Pumpkin Donuts

It’s another one of my childhood memories, coming to you in the form of a recipe.

If you love donuts and even if you don’t love pumpkin, you’ll love these pumpkin donuts!

I choose to allow myself to believe that these delicious treats are healthy (because they have a vegetable… or, um… is pumpkin actually a fruit?) in them. Therefore, they qualify as breakfast in my house. (Everyone needs some level of convenient denial in their lives.)

If getting in the kitchen and making something beautiful is enjoyable to you, then you’ve got to clear the counter tops and make these donuts.

Now don’t freak out when you read the process of making these donuts. There are quite a few steps I need to explain but it’s really not bad once you actually do it.

Here we go, following the pictures in the collage above, working from the top left:

• Mix all ingredients using enough flour to make a stiff dough.(See directions below)
• *At this point, some donut recipes say to let the dough chill for several hours. This is my grandmother’s recipe and I can’t remember if she chilled hers or not. (Remember, this is my grandmother, who uses terms like “flour to make a stiff dough” in her recipes. No mention of chilling, but I think it might help the donuts not get too soft while cutting, and easier to lift from the counter while maintaining their shape. Short version? It may be a good idea to chill the dough.)
• On a floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/2 an inch thick.
• With a large biscuit cutter, cut out as many large circles as will fit. (See notes below the recipe for the exact tools I use.)
• With a smaller biscuit cutter, cut the centers out of each donut.

• Using either a large skillet or an electric fry pan, add enough oil to come up the pan about two inches.
• Heat the oil until it reaches 375° (It is very important to keep your oil as close to this temp as possible. Use a thermometer. (See that probe in between the two donuts on the left?)

• While that is heating, set up your work space:
• You’ll need a large straining spoon to get the donuts out of the pan.
• Set up a large plate or cookie sheet lined with paper towel.
• And a small bowl with cinnamon and sugar mixture  (see recipe below) to dip the donuts while hot.

• Gently add 4-5 donuts to the hot grease, not crowding the pan.
• Cook until lightly browned on the side facing down.
• Very gently turn to cook the other side. (I use two forks to do this part.)
• Cook until lightly browned.
• Gently remove from pan onto paper towel.
• Start your next batch and then go back and dip your hot donuts into the cinnamon and sugar mixture.
• *If it makes you nervous to multitask with fast-cooking donuts and hot grease, ask someone else to do the sugar-coating while you focus on the cooking.

Don’t forget to cook those donut holes! Follow the same procedure. You can cook more at a time, but still be careful not to crowd the pan.
These are best eaten fresh but can be frozen.

They’re so good it’ll get your teenage daughter out of her room… even on a Saturday.
And you can put her to work dipping the donuts in cinnamon and sugar.
Then you can let her have one and tell you how amazing you are.

Here are the tools I used to make these donuts:

I’ve had my rolling pin forever, so I’m not even sure where it came from (my Mom bought it for sure, see notes on my strainer spoon.) The one I linked here is the closest I could find to what I’m using.

I love my new biscuit cutter set! It comes with so many sizes, I can get exactly what I need. For these donuts, I used the largest one the the third smallest one.

I use my digital thermometer for turkey and fudge too! It’s great for any kind of cooking and an absolute must for regulating your oil to fry donuts.

And here is the skimmer spoon I use. My Mom randomly bought this for me one day many years ago. She does that, randomly purchases things for the people she loves. I get a warm feeling every time I use it.

Here it is, resting after a job well done.

And you do not want to make this kind of mess without a dough scraper. (Which you will use for all kinds of other messes as well!)

I hope you’ll try these donuts, but more importantly, I hope you’ll get in the kitchen and make some memories. If they taste wonderful, that’s an added bonus!

For more yummy dessert recipes, follow my Desserts board.
Follow Beth Cranford/Eat Better Spend Less’s board Desserts on Pinterest.
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