These baked pumpkin doughnuts are delicious and easy to make. Dip them in cinnamon sugar for an extra special treat.

It's finally fall here in Ohio, but I've been celebrating pumpkin spice season for a few weeks. I may have started using pumpkin spice coffee creamer around mid August.

My kids love pumpkin, especially Caleb. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, and now pumpkin doughnuts.

Making doughnuts at home is kind of a messy and long process. It takes so much oil to fry them, so I wanted to make them a little healthier and easier.

How to make delicious pumpkin doughnuts. How to make donuts from scratch. This quick homemade fall dessert is great for kids! Make a soft doughnut recipe that's baked in the oven. This easy cake like donut recipe is simple and fast to make. Roll the doughnuts in melted butter and cinnamon sugar for more flavor. #doughnut #pumpkin #pumpkindoughnut

These baked pumpkin doughnuts with cinnamon sugar area easy to make and since they are baked instead of fried, they have less fat.

I also lightened up the sugar with some coconut sugar and used part whole wheat white flour, but that's optional.

I'll give you options to lighten them up, but I won't judge if you make them with all of their white flour and sugary goodness. It's nice to have a special treat once in a while.

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts With Cinnamon Sugar

While these baked pumpkin doughnuts with cinnamon sugar are definitely a sometimes food, I did try to make them a little healthier.

Flour

My kids will know if I use whole wheat flour, but they don't notice if I substitute part of the white flour for white whole wheat flour. Shhhh! Don't tell them, ok?

I've found that it's best to substitute about 25 to 50 percent of the white flour for whole wheat. More than that makes a denser dessert.

Sugar

A cup and a half of sugar is a lot, so I used one cup of regular sugar and half of a cup of coconut sugar. Coconut sugar still has calories like sugar does, but it has a lower glycemic index than white sugar does. It's not supposed to cause blood sugar spikes like white sugar does.

You could probably substitute all of the sugar for coconut sugar. I've done this before with good success. It will turn your food darker, but that's easy to hide in these baked pumpkin doughnuts with cinnamon sugar.

Pumpkin Spice

I cheated and grabbed some premade spice mix from Aldi. If you don't have any or want to make your own, Country Hill Cottage has a great recipe for homemade pumpkin pie spice.

A few notes about my photos. First, I forgot to put the eggs in the ingredient shot. I left them in the carton so they wouldn't roll off and totally forgot them for the photo.

I also switched the bowl sizes. Definitely use a large bowl for the pumpkin puree mixture and add the flour to the pumpkin mixture.

Ingredients

2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin spice
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons real butter, softened
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
3 eggs

Topping

3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 tablespoons real butter, melted

Directions

Step #1

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step #2

Whisk flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl.

Step #3

Use a hand mixer to mix the pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, softened butter, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl.

Step #4

Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin puree mixture. Mix with a mixer until just combined.

Step #5

Spray a doughnut pan with oil. Fill a doughnut hole pan until almost full. I spooned batter on opposite sides of the cavity and then used a spoon to spread it out and wiped off the center and around the edges.

Step #6

Bake for 15 minutes. Flip over onto a cooling rack and let cool.

Step #7

When the doughnuts are cool to the touch, melt the butter for the cinnamon sugar topping.

Step #8

Brush the melted butter on the doughnuts. Dip them in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

This recipe makes 2 dozen baked pumpkin doughnuts if you fill the doughnut pan about 80 percent full.

Yum! My kids absolutely loved these easy pumpkin doughnuts!