Baked Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes

 

During high school, I worked at a donut shop that some of our family friends owned. Every Saturday, I would wake up around 5:00 am to make it to the shop by 6 am and serve donuts to happy morning people. Seriously, waking up that early as a teenager was torture, but the amazing aroma of donuts definitely helped make it a little easier. For the few years that I worked there, I basically ate a donut every day (I had to be able to tell the customers what they tasted like, right?!). After a couple of years, the aroma no longer smelled good to me and the thought of eating a donut just made me sick to my stomach.

Fast foward to today . . . it's been over a decade since that fun job at the donut shop ended and my love of donuts has returned with a vengeance! I can't get enough of them!

I love that these donuts are baked instead of fried. To be honest, I have never really fried anything in my life because the thought of being scalded by burning oil terrifies me. I bake my chimichangas, I bake my churros, and now I bake my donuts. :)

The great thing about this recipe is that these little donut bites taste amazing and literally melt in your mouth.

Baked Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes
Ingredients:
For the donuts-
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoons ground cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned plain pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup milk

For the coating:
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven 350°F. Spray each cup in a 24-cup mini muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.

In a separate, large bowl whisk together oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk until smooth. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined – do not over mix!
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the muffins bake, melt butter in one bowl and combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. Remove muffins from oven and cool for about 5 minutes, or until just cool enough to handle. Dip each muffin in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon sugar to coat. These are delicious served warm or at room temperature.

Recipe adapted from Craving Chronicles

Looking for more yummy baked (not fried) recipes?

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

Baked Zucchini Fries

Crunchy Baked Chicken

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken