Baked Pumpkin Donuts!

You probably guessed where I am coming from with this recipe. It is that time of the year again. Fall is here and stores are already filling up with Halloween costumes, candies and other goodies and you simply cannot celebrate fall without the humble pumpkin. Right from scary looking carved pumpkins to the amazing tasting pumpkin pies, the pumpkin is everywhere. Besides the obvious reason of having the pumpkin on US Masala, the other part of the story behind this recipe is that I found this cool donut baking tray at the mall a couple of days ago. I have been on the lookout for it for a while now and I just snatched it up when I saw it laying on the store shelf. I have been itching to use it ever since I laid my hands on it and a pumpkin based baked donuts seemed like just the right thing to make.
To be honest I was a little apprehensive on how the shape and texture would turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled the tray out of the oven. The bright pumpkin color gets you first as soon as you look at them, then as you break one apart you feel the soft yet spongy texture and knowing that they were baked and not fried, you just can't resist biting into it. The soft texture with a burst of pumpkin and cinnamon just gets you in the mood for fall and Halloween.

Ingredients: makes about 8

Pumpkin puree		3/4 cup (canned)
Oil		1/4 cup vegetable or canola
Sugar		3/4 cup
Eggs		2 large
Baking powder		3/4 tsp
Salt		3/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon		3/4 tsp
Ginger powder		1/8 tsp
Nutmeg powder		1/8 tsp
All purpose Flour		1 cup + 1 tbsp
For Cinnamon sugar -
Sugar		1/2 cup
Ground cinnamon		3/4 tbsp, mix together and set aside

Method: 
1.Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer with paddle attachment, add in the first 9 ingredients, mix/beat till everything is blended and smooth. Add in the flour and mix till well blended and smooth.
2. Lightly grease a doughnut pan with cooking spray or butter. (If you don’t have a donut pan, you can bake these in a couple of standard/ mini muffin tins; like donut muffins :)
3. Pipe or spoon the mixture in the wells of the doughnut pans about 3/4 full.
4. Bake the doughnuts for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. If you’re making muffins, they’ll need to bake for 23 to 25 minutes.
5. Remove the doughnuts from the oven, and after about 5 minutes, loosen their edges, and transfer to a rack to cool.
6. While the doughnuts are still warm (but no longer fragile), gently shake them in a bag with cinnamon-sugar.ENJOY!
Adopted from here

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