Doughnuts!
I love doughnuts. Like, looooooove em. There aren’t many things I wouldn’t do for a doughnut. Seriously, when I tell you I’d inject them into my veins, I hope you believe me. The science is there, it’s been done before by great men…
Even with my love for them, I’ve gone so many years on this site and I never made any. What’s up with that?! Chalk up another one for unexplainable laziness.
But being lazy isn’t a reason anymore! Because Wilton and their awesome selves are now the primary contributor to my new doughnut habit! No more “but the doughnut shop is so far, and so expensive..” No more “You’ve already bought 2 dozen, you don’t need any more.” Nope, now all I have to do is pull this pan out of the cabinet and in about 20 mins I could be getting my Homer Simpson on.
Ha, speaking of the doughnut shop, it reminded me of a story. One night, the wife and I were wanting doughnuts. So we went out and got to the place just before closing. The nonchalant workers who were probably tired of taking home mountains and mountains of doughnuts were like “you sure you only want a dozen?” And we were like “yeeeeah”. So she was all “I think you guys want more than that..” And the next thing we knew, we were paying for 12, but walked out with like 60! They threw away extra doughnuts at the end of the night and we were the last ones there so they unloaded on us. It was… *wipes tear*…. It was one of the greatest nights of my life. SO many doughnuts. Sooooo many. I was like Scrooge McDuck in a doughnut bin. We were making it rain doughnuts, it was glorious.
Anyway, back to now. Halloween just passed us by and Thanksgiving is right on its tail. These doughnuts will be PERFECT to greet whatever guests are gracing your presence come turkey day. The flavors just scream fall and are just dying for a chilly day and a nice cup of coffee to accompany them.
Pumpkin Doughnuts (adapted from King Arthur Flour)
1/2 cup – Vegetable Oil
3 each – Eggs, large
1 1/2 cups – Sugar
1 1/2 cups – Pumpkin Purée
1 1/2 teaspoons – Pumpkin Pie Spice
3/4 teaspoon – Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon – Nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons – Salt
1 1/2 teaspoons – Baking Powder
1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons – Flour
Sticky Pecans
1 cup – Brown Sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons – Butter
1 tablespoon – Milk
1 cup – Pecans, chopped
Salted Caramel Icing
1 1/2 cups – Powdered Sugar
5 tablespoons – Milk
5 drops – Salted Caramel, Treatology Flavor System
1 cup – Chocolate Chips, melted
Notes
- You’re going to need a doughnut pan to make doughnuts…
- This recipe makes about 2 pans of doughnuts.
- If the brown sugar mixture seems runny, add a bit more sugar till it’s the consistency below.
- You can skip the brown sugar/pecan topping. It’ll still be a great doughnut. But you’ll seriously be missing out.
- The sticky top is not only bringing a ton of awesomeness, it’s also making the doughnut nice and moist.
- In case it isn’t clear – don’t skip the sticky topping.
- If you’re not a fan of nuts, you can totally omit them and just use the brown sugar mixture. You’ll get the moist doughnuts with no nuts.
- The icing has a nice strong salted caramel flavor. If you want to adjust it, put 3 drops and see if it’s to your liking before putting the whole 5.
- I didn’t want to pump every doughnut full of epicness. So I melted some chocolate chips and drizzled them over doughnuts I didn’t bake with the sticky top. They’re equally great in their own way, and perfect for kids you don’t want to load up with sugar.
- If you don’t want to do chocolate you could just drizzle with the salted caramel icing, or you could melt whatever else you want and put it on there. Basically, the choice is yours.
Alright so let’s get rollin’.
- Oven is at 350, but first, you’re making sticky goodness.
- Put the brown sugar, butter, and milk in a pan and cook it on medium/low heat until it’s nice and melted. It should be thicker rather than thinner, so when you run your spoon through it in the pan you should be able to see the trail for a bit before it settles back.
- Now that it’s ready, take it off the heat and start working on the batter. I hope you’re ready for this complicated step. If you’re not already, you should sit down…
- Take everything for the doughnut batter except for the flour, and mix it up in a mixer. Once it’s together and you scraped the sides and bottom, add the flour and slowly mix until it’s just incorporated. Aaaaaaaaaand that’s it. Now the fun part!
- Give your doughnut pan a little spray and start loading it up. If you’re just doing regular doughnuts without the sticky top, just spoon in some batter until it’s just below the top. But if you’re doing the sticky top, you have to put that in first.
- So spoon in the brown sugar mixture. Just enough to layer the bottom. You don’t want a pool of it! So maybe 1.5 – 2 tablespoons should do it. Next, drop some chopped pecans in there. I’m a sucker for nuts so don’t be shy with them.
- Next, spoon your batter on top of the nuts. Same deal, you want to fill it up to just below the top. Smooth it out too, as best you can.
- When you have all the doughnuts filled up, throw the pan in the oven and bake it for about 15 minutes. You’ll feel them springy to the touch and they’ll look nice and plump. The sugar will be bubbling out but that just means they’re awesome.
- While the doughnuts are in the oven, you’ll have plenty of time to get your icing going! It’s another simple thing, just putting everything in a bowl and giving it a little whisk till it’s smooth. You’re looking for a consistency that can coat the spoon, but not something crazy thick. You’re meant to have it glaze over the doughnut to drench/coat it, not sit on top of it.
And I’m telling you, the salted caramel flavor is so perfect. I absolutely love the Treatology Flavor System. So many possibilities, it’s ridiculous. And even if you’re just using one flavor like I am here it’s so great.
- So once the doughnuts are out, use a fork to get in on the sides to help you get them out.
It’ll be simple from there. Once they’re loose and almost out you could just pull them with your hands.
- If there are any pecans in the pan (which there probably will be), just scoop them up and spread them on the bare spots on the doughnut.
- When you take them out of the pan, put them on a cooling rack. Once all your doughnuts are ready on the rack, you can get to finishing them off!
- If you’re doing plain doughnuts with chocolate, go ahead and melt your chocolate and get it in a bag. Cut the tip off and just start drizzling. This could be done on a cooling rack or parchment paper.
- For the sticky topped doughnuts, you want to keep them on a cooling rack. Go ahead and get your icing ready and use a small measuring cup to pour it over each doughnut.
After that, you’re pretty much done!
Just need to play the waiting game till the icing is dry.
And as you could imagine, waiting for these will probably be the hardest part of the whole thing.
But I promise, the wait will be worth it! Remember how moist I told you they were? I don’t think you’ll fully understand until one is melting in your mouth.
So hopefully you get to try it soon!
And if you don’t, it’s ok…. No, actually, it’s not ok, you need them.
If you’re interested in any more doughnut love from the Wilton Treat Team, Julianne from Beyond Frosting made some awesome Apple Cider Donuts you should check out!
