Pumpkin-Caramel Baked Doughnuts

Birthday girl requested pumpkin, so pumpkin she got—and not in any ordinary pumpkin bread sort of way. Because the best kinds of friendships send you to the innovation board, also known as a mesh of Google recipe search results...

...Until you have her favorite form of sweet treat, the doughnut, with a uniquely fall twist. The thick caramel frosting drapes over these warm-spiced cake-y babes with decadence. Bonus points if you can get Snickers crumbs to actually stick to the frosting before it sets, too. 

And heres'a leftover batter solution: Throw in some mini chocolate chips and excess Snickers pieces and bake them as mini muffins for a bonus round of treats to take to yet another gathering of people that week. 

Hey look, this photo actually got treated to natural light. I miss it after 5 p.m. Sad times, this season change brings.

Verdict: Birthday treat win!

Pumpkin-Caramel Baked Doughnuts

Adapted from King Arthur Flour + Table for Two Blog

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin)

3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Caramel Frosting (recipe below)

2 Snickers bars, chopped fine, optional garnish

Beat together oil through baking powder. Add the flour and stir until smooth.

Fill two greased doughnut pan, with each well about ¾ full. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes at 250 degrees, or until a cake tester comes out clean. 

As doughnuts cool, prepare frosting recipe. As soon as the frosting is complete and while it is still hot, dip the top half of each doughnut into the frosting. Immediately add snickers crumbs on top if desired. Let cool; frosting will “set” quickly. If the frosting starts to harden before you have dipped all the doughnuts, place the pan over medium heat and stir constantly until it is “soft” again. Repeat until you run out of doughnuts.

Yield: 12-18 dougnuts

Alternately, you can double the doughnut batter recipe and use whatever you don’t bake into doughnuts as muffins. I doubled the dough, made 24 doughnuts, and then added snickers crumbs and mini chocolate chips to the pumpkin batter and baked them as mini muffins (winning!).

Caramel Frosting

2 cups light brown sugar

3 Tbsp. butter

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup powdered sugar

Place brown sugar and butter in a pan over medium heat. When they have melted, add cream and vanilla. Let the mixture bubble and caramelize for 5 to 7 minutes. Whisk in powdered sugar, and stir until thick (but not too thick).