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Homemade Pumpkin Donuts
Incredible Homemade Pumpkin Donuts
There are few things in this life that can compete with a hot, fresh-out-of-the-fryer donut. Now add pumpkin, a drizzle of maple glaze, and a crisp fall morning? Game. Over. These pumpkin donuts might just be my favorite thing we’ve made this fall. These pumpkin cake donuts are perfectly dense and soft on the inside with a crisp exterior coated in a dreamy maple glaze that tastes as good as any $4 donut shop donut. Plus there’s no yeast required so these come together quickly!
What ingredients do you need to make these homemade pumpkin donuts?
The beauty of these pumpkin donuts is that they don’t require a bunch of funky ingredients. If you have the ingredients to make a homemade pumpkin bread you probably have everything you need to make these. Here’s your grocery list:
- Butter
- Pumpkin puree
- Granulated sugar
- Flour
- Baking powder
- Buttermilk
- Cinnamon
- Ginger
- Nutmeg
- Salt
- Maple syrup
- Powdered sugar
- Oil (for frying)
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.
Roll out the dough and cut your donuts out:
When you roll out the dough, it will seem thin, but 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). If you don’t have cookie cutters you can also cut them out with a knife, but they’ll be a little craggier and take more time!
Fry the donuts in hot oil!
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.
How to store pumpkin donuts
I’m gonna level with you–these donuts don’t keep very well. 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 they’re best hot, okay on day two, and start to taste a little stale by day three. If you want to bring some life back to a day three donut you can heat it up in an air fryer to try to get that crisp exterior back!
Enjoy these!
XXX
PrintHomemade Pumpkin Donuts
- Prep Time 20 minutes
- Cook Time 15 minutes
- Total Time 30 minutes
- Yield 8 donuts
- Category breakfast
- Method fried
- Cuisine american
Homemade Pumpkin Donuts
These homemade pumpkin donuts take about 30 minutes to make and taste just like fall! Top them with homemade buttermilk glaze and eat warm.
- Prep Time 20 minutes
- Cook Time 15 minutes
- Total Time 30 minutes
- Yield 8 donuts
- Category breakfast
- Method fried
- Cuisine american
Ingredients
For the donuts:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree, dried
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
For the glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- First, make the donuts. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the granulated sugar and butter on low speed until combined. Gradually increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds.
- Next, dry out the pumpkin puree. Place the pumpkin puree on a thick paper towel and blot out the excess moisture (I like to wrap it up in the paper towel and squeeze it over the sink to get out the moisture).
- Add the dried pumpkin puree, buttermilk, flour, baking powder, salt, and spices and mix on low speed until a thick dough forms and no streaks of flour remain.
- Remove the dough from the mixer, flatten into an oval disc, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge rest for 1 hour.
- Turn the chilled dough onto a well-floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to a ½ inch thickness. Use a 3 ½ inch donut cutter (or a 3 ½-inch circle shaped cutter and a smaller 1-inch cutter to stamp out the middle hole) to cut out the donuts, saving the donut holes. Use a pastry brush to gently brush off any excess flour on each donut. Gather the scraps together into a ball and gently knead them together. Roll out and cut the dough again!
- Heat 4 inches of oil in a large pot over medium-low heat to 325°F. Place a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet and set aside.
- While the oil heats, make the glaze. In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar, milk, maple syrup and vanilla extract and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Fry 2 to 3 donuts at a time (being careful to not overcrowd the pot) for 2 minutes. At this point you should be able to see the edges begin to look crisp. Flip the donut and continue cooking until the donuts have expanded and have craggy edges all over, about 1 more minute. Use a slotted metal spatula to transfer them to the prepared cooling rack and repeat with the remaining donuts and donut holes (the donut holes will fry in about half the time).
- Once they’re cool enough to the touch (but still warm), dip the top half of each fried donut into the glaze, then place back on the cooling rack (glazed side up) until the glaze has set, about 10 minutes. Serve within 4 hours of frying.
- Prep Time 20 minutes
- Cook Time 15 minutes
- Total Time 30 minutes
- Yield 8 donuts
- Category breakfast
- Method fried
- Cuisine american
More homemade donut recipes from Broma Bakery:
Would it work to make the dough the night before and refrigerate until the morning?
Hi Ali! Yes you can refrigerate the dough for up to 24 hours! Just let it rest on the counter for 20ish minutes to let is soften up!
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.
Can you bake this instead of frying it?
I wouldn’t recommend it! I would just look for a baked pumpkin donut recipe instead 🙂
Why though? Did you encounter issues or is it purely for a healthier take?
These just aren’t formulated to bake up rather than fry!