These easy baked pumpkin donuts are soft, well-spiced, and glazed with a salted maple glaze that sets and isn’t thin! No mixer needed for this simple fall breakfast recipe that makes 8 baked doughnuts.
I’m back with another pumpkin recipe! Have we reached that point of fall when you’re sick of pumpkin everything? I hope not.
It’s no secret that I love pumpkin baked goods. If the pumpkin bars I just posted recently weren’t a dead giveaway, there’s always the pumpkin chocolate chip bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin bundt cake, and pumpkin oatmeal cookies I’ve gushed about in the past.
What’s that, you say? I’m a little obsessed? Well, to that I say: pumpkin is a vegetable. I don’t have a problem…
This time we’re using our dear squash in some super easy, super soft baked pumpkin donuts with a SALTED. MAPLE. GLAZE. Sorry for shouting but dang, these are good. Well-spiced, not too sweet, excellent with some chopped pecans sprinkled over top and a large cup of coffee.
Brian and I devoured these over a couple of days and many Seinfeld episodes (very excited they’re all on Netflix now). Which reminds me of another great thing about this recipe: it yields just 8 donuts so you won’t be overwhelmed by them.
Not that a pile of donuts is necessarily a bad thing…
Ingredients
I think you’ll like how simple this ingredient list is.
Here’s our cast of characters for the baked pumpkin donuts:
- Unsalted butter
- Brown sugar (just 1/3 cup; no sickly sweet donuts here)
- Canned pumpkin puree (the unsweetened stuff, NOT the pie filling)
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour (you can sub an equal amount of all-purpose gluten-free flour like Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 – I did this with no discernible difference in the final product)
- Baking powder and baking soda for lift
- Cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice (feel free to just use one or the other if you prefer)
And for our salted maple glaze:
- Powdered sugar
- Maple syrup (use the good stuff)
- Milk of your choice
- Vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste for those pretty flecks of vanilla)
- Sea salt
How to Make Baked Pumpkin Donuts
Baked donuts are essentially muffin batter baked in a donut pan, so these baked pumpkin donuts come together just like a muffin would.
- Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
- Whisk wet ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Dump the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until a batter is formed, but don’t keep stirring indefinitely. Just until it comes together.
- Spoon or pipe batter into a greased donut pan (this recipe makes 8 pumpkin doughnuts so you’ll need two pans or reuse one)
- Bake for 10 minutes!
- While donuts are baking, whisk together ingredients for the glaze.
- Dip one side of each donut in the salted maple glaze, garnish with chopped nuts or sprinkles, and devour.
It doesn’t get much easier than this.
The Maple Glaze
Listen, I know how frustrating it is when you go to make a glaze that looked beautiful in the photographs, and that same glaze looks thin and runny and sad in your own kitchen. I’ve been a victim of that bait and switch many a time, and I wouldn’t do that to you.
The trick to getting a thick glaze is to add very little liquid to the powdered sugar, and to do it slowly so you don’t accidentally make it too thin. Recipes will tell you to add more powdered sugar to thicken it if this happens, but that just results in a super sweet, gross, still-not-very-thick glaze.
So the best bet is to eliminate the problem from the beginning. 1 cup of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup whisked together, which will be lumpy and not fully incorporated. Then add milk a teaspoon at a time until the glaze is just barely pourable. That was 3 teaspoons aka 1 tablespoon for me. That’s where you stop!
Common Questions
I like this Wilton donut pan but any nonstick donut pan will work.
You can still make baked pumpkin donuts without a donut pan: they’re called muffins. Follow the same steps but fill a muffin tin with the batter and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Yes, follow the instructions for dipping in melted butter and cinnamon sugar from my Baked Apple Cider Donuts recipe.
Yes – to make gluten-free baked pumpkin donuts, replace the all-purpose flour with an equal volume (1 cup) or equal weight (125g) of a gluten-free all-purpose flour mix that contains xanthan gum. I tested and like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Flour.
More Fall Recipes
Baked Pumpkin Donuts with Maple Glaze
Ingredients
For the Baked Pumpkin Donuts:
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup (56g) unsalted butter, melted (4 Tbsp)
- 1/2 cup (130g) canned pumpkin puree
- 1/3 cup (66g) brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Salted Maple Glaze:
- 1 cup (113g) powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (40g) maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon (15g) milk (dairy or non-dairy both work)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
For the Baked Pumpkin Donuts:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease two 6-cup donut pans (or one, you'll just have to re-use it for the last couple donuts).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together wet ingredients: melted butter, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet and stir together until a batter forms. Stir until just incorporated; do not overmix.
- Spoon the batter into the donut cavities, or pipe them in by filling a gallon-sized bag with the batter, then snipping off a corner for a makeshift pastry bag. Fill each cavity about 2/3 of the way full. The recipe yields 8 donuts, so if you only have one donut pan, you’ll have to bake the first 6 and then the other 2 afterwards.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, until risen and browned on the edges (mine were done at 10). Set aside to cool for 2-3 minutes, then remove to a wire rack set over parchment paper or a baking sheet. Bake the remaining two donuts now if you only have one pan.
For the Salted Maple Glaze:
- Whisk powdered sugar and maple syrup together in a medium bowl – it likely won't fully incorporate. Slowly add milk a teaspoon at a time, whisking in between, until the mixture is thick and barely moves when you tip the bowl. This was 3 teaspoons aka 1 Tablespoon for me. Whisk in vanilla and salt.
- Once donuts are cool enough to handle, dip one side of each donut in the glaze, then place on the wire rack to set. Garnish with chopped nuts or sprinkles if desired and enjoy!
Notes
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