Pumpkin Donuts Recipe

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These made-from-scratch, baked pumpkin donuts are easy and versatile.  Top them with one of the options below or your own favorites. Enjoy them as a snack, or pair them with some fresh fruit and Greek yogurt for a balanced breakfast.

Some mornings just require donuts. But when Autumn rolls around, you need a special kind of donut. A pumpkin donut!

A stack of Pumpkin Donuts sits in front of a plate full of them.

Why You Should Make These Pumpkin Doughnuts

  • These pumpkin donuts are a healthy alternative to greasy, carby, fried donuts.
  • These are made with all-natural ingredients and no refined sugars or fats.

Should Donuts Be Baked Or Fried?

When you buy a donut in the store, it’s deep-fried. But when you make them at home, you have the option to bake them, making them a much healthier experience while still getting all the flavor you hope for.

Are Baked Donuts Better Than Fried?

In my opinion, baked donuts are much better than fried donuts. Not just because they are healthier but because they taste better when they aren’t saturated with all that grease.

A white plate holds six Pumpkin Donuts.

Recipe Additions

If you want to play around with the flavor of these a bit, here are some suggestions:

  • Instead of pumpkin spice, try ground cinnamon or ginger, nutmeg, ground cloves, or a combination of any of those.
  • If you don’t mind the extra calories, make a pumpkin cream cheese to spread over the top of these instead of the glaze. Or, you can simply dip your donuts into the cream cheese if that’s easier.
  • Mix in about a half cup of finely chopped apple to the batter.

Recipe Tips For Baked Pumpkin Donuts

  1. If you use a silicone donut pan, make sure to set it on a baking sheet to make moving it in and out of the oven easier.
  2. You can add a little maple syrup to the glaze ingredients to get a maple glaze instead. One or two teaspoons should do the trick.
  3. If you prefer, use a mini muffin pan to make mini muffins instead of donuts.
A female hand holds up a pumpkin donut over a plate full of them.

About The Ingredients

Whole wheat flour – For the best results, use either whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour. Regular whole wheat flour will work, but it will give you a denser, breadier donut.

Egg – Room temperature is best.

Unsweetened applesauce – No sugar added.

Pumpkin puree – Not pumpkin pie filling.

Plain Greek yogurt

Pumpkin pie spice – No sugar added.

Baking powder – Make sure it’s newer. Older powder doesn’t work as well.

Salt

Baking soda

Unsweetened vanilla almond milk – Or plain.

Pure vanilla extract

Stevia

Glaze

Whey protein powder – I used cinnamon swirl, but vanilla is fine, too.

Unsweetened vanilla almond milk – Or plain.

Pure vanilla extract

Stevia – To taste if needed

How To Make Pumpkin Donuts

An oven display set to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ingredients for Pumpkin Donuts in individual bowl on a white table.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Gather and measure all your ingredients.

The batter for Pumpkin Donuts mixed together in a white mixing bowl.

Stir the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until you have a well-mixed batter.

Pumpkin Donut batter in a donut pan.

Carefully spoon the batter into a doughnut pan. Don’t fill too high, or you won’t have a hole in the middle of your doughnut when they are done baking. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick pulls out clean.

Baked Pumpkin Donut cooling in a donut pan.

Allow the donuts to cool. Cooling them on a wire rack is best.

Icing ingredients for Pumpkin Donut glaze on a white surface.

For the glaze, simply whisk all the glaze ingredients together in a small mixing bowl and pour over the cooled donuts.

An overhead view of Pumpkin Donuts on a white plate and a white table.

Let it dry a bit and serve.

Do Pumpkin Donuts Need To Be Refrigerated?

They do, yes. Store these in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Freezing

These freeze well. Wrap them well and store them in the freezer for up to 4 months.

Reheating

If you want to eat these warm, simply microwave them for a few seconds until warm. I don’t recommend warming these in the oven. They tend to dry out too much.

More Pumpkin Dessert Recipes

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A white plate holds six Pumpkin Donuts.

Pumpkin Donuts Recipe

Recipe Notes: Another variation I've tried is using two egg whites instead of the whole egg and ¼ cup raw coconut crystals in place of the stevia. For the frosting we've also used nonfat plain Greek yogurt with a packet of stevia and a few drops of vanilla extract.
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Course: Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 8 donuts
Calories: 75kcal

Ingredients

Donuts

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 large egg
  • ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
  • ¼ cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
  • cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • ¼ tsp. baking powder
  • tsp. salt
  • ½ tsp. baking soda
  • ¼ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or plain)
  • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • 4 packets stevia

Glaze

  • ½ scoop whey protein powder (I used cinnamon swirl but vanilla is fine too)
  • 1 tbsp. unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or plain)
  • ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • stevia to taste if needed

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350° F.
    An oven display set to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Gather and measure all your ingredients.
    Ingredients for Pumpkin Donuts in individual bowl on a white table.
  • Stir all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until you have a well-mixed batter.
    The batter for Pumpkin Donuts mixed together in a white mixing bowl.
  • Carefully spoon the batter into a doughnut pan. Don't fill too high, or you won't have a hole in the middle of your doughnut when they are done baking. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick pulls out clean.
    Pumpkin Donut batter in a donut pan.
  • Allow the donuts to cool.
    Baked Pumpkin Donut cooling in a donut pan.
  • For the glaze, simply whisk all the glaze ingredients together in a small mixing bowl and pour over the cooled donuts.
    Icing ingredients for Pumpkin Donut glaze on a white surface.
  • Let it dry a bit and serve.
    An overhead view of Pumpkin Donuts on a white plate and a white table.

Notes

Please note that the nutrition data given here is a ballpark figure. Exact data is not possible.

Nutrition

Serving: 1donut | Calories: 75kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 130mg | Potassium: 111mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 1230IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 40mg | Iron: 1mg

Recipe from the Gracious Pantry® archives, originally posted on 11/13/12.

Author: Tiffany McCauley

Title: Food and Travel Journalist

Expertise: Food, cooking, travel

Bio:

Tiffany McCauley is a nationally syndicated journalist and an award-winning cookbook author and food blogger. She has been featured on MSN, Huffington Post, Country Living Magazine, HealthLine, Redbook, and many more. Her food specialty is healthy comfort food recipes.

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26 Comments

  1. Donna Gehlken says:

    I can’t wait to try these. I love anything pumpkin. Are these a different recipe than your other doughnuts? I made those and they were pretty good. Thanks.

    1. graciouspantry says:

      Yes, this is a different recipe.

  2. Danielle @ itsaharleyyylife says:

    mm donuts are delicious! I have a little donut maker that I could put this recipe in! yummy!

  3. graciouspantry says:

    Hmmm…. I wonder if it’s dependent on the brand of protein powder you use perhaps? I’ll have to ask her and see what she used.

  4. graciouspantry says:

    Try hemp milk or coconut milk. I would think that any milk would work.

  5. graciouspantry says:

    Oh! Well that explains the green color. Spirulina is green.

    1. Well that’s good to know – thanks! It doesn’t have a green tint in the container, so I wouldn’t have guessed that was it. Thanks for diagnosing for me!

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  7. graciouspantry says:

    I’m not sure. I leave it up to my guest bloggers to provide that. You can use any calculator on the web site figure the data.

  8. GiGi Eats Celebrities says:

    These look ABSOLUTELY scrumptious! Totally wish I still ate sugar & flour – LOL

  9. Looks yummy! Great snack for over the holidays!

  10. graciouspantry says:

    I’m not sure, but I can try to find out.

  11. Lori MacKenzie says:

    Oops… please change my last comment… it should have said that I am looking forward, not that I am NOT looking forward… So sorry about that!!!!

  12. how many calories per donut?

    1. The Gracious Pantry says:

      Af – Sorry, you’d have to enter the recipe into a recipe calculator. This information was not provided to me by the person who shared the recipe.

  13. Kristy warren says:

    How do we prepare the glaze? There are no instructions for it. Unless, when she said whisk all ingredients together she meant the glaze ingredients too, bit I imagine not.

    1. The Gracious Pantry says:

      Kristy – Sorry about that. Just updated the post.

  14. Do you think I could just make this in a cake pan instead of into donuts?

    1. The Gracious Pantry says:

      Megan – It might be okay, but you’d probably have to play around with the baking time a bit. Let me know how it turns out!

  15. Christina says:

    I only have liquid stevia. Can I substitute that for the packets? If so, how much would I use? I can’t wait to try these. I think my boys will really like them. Thank you!

    1. The Gracious Pantry says:

      Christina – I’m sure you could, but you’d have to google a stevia substitution chart. I’m not sure what the exchange is. Let me know how they turn out!

  16. Made these with maple extract since I ran out of vanilla. So yummy! Thank you for the recipe. I didn’t realize that the recipe yields 12 mini donuts or 6 large donuts, so I had extra batter to make another batch 🙂

    1. The Gracious Pantry says:

      Daniele – Wonderful! So glad you enjoyed them! 🙂

  17. Can we use a 1:1 gluten free flour and Dairy Free yogurt with this?

    1. Paulette – Yes on the yogurt, but I’m not sure about the gluten free flour. I haven’t tried it. In theory, it should work. But I don’t know what the final texture will be like.