Pumpkin Donuts {And a Thank You!}

Have I mentioned lately how much I love all of you?

I love the sweet comments you leave me here, the debates you help me settle on Facebook (such as watermelon: salted or no?), the tweets you tweet me, the way you pin my photos and stumble my recipes. I love all of that and I love you.

Sorry. I might be a little hormonal right now. Either way, it’s a big ol’ love fest up in here. I think I even feel a tear coming on. Just one, though. Don’t freak out.

To thank you for always brightening my day, I made you donuts. Pumpkin donuts, to be precise, because in case you haven’t noticed, Fall has arrived. It’s chilly out, the windows are all open, the days are getting shorter, and I’ve had to purchase new jeans for the kids because apparently they grew 14 inches over the summer. Also, my son now wears men sized shoes. He’s eleven. That really has nothing to do with Fall or donuts, but I felt it was worth mentioning. Eleven. Men’s shoes. Oh, and while we’re on the subject of my babies growing up, my daughter lost her first tooth last night. Yeah. That happened.

Back to the point. I made pumpkin donuts. Then I rolled them in cinnamon and sugar, because I have a serious weakness for cinnamon-sugar coated donuts. They’re always the best kind. Glazed are nice, but they’ll never compare to the cinnamon-sugar kind.

Oh, did I mention? There is more than just donuts in this big love fest of a blog post. There is a mini donut maker. For you! Er, one of you anyway.

I was shopping awhile back as I am wont to do, and I ran across the cutest little mini donut makers. There were also cupcake makers, whoopie pie makers, and cake pop (!) makers. I generally don’t like to buy appliances that serve only one purpose, but these were bright, colorful, and they made me smile. So I bought two. One for you and one for me.

photo snagged from the babycakes website

So, if you’d like one of these adorable little donut makers yourself, just leave a comment letting me know approximately how long you’ve been reading Buns In My Oven. Winner will be chosen randomly, so feel free to be honest about the fact that you just moments ago stumbled upon my site for the first time while googling something creepy. Also, please mention what creepy thing you were googling so that we can all judge you.

This contest is only open to residents of the US and I apologize for that. It’s just that the post office scares the fluff out of me already and trying to figure out how to mail a package out of the country would probably be too much for my delicate sensibilities to handle.

Enter through Friday, September 23, 2011 at 12pm CST. This post sponsored by me. And love. And probably hormones, too.

Pumpkin Donuts

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose or white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
Cinnamon and sugar, for rolling
1/2 cup butter, for dipping

Instructions

If using a babycakes donut maker, turn it on to preheat. Otherwise, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a donut pan or regular cookie sheet.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix together the dry ingredients.
Beat in the pumpkin, eggs, milk, and butter until well combined.
Fit a pastry bag with a large tip and fill with the donut batter. Alternately, fill a large ziploc bag and snip off the end.
Pipe into the donut maker, donut pan, or just pipe in circles on a greased cookie sheet. The dough is thick enough that it should stay in the general shape you pipe it in while in the oven.
If using the donut maker, cook for about 3-5 minutes, checking for doneness with a toothpick.
If using the oven, bake for about 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
Cool on a wire rack.
Melt the 1/2 cup of butter in a small dish and mix together cinnamon and sugar in a second dish for dipping.
Dip the donuts in the butter and then the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Store in an air-tight container.

http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/2011/09/13/pumpkin-donuts-and-a-thank-you/

recipe adapted from food.com