Mmmmm Donuts...

King Arthur Flour sent me an email a week or so ago.  In that email was a recipe for baked pumpkin doughnuts.  You guessed it, within days I had ordered the special doughnut pans and was anxiously awaiting their arrival at my doorstep.

Fall is here, like it or not.  Dave and I went on our first motorcycle ride of the season today and the trees were turning and leaves were falling everywhere!

Fall means wonderful squash recipes and, of course, pumpkin everything!  Cookies, muffins, pies, smoothies, the list of recipes I'm seeing goes on and on!  So why not doughnuts?

Here's a LINK to the recipe.  They are a snap to put together and what a great excuse to purchase another fun kitchen gadget?

The recipe calls for canned pumpkin.  Yes, I used canned pumpkin.  I just didn't have hours to roast, puree and strain real pumpkin today.  I do plan on getting to that before time runs out so I can fill my freezer with fresh pumpkin puree for the winter months, just not today!

It's simple, mix all the wet ingredients, add the flour and pour into prepared pans.  Each doughnut is about a quarter of a cup of batter.

They are baked in a 350 degree oven for 15 to 18 minutes.  They took 16 in my oven!  They smell pretty goo too!

After cooling in the pan for 5 minutes the doughnuts are removed to cool just enough so that they won't break apart when the toppings are added.  The recipe called for shaking them in a bag of cinnamon sugar but Dave prefers a glaze on his doughnuts so I did half with cinnamon and half glazed.

So how do they taste?  Well, they aren't the "cake" doughnut you would find at your local bakery.  They aren't that dense.  They are more the consistency of a muffin in the shape of a doughnut.  I pointed that out to Dave and his response was "but they're still good" with a mouth full of doughnut!  They are good.  I think they could use a little more flavor so next time I may bump up the spices or cook down the canned pumpkin to increase the flavor.  Or ... yes... use real pumpkin!

Which is better the cinnamon sugar or glazed?  Well, I'm going to let my coworkers decide that!