Pumpkin Doughnuts - A Daring Baker's Challenge

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Doughnuts are one thing I've always wanted to give a go at, but just never have. When I saw that we were going to make them for this months Daring Baker's challenge, I was pretty thrilled especially when I saw we had a variety of doughnut recipes to work with and among them were the pumpkin ones.

So I made sure to grab a pumpkin at the store before I went to work making some of these!

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Pumpkin Doughnuts

• All Purpose Flour 3.5 cup / 840 ml / 490 gm / 17 ¼ oz
• Baking Powder 4 teaspoon / 20 ml / 24 gm / .85 oz
• Table Salt 1 teaspoon / 5 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz
• Cinnamon, ground 1 teaspoon / 5 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz
• Ginger, ground ½ teaspoon / 2.5 ml / 3 gm / .1 oz
• Baking Soda ½ teaspoon / 2.5 ml / 3 gm / .1 oz
• Nutmeg, ground ¼ teaspoon / 1.25 ml / 1.5 gm / .05 oz
• Cloves, ground 1/8 teaspoon / .6 ml / ¾ gm / .025 oz
• White Granulated Sugar 1 cup / 240 ml / 225 gm / 8 oz
• Butter, Unsalted 3 Tablespoon / 45 ml / 42 gm / 1.5 oz
• Egg, Large 1
• Egg Yolk, Large 2
• Pure Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon / 5 ml
• Buttermilk ½ cup + 1 Tablespoon / 135 ml /
• Pumpkin 1 cup / 240 ml / 285 gm / 10 oz (Canned pure pumpkin or fresh cooked and pureed pumpkin – DON’T use pumpkin pie mix!)
• Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Powdered Sugar Glaze:

• Powdered (Icing) Sugar 2 cup / 480 ml / 250 gm / 9 oz
• Whipping Cream (About 32% butter fat) 4 Tablespoon + more if needed / 60 ml

Directions:

Whisk together the first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until blended (the mixture will be grainy and not smooth). Beat in egg, then yolks and vanilla. Gradually beat in buttermilk; beat in pumpkin. Using rubber spatula, fold in dry ingredients in 4 additions, blending gently after each addition. Cover with plastic; chill 3 hours.

Sprinkle 2 rimmed baking sheets lightly with flour. Press out 1/3 of dough on floured surface to 1/2- to 2/3-inch (12 mm to 15 mm) thickness. Using 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) -diameter round cutter, cut out dough rounds. Arrange on sheets. Repeat with remaining dough in 2 more batches. Gather dough scraps. Press out dough and cut out more dough rounds until all dough is used.

Using 1-inch (25 mm) diameter round cutter, cut out center of each dough round to make doughnuts and doughnut holes.

Line 2 baking sheets with several layers of paper towels. Pour oil into large deep skillet to depth of 1 1/2 inches (40 mm). Attach deep-fry thermometer and heat oil to 365°F to 370°F (185°C to 188°C). Fry doughnut holes in 2 batches until golden brown, turning occasionally, about 2 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Fry doughnuts, 3 or 4 at a time, until golden brown, adjusting heat to maintain temperature, about 1 minute per side. Using slotted spoon, transfer doughnuts to paper towels to drain. Cool completely.

Glaze Directions:

Whisk powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons whipping cream to blend. Whisk in additional cream, 1 teaspoon at a time, to form medium thick glaze.

Can be made up to 3 hours ahead.

Add doughnut holes to bowl of spiced sugar and toss to coat.

Spread doughnuts on 1 side with powdered sugar glaze.

Arrange doughnuts, glazed side up, on racks. Let stand until glaze sets, at least 30 minutes.

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The recipes above are straight from The Daring Kitchen post for this month's challenge. If you would like to check out what the others have done and the recipes please go to The Daring Kitchen website!

As you can see I didn't use the glaze (too sweet for us!) but instead I took about 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and placed it in a large zip bag with about 1/4 of the doughnuts and holes and shook it. This put a bit of sugar on the doughnuts, but not too much. They were good with out the sugar as well!

Tip: Buttermilk, if you don't have any or don't want to buy it, using 1 teaspoon lemon juice per cup of regular milk makes a perfect substitute.

I also tried to bake these but they didn't come out very well unfortunatly, so I decided to just fry them (every once in a while a fried treat is ok, right?). Oh and as per usual, I used whole wheat flour instead of white flour.

The verdict? The kiddo loved 'em, the hubby loved them, and I thought they were great! Will definitely make them again, especially this pumpkin version :D.