Now, my cooking on a daily basis may not always be on point, but I have always taken pride in my baking. With the exception of an ill fated pumpkin pie one Christmas and setting the microwave on fire when I was 11, most of my baking projects are usually met with great anticipation.
These pumpkin doughnuts are no exception, and even Damir who is always pretty neutral on my cooking couldn’t keep away from them… we both polished off the entire batch in 1 day. No jokes. I only ate doughnuts all day. This is what weekends are made for!
My recipe was inspired by cookingclassy.com with a few slight changes.
Pumpkin Spice Doughnuts
A note on my ingredient swaps. Often in baking, I make certain swaps to “lighten” the dessert in regards to Weight Watchers points. While I actually didn’t calculate this in WW points, I did make many swaps I learned on the program. This includes using wheat flour instead of all purpose, applesauce in place of oil, and egg whites in place of full eggs. You can also swap out Splenda in place of the sugar (and there is a brown sugar Splenda option as well) but lately I have been trying to phase out fake sugars where I can, and I just simply didn’t have any on hand and couldn’t be bothered to run to the store just in the name of saving a few calories.
Ingredients
- 2 cups wheat flour
- 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (or 1/2 cup vegetable oil)
- 4 egg whites (or 3 whole eggs)
- 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For Sugar Coated Doughnuts
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice
For Frosted Doughnuts
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tbs milk
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice
Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix together your sugar, brown sugar, egg whites, applesauce (or oil), pumpkin, and vanilla. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, mix together your dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Combine with wet ingredients, then use an electric mixer and beat until smooth.
3. Spray your doughnut mold with cooking spray, and spoon your batter into the mold so it is about halfway full. Bake for 13-15 minutes.
Sugar coated
(skip to step 6 for frosted)
4. While baking, mix the sugar and pumpkin spice in a ziplock bag and mix thoroughly. When doughnuts are fresh from the oven, pop out of the mold and let rest for 1 minute or so. Carefully place a doughnut (one at a time) into the bag and gently shake to coat. I didn’t even actually shake it as much as I gently manipulated the sugar in the bag around the doughnut.
5. Carefully remove from bag, and place on plate or directly into your mouth…. hey, they can’t judge you if it’s in the instructions… right?
Frosted
6. While baking, mix your powdered sugar, milk, and pumpkin spice in a small bowl. Once removed from the oven and mold, let the doughnuts rest for 5 or so minutes, then use a spoon to drizzle frosting over the doughnuts. No one is looking if you lick the spoon, I promise!