Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts


     Last fall, Roy and I came home from being in northern Michigan via the Detroit area.  We spent a couple days seeing The Motown Museum, The Henry Ford Museum Complex, and (probably unwise) the neighborhood where his grandparents, parents, and he grew up.  Although it was sad to see what had become of some once beautiful neighborhoods, we did have a great lunch at The Polish Café in Hamtramck. One unexpected discovery however, was the cider mills found in the suburbs around Detroit.  We stopped at three different ones during our time in that area and our favorite one - imagine this - was Yates Cider Mill in Rochester Hills.  We were there early one morning and watched the cars stream in and out as people were picking up brown paper bags of pumpkin doughnuts to take to work.  Of course we had to try them and they were delicious - warm, spicy and covered with cinnamon sugar.  This year when a bit of fall crept in the air, I found myself thinking about those yummy pumpkin doughnuts.  I found a great recipe on the King Arthur Flour blog, and tweaked it a bit by adding cranberries and the cream cheese icing. 


Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

 

Ingredients for a dozen doughnuts:

1 1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of raisins, dried cranberries, or nuts.

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Glaze

4 oz. cream cheese

4 oz. powdered confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for Cinnamon Sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 tablespoons chopped nuts for sprinkling

 



Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Beat everything except for the flour together until smooth.  Then mix in the flour.



Once you have a well blended mixture,  add the nuts, raisins or dried cranberries if you wish.



Use two standard nonstick doughnut (or muffin) pans.  I lightly greased mine as well.

 Fill each well about 3/4 full (about 1/4 of a cup for each doughnut.



 

Bake for 15- 18 minutes until a tooth pick comes out clean.

  If adding the dried fruit, give them a couple extra minutes in the oven.

  Let the doughnuts rest in the pan for 5 minutes and them turn them out onto a cooling rack. 

 

Directions for Cream Cheese Glaze


 

In a blender or using a mixture, combine the cream cheese, confectioners sugar, milk, and vanilla extract together until smooth.  Now you are ready to "dress" the doughnuts.



If you choose to dust the doughnuts with cinnamon sugar, combine the sugar and cinnamon together and either spread it on a plate and invert the warm doughnuts onto it to coat. Or, put the cinnamon sugar in a small paper or plastic zip lock bag, put a doughnut in, and gently shake.


 

If you are icing them, either dip the doughnuts into the glaze or use a knife to spread it more thickly if you want nuts to adhere to it. Dipping gives a transparent look, but spreading  allows more to stick.


 

These are yummy with a good cup of coffee or a mug of warm spiced cider.  Enjoy!


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