Pumpkin Spice Donuts
on Oct 27, 2021, Updated Oct 03, 2023
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These healthier pumpkin spice donuts are everything you need for fall 🍁 and more. The secret ingredient that makes these more blood sugar-balanced, moist, and overall delicious is one sweet potato.
You won’t be able to taste the potato at all, thanks to the delicious, fragrant pumpkin pie spice blend. If you don’t believe me, I encourage you to make these donuts, serve them to your loved ones, and see if they suspect any vegetables in the recipe.
These donuts also happen to be gluten-free and dairy-free and absolutely incredible. If you don’t love pumpkin pie spice (a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice) you can simply leave it out or use cinnamon instead.
Why You’ll Love These Pumpkin Spice Donuts
These healthier donuts offer a delightful fusion of seasonal flavors, a dose of nutrition, and a guilt-free indulgence that caters to various dietary needs. They’re also perfect for sharing with family and friends, and you’ll find yourself reaching for seconds.
How to Prepare Pumpkin Spice Donuts
Start by preheating the oven to 350°F and greasing a donut pan. Peel and coarsely chop a sweet potato 🍠 (about 2 cups’ worth), then process it in a food processor until shredded.
If you don’t have a food processor, grate the sweet potato using a cheese grater and then mix the sweet potato with the other ingredients by hand.
Then, add eggs, sugar, flour, oil, maple syrup, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, and pumpkin pie spice to the shredded sweet potato in the food processor. Process until well combined.
Transfer the batter into a piping bag or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off for piping. Pipe the batter into the prepared donut pan and bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in a donut comes out clean. While they bake, mix icing sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and nut milk to make the glaze. Adjust milk for desired consistency. Finally, let the donuts cool, remove from the pan, dip in glaze, and enjoy!
Variations and Substitutions
Customize these donuts to your taste by trying different spice blends, glaze flavors, or sweeteners.
- After dipping or pouring on the glaze, decorate the donuts with orange sprinkles or mini leaf- or pumpkin-shaped sprinkles.
- The glaze is completely optional and could be replaced with a dusting of powdered sugar.
- You could also try these with peeled, cubed, and de-seeded pumpkin instead of sweet potato.
- Use ground cinnamon instead of pumpkin pie spice blend.
Nonna’s Tip
To test for doneness, a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin should come out clean.
Best Served With
- Since these are relatively healthy donuts, you can enjoy them for breakfast or in the afternoon with coffee or tea.
Other Pumpkin Recipes
Other Holiday Recipes
- Gravy
- Juicy Turkey
- Mac and Cheese
- Stuffing
- Cranberry Sauce
- Pumpkin Pie
- Brussels Sprouts
- Sweet Potatoes
- Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- Roasted Squash
- Turkey Noodle Soup
- Butternut Squash Pasta
- Baked Apples
- Mushrooms
- Green Beans
- Whole Roasted Sweet Potato
Common Questions
If you do not own a donut pan, you can bake these into muffins by lining a standard-size muffin pan with liners, and then filling each liner halfway full with batter. The bake time will be about the same as the donuts. To test for doneness, a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin should come out clean.
If you don’t have a food processor, you can grate the sweet potato into the large holes of a cheese grater and then mix in the rest of the ingredients by hand.
These are the donut pans I use.
These donuts are best enjoyed within a few days of baking. Additionally, you can store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
Yes, you can freeze these donuts for longer storage, but just ensure they are properly sealed in an airtight container or freezer bag.
Please spray your pans well with nonstick cooking spray and even dust them with flour so they don’t stick.
Pumpkin Spice Donuts
Ingredients
- 1 sweet potato , (medium-size, yielding about 2 cups of chopped potato)
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup coconut sugar, or any sugar
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, or ground cinnamon
For the glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 2 tablespoons nut milk , or any milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a donut pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Peel and roughly chop the sweet potato. You should have about 2 cups. Add it to a food processor and process until it is coarsely shredded.
- If you don’t have a food processor, you can grate the sweet potato on the large holes of a cheese grater and mix in the rest of the ingredients by hand.
- Once the potato is processed, add the eggs, sugar, flour, oil, maple syrup, baking soda, baking powder, corn starch, and pumpkin pie spice to the food processor. Process for 30 seconds, turn off the machine, scrape down the sides of the processor, and process again until all the ingredients are evenly combined.
- Transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a large tip or a ziploc bag. If using a ziploc bag, cut off one corner of the bag. Pipe the batter into the prepared donut pan.
- Bake the donuts for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of a donut comes out clean.
- While the donuts bake, make your glaze: in a bowl, mix together the icing sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and nut milk. Add more milk, as needed, to reach the desired drippy consistency.
- Let the donuts cool, remove from the donut pan, and dip one side into glaze. Let the glaze set for a minute and then enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
OBSESSED with these pumpkin donuts! SO DENSE and DELICIOUS! The MINUTE it starts to feel like Fall, I whip out this recipe! HAHA! I’m a basic girly and love my pumpkin everything! No shame! Highly recommend you try these out!
I love baked donuts and would like to try your recipe but I have a question regarding baking time. You indicated that the donuts should be baked for 40 to 45 minutes…Is this correct? Most recipes recommend baking for about 15 minutes. I have seen baking time for as little as 8 minutes and as much as 18 minutes but never for 40 minutes. Is the reason for the long baking time is the sweet potatoes? Please clarify the baking time. Thank you.
Hi Rebecca, these require a longer bake time because they’re denser. Hope you love them 💗