Pumpkin Drop Doughnuts

L

Did you notice in my last post, the one about the Sugar Hubbard Squash Bars, that I said that I used “some” of my sugar hubbard squash puree? I made a small batch of those bars just so I could save off some puree to make some fritters with the rest. I’ve been dreaming of pumpkin fritters for a month now… what could be better than a mashup of doughnuts and pumpkin pie?

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These drop doughnuts (or fritters if you prefer) use my basic cake doughnut recipe from the book, with just a few little tweaks. First, I add all sorts of spices. I like nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and cinnamon. Just a healthy pinch of each works great. Allspice, mace and even cloves would be nice too. These just get mixed into the flour.

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Then, because the squash puree is quite moist, the wet ingredients need to be reduced a bit. I recommend leaving the milk out all together and adding 1/2 cup of the pureed squash, mixed in with the egg, yogurt and vanilla. Add these wet ingredients to the flour mixture as instructed. Once everything is all mixed up, check the thickness. The batter should be pretty thick, but not as thick as cookie dough. If it is stiff, you can then add a bit of milk… maybe a tablespoon… to thin it out some. Then fry as drop fritters!

While I’m talking about frying, I had a great question from a reader this week about how to get nice round drop fritters. First off, you’ll never get 100% round fritters. There are always a few that resemble puffer fish. That’s cool… they still taste good!

But, to try to get fairly even drops, I like to use the two spoon method. This is kind of like making quenelles, except you are making rounds instead of ovals. Start with a small scoop in one spoon. Then, use a second spoon to scoop the dough to the other spoon, rounding it off some. You can go back and forth between the spoons if you didn’t quite get a round. Finally, use the first spoon again, to push the round into the oil. Like so:

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Like the squash bars, you can make these with just about any kind of pumpkin or sweet winter squash. I think they are quite tasty plain, but they’d also be great dusted with a bit of powdered or cinnamon sugar. They’d also be great with a bit of small apple dice mixed in!

30 thoughts on “Pumpkin Drop Doughnuts

  1. This looks great, i woud love to try this but i don’t know how to get this recipe.I remember having this in my childhood but it was very oily and gave us indigestion and your one seems to be healthy version.

  2. Got the book from a local bookstore about 2 weeks ago and I have been an insane doughnut machine. I made these, but used the vegan version with a bit of extra soymilk and they were awesome! Thanks so much for sharing! Also, I cheated and used my mini cookie dough scoop 😉

  3. Mmmmmm, looks yummy! Will definitely be making these…. And your book;Lovely,amazing and simplified recipes! I’ve made a couple of the doughnuts and had to order 2 more copies to give away to the followers on our website! Kudos!

  4. I placed an order with Amazon but there are temporarily out of stock (hopefully it won’t take too long to restock.

  5. Steve – Great! They should be in stock very soon… the reprint arrived on Monday, and is on its way out to bookstores now… so I hope it makes it to you soon!

    -L

  6. These donuts look wonderful. I was hoping that you could tell me what the wrappers are called that the donuts are photogrphed in (the top pic). I have been looking for something like this to use for mini cheesecakes. Thanks

    1. Hi Stacey – they are little mini brioche wrappers. You can find them at Sur La Table or other kitchen shops. They also usually have them online at King Arthur flour or even amazon.

      -L

  7. These have to wonderful. I’ll sure be finding out. And then be making them for a bake sale I am involved in. ; )

  8. This looks delicious. Do you think this recipe could be used to cook the holes in one of those “cake pop/donut hole” electric makers?

  9. Is there an actual recipe I can follow? I’ll be honest I’ll probably get lost reading it in the paragraphs…

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