Pumpkin Cake Donuts!
YAYAYAY!!!!
Halloween is almost here! My FAVORITE HOLIDAY EVERRR! I LOVE SATAN!!!!
Just kidding about that last part.
I do love Halloween, though. Big-time. I love gory makeup and spooky sound effects and fake blood and ripped-off arms and popped-out eyeballs and skulls and teeth just sitting there chattering on a table, not even inside a head.
Love it all. Bring it.
The only part I’m not completely fuckin’ ballznutz crazy for is the immense amount of crap I tend to eat around this time. I mean, I try to be healthy and everything. Normally. I eat lots of vegetables, minimize sugar and salt, stay away from artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, all that jazz.
But sometimes you gotta just go with the flow and chow down on some bullshit food. And if that bullshit food happens to have real pumpkin in it AND it looks like a miniature pumpkin, then even better, right?
After all, it’s mothafuckin’ Halloweeeeen, Bitches!
Pumpkin Donuts
These cake donuts don’t need to rise so they are perfect for the impatient child within you (or standing in front of you, yanking on your mummy costume). But, the batter will also sit quite happily in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours with no change in the final product so you can spread out your Halloween party duties over a couple of days. These are best eaten within 2 hours of frying. With their super-crunchy exterior and a fluffy, lightly sweet interior, I LOVE cake donuts more than all the other kinds of donuts combined! Cake Donuts Rule! Other Donuts Drool!
Pumpkin Cake Donuts
Cake donuts made with pumpkin puree and spices
- Yield: 2 dozen 1x
Ingredients
- For the donuts:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon allspice
- 1 cup pureed pumpkin — homemade (see below) or canned
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- Oil for frying (2″ deep)
- For decorating:
- slivered almonds
- sugar
- cinnamon
- powdered sugar
- red and yellow food color
- green food color
Instructions
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Whisk the wet ingredients together in another bowl.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet.
- Combine gently until a soft dough is formed.
- Refrigerate one to 24 hours.
- When ready to fry, heat the oil to 355 degrees F.
- Use a spoon to scoop out small balls, about 1 teaspoon at a time, and roll them between your palms to make them rounder. The dough will be a little soft and stick to your hands but it’s worth it to get some awesome donuts.
- Carefully drop them into the oil and fry for about 4 minutes, turning them if you need to to get both sides really browned.
- Remove with a slotted spoon and set them to cool briefly on a rack. (Try one now before you fry all of them to make sure they are cooking all the way through! You may need to adjust your time or temperature.)
- While they are still warm, toss them in colored sugar* to coat.
- Put them back on the rack and insert a slivered almond into the top of each one.
- Using a spoon as a dipping vessel, twirl the almond sliver in green icing** to coat.
- Serve ASAP to all your ghouls and goblins.
- *Colored Sugar:
- Put into a jar 3/8 cup regular sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 12 drops yellow food coloring, 3 drops red food coloring. Shake the heck out of it until the color is a nice bright orange throughout. Add 2 tablespoons powdered sugar and shake it some more.
- **Green Icing:
- In a small bowl mix 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon water, 1 drop green food coloring
How To Make Your Own Pumpkin Puree
The first thing you gots to do is getcha the right kinda punkin. You want what’s called a “Pie Pumpkin”, not the jack-o’lantern pumpkins that are floating around the stores this time of year. Pie pumpkins are smallish, less than 10″ across, and very round. Their flesh is much denser and more pumpkiny-tasting than the jack-o’lantern pumpkins. For any recipe that uses fresh pumpkin, in fact, assume it means a pie pumpkin. Also, when making puree for pies or other things, baking the pumpkin first dries out the flesh so you don’t end up with a watery, thin puree like you would were you to boil it.
Okay, moving on.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Use the biggest, sharpest knife you have and cut the stem off the pumpkin then cut it in quarters lengthwise.
- Scrape the seeds out and cut each quarter in half again.
- Put the pumpkin pieces, skin down, on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 45 minutes or so, until the flesh feels soft when you poke it with a fork.
- Remove and let cool. Once cool, you should be able to peel the skin off easily with your fingers.
- Run through a food processor, mash with a potato masher or with the paddle attachment on a heavy duty mixer.
20 Comments
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I’m gonna give it a go Hilah and I’ll bet I go completely fuckin’ ballznutz crazy at the results! CHEERS!
Hell yeah you will, Brady!
I love you Hilah! I am sure everyone will definitely go fuckin ballznutz crazy when i make these! woo hoo!
That’s right, Tiffany! Whoot!
Hi Hilah! Love your videos and recipes!
So I’ve never fried anything before..what type of oil is best to use and also, do I need to get a legit “fryer” or can I use a deep pan on the stove top??
Thanks!
Hi Alana!
I like to use shortening for frying because it’s easier to clean up (it re-solidifies when it cools and can just be thrown in the trash). Peanut oil is a great choice, too.
A fryer isn’t necessary as long as you have a thermometer to monitor the temperature. Also be careful not to fill your pot with too much oil or you could have spill over that would start a fire. Two or three inches of oil is enough for pretty much anything.
Have fun!
forget to put your mic back after you got the dough outta the fridge? 🙂
of course NOW I see your G+ comment. LOL
Ha! I had it on, but forgot to plug it in to the camera!
This made me piss my little pee-pee pants – all of my favorite things in one video: Halloween, Donuts, Balls!
Hail Satan.
Satan is good. Satan is our pal.
I was totally expecting you to have a bone in your hair! But kudos for breaking the cave woman sterotype!! And the donuts are pretty damn cute.
I’m sure she wanted the bone but used it to make bones of the dead soup instead
Oh, man, that was supposed to be a SURPRISE, Vince!
OOOOH NOOOO!!
When I was in college, I was a deejay on the radio station. Late at night, we’d go to the 24-hour Dunkin’ Donuts, when they still made the donuts from scratch. Being radio nerds, we’d do play-by-play announcing of the proceedings at the kitchen window. We were so impressed that the donut chef had technical jargon — he told us he was “frying off” donuts.
Ha! I agree there is something very cool-sounding about the term “frying off”.
When I make pumpkin puree, I microwave it, using a method I saw in The Washington Post once.
Peel a pound of pumpkin and cut it into one-inch chunks. A pound of one-inch chunks is about three cups. Toss the chunks into a four-cup Pyrex measure along with two tablespoons of water, cover, and microwave on full power until tender, 4 to 5 minutes.
Then puree in a food processor and you’ll come out with about two cups of pumpkin puree. If the texture of the pumpkin seems too dry and difficult to process, remedy the problem by adding some of the cooking liquid during processing.
The puree will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to a week. It freezes well, too.
Thanks for sharing! The reason I like to bake it is so that I can peel it afterwards. I find it’s often so hard to peel a raw pumpkin as to be dangerous. I imagine I could microwave it with the skin on, though, couldn’t I? That’s how I’ve always done acorn and spaghetti squash.
Good thinking, GSF.
I heard and tried a similar method. Quarter the pumpkin (provided the quarters still fit in the microwave) and put it over a bowl of water. Don’t remember how long but at least 5 mins and the skin peels off nicely.