Homemade Pumpkin Donuts

Donuts
October 16, 2011
Donuts
October 16, 2011

Homemade Pumpkin Donuts

All I could think about yesterday was Linda’s Donuts, this small donut shop in my hometown. Their donuts are so

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Homemade Pumpkin Donuts

Homemade pumpkin donuts stacked on plate

All I could think about yesterday was Linda’s Donuts, this small donut shop in my hometown. Their donuts are so doughy and delicious. Rebe likes the airy sticky sweet ones, but I prefer the denser more crumbly ones. Either way, Linda’s caters to our likes.

So I really wanted a donut this morning. Like Linda’s. I scoured the world wide web for the perfect dense donut recipe. None of this baked donut bull, I wanted pure deep-fried goodness. I stumbled across this pumpkin donuts recipe and immediately knew it was what I wanted. It was so easy and fun making these homemade donuts, and I am now officially obsessed with deep-frying.

I saved the oil so that I can make round two (chocolate donuts?) in the near future. And by near, I mean tomorrow.

Side note: I used a regular skillet to deep-fry these donuts, but if you have a legit deep-fryer you should use that! The most important thing when frying donuts is to use a neutral oil. Other than that, you don’t need anything special to make them.

Homemade pumpkin donuts on plates

How to make donuts from scratch

Deep-frying scares a lot of people (hot oil, ahh!), but making homemade donuts is really easy! These pumpkin donuts don’t use yeast, so you don’t have to fret about rise times with this recipe. Making the batter for these donuts just requires mixing the dry and wet ingredients together and rolling out the dough.

When you roll out the dough, you need to make it quite thin. It’ll seem wrong, but these babies puff up a lot in the hot oil. To cut the donuts, use a donut cutter or a cookie cutter of your choice (just keep in mind that smaller donuts require less time in the fryer, and vice versa). You can also go rogue and use a knife to cut the donuts, but that might take a while to do!

To fry the donuts, carefully slide one or two donuts at a time into the hot oil. You can’t fry all the donuts at once, because you run the risk of lowering the temperature of the oil if you add in too many. You need the oil nice and hot to properly fry the donuts. Too low a temperature, and your donuts will soak up a bunch of oil and they’ll be unpleasantly greasy when you bite into them.

Because these pumpkin donuts are fried, they’re best enjoyed while still warm. They’ll keep on your counter for a day or so, but their flavor doesn’t keep well after that.

stack of Homemade pumpkin donuts up close

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Homemade Pumpkin Donuts

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.6 from 8 reviews

These homemade pumpkin donuts take about 30 minutes to make and taste just like fall! Top them with homemade buttermilk glaze and eat warm.

These homemade pumpkin donuts take about 30 minutes to make and taste just like fall! Top them with homemade buttermilk glaze and eat warm.

Units:

Ingredients

For the donuts:

  • 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree

For the buttermilk glaze:

  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Canola oil for frying

Instructions

    1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, spice and sugar.
    2. Whisk together all of the remaining ingredients (except for the canola oil) in a second, medium bowl.
    3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir them around the bowl until the mixture is well combined.
    4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, rolling the donut dough to approximately1/4-1/2″ thick. (I know this will seem quite thin, but the donuts puff up immensely while frying). Cut with a donut cutter.
    5. Meanwhile, whisk the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth.
    6. Heat 2 inches of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, gently slide the donuts into the oil, frying on the first side until the edges of the donut are lightly browned, flip carefully and allow to cook on the other side until lightly browned.
    7. Remove and dunk immediately into buttermilk glaze. Allow to air dry on a cooling rack before serving.

Notes

Original recipe can be found here

More homemade donut recipes from Broma Bakery:

Hibiscus Donuts

Frosted Sugar Cookie Donuts

Chocolate Mexican Donuts

Pumpkin Churros

Lemon Poppyseed Donuts

 

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  1. I really wish that I had read the comments before making this recipe. It was way to wet to make a traditional donut shape. I floured my silicone mat VERY generously and then floured the top of the dough. I was able to roll it out but it was impossible to pick up any kind of shape. Even used a bench scraper to try and scoop it. Nada. Ended up just dropping it in hot oil with tablespoons to make little donut (puffs)? Wouldn’t exactly call them holes.

  2. These were so good! I had lots of leftover pumpkin puree to use up because i made pumpkin cream for coffee that only needed 3 tablespoons so this recipe was perfect to use the rest up. The dough was a bit sticky like people mentioned, but i made another plain donut recipe today as well and that dough was sticky too. I think donut dough is just stickier than bread dough. I just used a generous amount of flour to roll it out and brushed it off before frying. They came out sooooo delicious. I ran out of glaze halfway through– I had forgotten to get another bag of powdered sugar and didn’t make the full amount, so I rolled them in some granulated sugar mixed with pumpkin pie spice– perfect!






  3. I just made these and omg they are delicious. The dough was sticky but just added flour when rolling. As any good baker would know! Thanks for this awesome recipe






  4. I blame the author for this recipe. I am now making donuts once a month for weekend breakfast.
    I made half the batch and used pumpkin from the garden. I strained mine for 30 minutes before starting the recipe to get out some of the excess moisture. My dough was a little sticky, but I just gradually added in a little flour until it resembled sugar cookie dough. I flours my work surface and my cutter and didn’t have any problems with the dough.
    I fried mine in a cast iron skillet and half canola/vegetable oil (because that’s what I had). I used chop sticks to flip them in the oil and a mesh ladle to take them out onto a wire rack. Absolutely delicious.