A small batch recipe for high altitude baked pumpkin spice doughnuts. These pumpkin doughnuts are soft and cakey, quick and easy to make, and coated in cinnamon sugar.
Looking for more high altitude pumpkin recipes? Don’t miss these pumpkin sugar cookies with maple icing, the best ever pumpkin bread, pumpkin bourbon ice cream, and brown butter pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting.
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Why You’ll Love These Doughnuts
Small Batch. Sometimes you just don’t need a whole bunch of sweets in the house, and you only want a little treat for your family. This small batch recipe makes just six standard sized baked pumpkin doughnuts or about 15 mini doughnuts, although you can certainly scale the recipe up to make a bigger batch, too.
Easy to Make. This is an easy batter to make, simply by combining the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, and then piping the batter into the doughnut mold to bake. From start to finish, you’ll be eating warm doughnuts in under 30 minutes.
Perfect for Fall. With the pumpkin and the cozy spices, these doughnuts are perfect for sweater weather. Serve them with hot coffee or apple cider after a day at the pumpkin patch or your local apple orchard!
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
Ingredients
- Pumpkin. Be sure to use plain canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling.
- Sour Cream. Adds richness and acidity for a very tender texture.
- Egg. Binds the batter together and adds structure.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
- Flour. Plain all-purpose flour adds structure to the doughnut batter.
- Sugar. Dark brown sugar adds moisture, sweetness and a hint of molasses.
- Spices. A blend of espresso powder (optional), cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves add a wonderful depth of fall flavor to these doughnuts.
- Baking Soda. Leavens the batter so the doughnuts puff up.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Cinnamon & Sugar. For coating the doughnuts.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Thoroughly grease a standard-sized doughnut pan or several mini donut pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, espresso powder, spices and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the pumpkin, sour cream, egg and vanilla.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir the batter together with a spatula just until combined.
- The batter will be thick. Spoon the batter into a piping bag or a plastic bag, and snip off the corner. Pipe the batter into the doughnut pan, filling the molds half way full.
- Bake the doughnuts on the center oven rack for about 11-12 minutes for 2 1/2 – 3 inch doughnuts, or about 8-10 minutes for mini doughnuts, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the doughnuts in the pan for 1 minute, then turn out onto a wire rack.
- Immediately dip the hot doughnuts in the cinnamon/sugar mixture to thoroughly coat them. If you have trouble with the cinnamon/sugar not sticking to the doughnuts, then use a pastry brush to lightly brush a very small amount of melted or soft butter on the doughnuts, and then coat them in the cinnamon/sugar.
- Place the doughnuts on a wire rack, and cool for 10 minutes, then serve warm.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
When I developed this recipe, I used a standard sized doughnut pan that makes just six doughnuts measuring 2 1/2 – 3 inches. Since then, I’ve re-photographed this recipe, and used some of my mini donut pans instead, which will yield about 15 mini donuts.
Sure, if you have pumpkin pie spice, that will work just fine.
The doughnuts still taste great leftover, although the cinnamon/sugar will soak into the cake as they sit, so they are best served fresh. Leftover donuts can be given a fresh coating of cinnamon sugar immediately before serving.
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High Altitude Baked Pumpkin Spice Doughnuts
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 tsp espresso powder (optional)
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ⅓ cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 3 tbsp sour cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ cup cinnamon & sugar (1/4 cup sugar + 1 tsp ground cinnamon)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Thoroughly grease a standard-sized doughnut pan or several mini donut pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, espresso powder, spices and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the pumpkin, sour cream, egg and vanilla.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir the batter together with a spatula just until combined.
- The batter will be thick. Spoon the batter into a piping bag or a plastic bag, and snip off the corner. Pipe the batter into the doughnut pan, filling the molds half way full.
- Bake the doughnuts on the center oven rack for about 11-12 minutes for 2 1/2 – 3 inch doughnuts, or about 8-10 minutes for mini doughnuts, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the doughnuts in the pan for 1 minute, then turn out onto a wire rack.
- Immediately dip the hot doughnuts in the cinnamon/sugar mixture to thoroughly coat them. If you have trouble with the cinnamon/sugar not sticking to the doughnuts, then use a pastry brush to lightly brush a very small amount of melted or soft butter on the doughnuts, and then coat them in the cinnamon/sugar.
- Place the doughnuts on a wire rack, and cool for 10 minutes, then serve warm.
Notes
- The espresso powder is optional, but it adds a nice coffee flavor to these doughnuts, which is why I also call them Pumpkin Spice Latte Doughnuts.
- You can substitute pumpkin pie spice for the individual spices, if you have it.
- The doughnuts still taste great leftover, although the cinnamon/sugar will soak into the cake as they sit, so they are best served fresh. Leftover donuts can be given a fresh coating of cinnamon sugar immediately before serving.
I love baked doughnuts and these are by far the best pumpkin baked doughnuts I have ever made. They were not dense or gummy (which is an issue I’ve had with some other pumpkin baked items). They were light and wonderfully spiced. I also loved that the doughnut itself wasn’t super sweet which allowed for the perfect amount of sweetness to come through once the cinnamon sugar coating was added. Thank you for the great recipes for us high altitude bakers!
These are light airy doughnuts with a great mixture of pumpkin and spice flavors. The recipe, along with the chocolate espresso doughnut recipe, will be a keeper! Going to try your Hot Cross Buns this week. Maybe today, cause we are 5″ deep in slushy snow and the plows have not shown up yet.