Pumpkin Donuts with Buttermilk Glaze

It's Pumpkin season, you know that, I know that.  Usually this time of the year means that I'm in the kitchen even more than usual, whipping up cakes, donuts, pancakes and pretty much anything that includes pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves etc.

I have said before and I will say it again.  If I had to pick a food that I would eat forever and ever, giving up everything else for it, I would always pick donuts.  No ifs, ands or buts about it.

Pair that with pumpkin and I'm in literal food heaven.

This recipe doesn't require rising time of any kind, it's pretty straight forward, easy and relatively quick to make.  The longest part of the process is the frying and even then, it's quite fast because they puff up and cook quite quickly.

Now to keep my son away from these, as his 13 year old self already plowed through 2 in no time.  Who am I kidding, I need to keep myself away from these too.  :)

Pumpkin Donuts with Buttermilk Glaze

Source: Babble

For the donuts:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree

For the buttermilk glaze:

3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla


In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, spice and sugar. Whisk together all of the remaining ingredients (except for the canola oil) in a second, medium bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir them around the bowl until the mixture is well combined. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, rolling the donut dough to approximately1/4-1/2″ thick. (I know this will seem quite thin, but the donuts puff up immensely while frying). Cut with a donut cutter.

Meanwhile, whisk the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth.

Heat 2 inches of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, gently slide the donuts into the oil, frying on the first side until the edges of the donut are lightly browned, flip carefully and allow to cook on the other side until lightly browned. Remove and dunk immediately into buttermilk glaze. Allow to air dry on a cooling rack before serving.

Note:  You may find that the dough is too sticky and wet to really roll into anything.  Just add a bit more flour at a time until you get a soft, non stick dough that you can press out into a rectangle, with your hands.

Ruth's Donuts

If I had to pick one single food to take with me to a deserted island, it would be donuts.

I am just crazy about them, have to be careful when they're around and really control myself, so I don't make them very often.

If you like Krispy Kreme donuts, these are AMAZING, they are soft, they're tasty, they're really really good.

Another winner from The Amish Family Cookbook by Jerry and Tina Eicher.

Note: I did have some issues with the dough, it was too sticky even after sitting in the fridge overnight, so when it came time to fry them up, they were sticking everywhere and trying to lose their shape, but I added a bit more flour and it worked out fine.

Ruth's Donuts

1 package (2 1/4 tsp.) yeast
3 tsp. lukewarm water
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 T. salt
2 egg yolks
3 1/2 cups lukewarm water
approximately 8 1/4 cups flour


Mix first 3 ingredients in a small container; stir well. Let stand until dissolved. In a mixing bowl, combine shortening, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and egg yolks. Add yeast mixture.

Cream very well. Add 3 1/2 cups lukewarm water. Stir to combine, then add flour a little at a time to make soft dough. Do not knead with hands. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.

Punch down, then chill in refrigerator for 1 1/2 - 2 hous. Roll out dough and cut out donuts.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1 additional hour, then deep-fat fry at 375 degrees. This dough can be kept in the refrigerator for a week.

I dipped mine in a simple glaze flavored with maple syrup. And I rolled the donut holes in cinnamon/sugar and some in powdered sugar.

Blackberry Jam filled Donuts

When I was growing up as a child, in Portugal, I remember that one of my favorite things to eat were the Bolas de Berlim.  These wonderful donuts filled with vanilla cream inside, I mean, anytime we would go to a Pastelaria, that is what I would order, or the Piramides....OH my, haven't had one of those in about 20 years.

But since moving to South Africa and then here to the States, I haven't had any, other than jam or custard filled donuts, which I adore just as much.

With all things baking wise, I usually shy away, I am more of a cook and have never been much of a good baker, for some reason dough and stuff like that just scares the bejeebers out of me, but over the past few years I've been trying to conquer that fear and just get my hands in the dough, so to speak.



These are actually pretty easy to make and though there are many recipes out there, I went with one from What's Cookin, Chicago, which is actually a recipe for Paczki which is a Polish Jam filled Donut.  It's basically the same thing.  The reason I am using this recipe today is because the one I usually make is in Portuguese and in grams, liters etc and I am being super lazy today and don't feel like converting stuff.  There I said it LOL

Anyway, here it is, go make yourself some of these and then make sure you hide one at least before they disappear off the plate.

Blackberry Jam Filled Donuts

recipe from What's Cookin, Chicago?

4 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons shortening
2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
6 cups vegetable oil for frying
1 cup raspberry jam or jelly, for filling
Granulated or confectioner's sugar, for dusting

In a medium sized mixing bowl or bowl of your stand mixer, combine the yeast, sugar, dry milk, salt, baking powder, egg, water, shortening and flour. Knead the dough with the dough hook attachment until it's smooth and supple, adding additional flour as needed. Cover the dough and allow it to rise for 1 hour; it won't rise much, if at all. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Round each piece into a ball, then flatten each ball slightly. Place the balls on a lightly greased or parchment lined cookie sheet, cover them with creased plastic wrap, and allow them to rest for 2-2 1/2 hours. Again, they won't rise much.



About 10 minutes before the end of the rising time, heat the oil in a deep fryer or in a deep saucepan and heat slowly to 375 degrees.

Fry the donuts, two to four at a time (depending on the capacity of your pan) for 3 minutes on each side or until they're a deep brown, but not burned. Transfer them to a paper towel lined cooling rack to drain.



When the cool enough to handle, fill them with about 2 tablespoons of blackberry jam or jelly each. An easy way to do this is with a cookie press pr pastry bag equipped with a filling tube. Or you can use a thin spoon and make a hole in the doughnut and spoon the jam/jelly in the middle. After filling, roll in sugar.

Donuts!

I'm a HUGE donut fan, I mean if there is one food out there that I have a major weakness for, it has to be donuts. Lordy do I have to watch my around them.

But when I have a craving for them, I just have to have one.

I'm going to pick up the kids from school in about 30 minutes, but I had promised Nicholas to make some donuts for them as an after school snack, so as a good mommy, I stuck to my part of the deal and I whipped these up in 20 minutes.

You want to make some too? I bet you have all the ingredients on hand!

BISCUIT DONUTS

2 small cans of buttermilk biscuits
oil for frying
2 cups powdered sugar
5 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla or maple essence
1/4 cup cocoa powder
Sprinkles (optional)


Open the can and pull out the biscuits, then using your fingers poke a hole in the middle and stretch it out until it resembles a donut. Repeat with remaining can.


In a small bowl mix 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla or maple essence and 2 tablespoons of milk. Mix well.....this is the maple glaze.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk and 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, mix well....this is the chocolate glaze.


Heat about 2 inches of oil to 350º. When the oil is ready, pop the biscuits in there, you have to watch them though cause they cook really fast.....

as soon as they start to brown, flip them over.

Drain them on paper towels

Let them cool down a bit and then dip them in the different glazes....I personally LOVE maple. YUM!


ENJOY! But make sure you control yourself, it's very easy to pop one or two, or three into your mouth before you realize what you've done. Don't say I didn't warn you LOL