperature)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2/3 cup buttermilk (if you don't have it 2/3 cup milk + 1 teaspoon of vinegar)

Galaxy Glaze

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• gel food coloring
• 3-4 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350F

First sift together your cocoa powder, flour, salt, baking soda, and set aside.

sift all the dry ingredients together

give it a little whisk

In a mixing bowl place your sugar, brown sugar, melted butter, vanilla, and egg together

I use ghee in place of butter because it's already melted and it smells so good

 Add in your butter milk (milk+ 1 tablespoon of vinegar)

add your buttermilk or milk + vinegar ( i'm not buying buttermilk)

 whisk together all of your wet ingredients and add your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients.

your batter will be thick.

chocolatey goodness

 Place your doughnut batter into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with a corner cut off and fill your doughnut pan. (make sure you spray your pan, you don't want these to stick)

spray your pans (i'm paranoid, so I spray a lot)

these pans are so cute

Bake your doughnuts at 350F for 8-10 minutes, until you can stick a toothpick in them and it comes out clean. (if you lightly touch the doughnut it should spring back)

I like to leave my doughnuts in the tray for about 5- 10 minutes

Then take them out and let them cool on a wire rack until they are cooled completely ( you don't want to glaze hot doughnuts, the glaze will just run off)

Doughnuts cooling

 To make the glaze it's simple

Place two cups of powdered sugar in a bowl

powdered sugar

Add 3-4 tablespoons of milk and stir ( only add a tablespoon at a time and stir, check your consistency as you go) you don't want your glaze to be too runny or too thick. If it's too thick add more milk, if it's too thin you will need to add more powdered sugar.

this kind of looks like elmer's glue

For the galaxy glaze I just dotted black, navy, a light blue, purple, and pink gel food coloring in the white glaze.

I dotted the colors, you might try something else, this method seemed to work

 Then take a toothpick, a wooden skewer, or butter knife ( I used a wooden skewer) and swirl the colors together (don't mix too much, when you dip the doughnuts they will swirl the colors more

once you dip the doughnut the colors mix so well

Dip each doughnut in the glaze to cover each doughnut, (here's a tip keep parchment or something under your cooling rack to catch those drips, I didn't do that and had a mess to clean up afterwards) I also added a few white sprinkles, some white food color splatter, and I dusted a little edible silver dust on them. Let the glaze set before eating or touching these ( about 5 or so minutes) I really like how each doughnut is different. I love how the colors turned out.

Look at how cute these are

Tried to zoom in on the sparkles

this one had a bit more blue

this one had a bit more black

Ohhhhh some purple is coming out

Too pretty to eat

Look at these doughnuts guys.

I ate one, or two..hahahah

Lemon Poppyseed doughnut

• 1 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons  unsalted butter, melted and slightly cool
• 1 large egg (room temperature)
• 1/3 cup  granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup milk (any works)
• 1/4 cup sour cream, or yogurt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest

Lemon Glaze

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

I didn't take pictures of the process, but it's similar to the above doughnuts. After I glazed these with a lemon glaze I sprinkled a line of poppy seeds for a textural contrast and the design looks cool.



Preheat oven to 350F


Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Whisk the melted butter, egg, sugar, milk, sour cream (or yogurt), vanilla, lemon juice, and zest until completely combined.

 Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix. The batter will be thick.

Fill a pipping bag or ziploc bag with batter and  cut a corner off the bottom of the bag and pipe the batter into each donut cup, filling 2/3 – 3/4 of the way full.

Bake for 9–10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack set on a large piece of parchment paper.

Allow donuts to cool down until you can handle them.


For the glaze

Whisk all of the glaze ingredients together. I usually use 2 tablespoons of milk, but for a slightly thicker glaze you can use 1 tablespoon. Dip each donut into the glaze and place back on the wire rack as the glaze sets. (The parchment paper can catch the glaze dripping down.)

These are really simple and delicious. You'll probably see more baked doughnut recipes in the future, especially since I have those two doughnut pans now.

Look at those beautiful Poppy Seeds, I love them so much.