Baked Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts

I can’t even tell you how excited I am to post this recipe.  I have seen so many delicious doughnut recipes on Pinterest lately, and I just had to get involved.  So I bought two of these doughnut pans the other weekend and literally could not wait to put them to use!  And what better recipe to start with than a pumpkin doughnut!  I am happy to report they did not disappoint.  Thebetterhalf, a doughnut connoisseur, was skeptical about the concept of a baked doughnut, and he LOVED these.

The texture is remarkably similar to a cake doughnut, but a bit lighter.  The pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices give the most delicious flavor and the cinnamon sugar coating ties the whole thing together.  I snuck a few bites plain and these doughnuts are fantastic even without the cinnamon sugar.

This recipe makes enough for 15 doughnuts, and the pans only make 6 each. Luckily in my doughnut pan buying binge, I also picked up this adorable pan.  So I used my extra batter to make some pumpkin doughnut holes!  You could just bake the doughnuts in a second batch though. I see many more baked doughnut recipes in my future … these are on the menu for Saturday.  How incredible do they look??  These new doughnut pans are going to be trouble!  

Some of the doughnuts in the back are not tossed in cinnamon sugar, just so you can see how they look plain!

Doughnut towers!

These donuts have the best texture!

Baked Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts
recipe slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour 

Ingredients
Doughnuts:
⅓ cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce (or omit and use ½ cup vegetable oil)
3 large eggs
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 ½ cups canned pumpkin puree
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Coating:
3 tablespoons sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons cinnamon
(you can adjust the cinnamon amount to taste)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 standard doughnut pans.

Beat together the oil, applesauce, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt, and baking powder until smooth.

Add the flour, and stir until just combined.

Fill the wells of the doughnut pans about ¾ full. I use a spoon to do this, and it will take a scant ¼ cup of batter for each doughnut.

Bake for 15 – 18 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of a doughnut comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Then transfer donuts to a rack to cool.

Fill a gallon sized ziplock bag with cinnamon sugar mixture. While the doughnuts are still warm, shake them in the cinnamon-sugar.

Note: this recipe makes enough for 15 doughnuts, so you will have to bake these in two batches, unless you have 3 doughnut pans! You can also make these as muffins if you don’t have a doughnut pan. It would make about 12 muffins, and they would need to cook for 23 – 25 minutes