Pumpkin Donuts

 

This post is also about Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious. (I shared another recipe from it here and, while I don’t mean to turn this into a series, more are coming.) 

I made her chocolate pudding with avocado, but honestly, at this point, it’s no longer novel, nor did I find it better than other chocolate puddings I’ve made. Plus, the Fox actually eats avocado straight up, so hiding it doesn’t seem necessary. 

It’s easy to hide almost anything in chocolate, and I’ve become convinced that it’s also easy to hide orange vegetables in general. Like in these banana chocolate chip waffles from her second cookbook, Double Delicious (which I just got on a whim, at a steep discount). 

I also tried pumpkin donuts, which were great because my kids love any donut and because even though they’ve always liked orange vegetables, they seem to have conveniently forgotten that fact. (I know pumpkins are technically fruit, but you know what I mean.) Plus, these donuts felt perfect for fall.  

I find that Jessica Seinfeld puts a big emphasis on non-fat and low-fat foods in the book, and based on more recent science, I don’t make such a big deal out of it, so I’ve adapted the ingredients slightly. 

1 cup all-purpose flour, or whole-wheat pastry flour (I used white whole wheat flour) 

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder 

½ tsp. cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice 

½ cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar 

½ cup canned pumpkin purée 

½ cup sweet potato purée 

½ cup lactose-free milk or buttermilk 

1 large egg white 

1 Tbsp. lactose-free butter or margarine, melted 

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 

confectioners’ sugar, for dusting 

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Coat a doughnut mold with cooking spray. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. 

In a large bowl, beat together the brown sugar, pumpkin purée, sweet potato purée, milk, egg white, butter, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix until completely incorporated. 

Pour the batter into a gallon-sized plastic bag (or pastry bag if you have one!) and cut the bottom tip off of one side of the bag. Squeeze the batter through, into the doughnut mold. Bake until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted, 20 to 25 minutes. (The yield of this recipe is 12 donuts, and I baked all of them at the same time. If you have smaller molds or leftover batter, just bake another batch.) Turn the doughnuts out onto a rack to cool. 

When cool, dust with confectioners’ sugar. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 1 month.