Pumpkin Doughnuts!

Hope you guys had a nice weekend! 

I spent my Sunday at Ikea working on building the ultimate fluffy bed of my dreams and picked up some pillows and a home for my fiddle leaf fig plants that are coming this week! Anyway, I'm sure you're not here to read about pillows and plants... 

PUMPKIN DOUGHNUTS.

Usually when I'm going on a first-timer's cooking/baking adventure, the first thing I'll do is do a google image search for whatever I'm making and take a look at the texture and color. Especially with these doughnuts I was looking for something cake-y and orange (because ain't nobody got the time to make doughnuts from scratch that don't even taste like pumpkin!). 

I think I found the perfect recipe in pinchmysalt's version - any recipe that calls for a list of spices a mile long is usually a winner with me and she does a great job of detailing the instructions (which usually catapults me from "hmm maybe I should try these" in-to "GET OUT OF MY WAY. LET'S DO THIS" mode rather quickly). 

You Will Need:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon molasses

1 cup canned pure pumpkin

canola or peanut oil (for frying)

cinnamon sugar/powdered sugar for topping

Whisk first nine ingredients (flour through cardamom) in a medium bowl to blend well; set aside.

In a stand mixer (or using an electric hand mixer), beat sugar and butter until well blended (mixture will be grainy). Beat in egg, then yolks, then vanilla. Gradually beat in buttermilk and molasses, then beat in pumpkin, in four additions.

Fold the four mixture into the egg mixture in four additions, blending gently after each addition. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

When dough is chilled, lightly flour a work surface. Working in batches, remove 1/3 of the dough and gently press it into a round shape that is 1/2 - 1/3 inch thick. Using a 2 1/2 inch round cutter, cut out dough rounds, laying them on a cookie sheet. Use a 1 inch diameter to cut out the center (you can set these aside to make doughnut holes, or just put them back to re-roll). 

Line two baking sheets with several paper towels. Pour oil into a large deep skillet or dutch oven to a depth of 1 1/2 inches. Attach a deep-fry thermometer to the side and heat oil to 365 to 370 degrees. Fry doughnut holes and doughnuts in batches and adjust heat as necessary to maintain the oil temperature. Doughnuts should fry about a minute on each side, then transfer to paper towels to drain. 

While doughnuts are warm (let them cool of a little so you don't burn yourself!) cover them with cinnamon sugar. If you're using powdered sugar, let them cool completely before coating them in the powdered sugar.

If you don't want to eat them right away (you're crazy), but this recipe will make about 24 doughnuts (if you're not making doughnut holes), so you can easily top 12 of them and then freeze the other 12. If freezing the doughnuts, do not top them, just cover them tightly in wrap to freeze. To reheat, preheat oven to 375 and bake frozen doughnuts for 8-10 minutes, then top them!

I only had fluted round cutters and they worked fine. These will look like mini doughnuts - don't be alarmed. These will definitely puff up when fried and be normal sized-doughnuts. No one's trying to shortchange you here. 

Doughnut holes and doughnuts all cut out and ready for the fryer!

Frying away!

So the dough is relatively easy to make - the hardest part is waiting for the dough to chill because by then you're covered in spices and you just want to eat a pumpkin doughnut already! But trust me, it's worth the wait!

I suppose the only thing to do next is to make more doughnuts - chocolate, yeast, sour cream, crullers... jelly filled... p aczki... GREAT...