Baked Pumpkin Doughnut Holes

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.

In a separate large bowl, whisk together the oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin puree and milk until smooth. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.

Spray a 24 cup mini muffin tin with non-stick spray and scoop 1 ounces of batter into each cup. I used a 1 ounce scoop for even distribution.

Bake in the preheated 350 F oven for approximately 12 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

While the doughnuts are baking, prepare a bowl with the melted butter and another with the sugar and cinnamon combination. Remove the doughnuts from the oven and allow them to cool just long enough so they are easy to handle.

Dip each doughnut quickly into the melted butter and then roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat. I found, though, that even if I removed the doughnuts quickly they still soaked up a lot of butter. They were delicious but became quickly soggy. When I made a second batch I used a pastry brush to brush the melted butter onto them and got better results.

The second time I made them, I also divided them into three groups. The first got the butter and cinnamon sugar coating, the second got only powdered sugar and the third got a pumpkin glaze (1/2 cup of confectioners’ sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk and 1 teaspoon of pumpkin puree). Both the powdered sugar and the glaze gave less of that freshly fried doughnut taste but were lighter and less greasy. Ultimately, our preference was for the original cinnamon sugar version so that’s what I’ve included in the above ingredients list.

Recipe adapted from The Craving Chronicles.