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Pumpkin Spice Donuts with Espresso Glaze

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★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

SODIUM COUNT: 12 mg sodium per donut; 279 mg in the entire recipe 

SPECIAL TOOLS: Standard donut pan. Don’t have one? See the blog post or the notes at the end of the recipe for alternatives.

Ingredients

Scale

Pumpkin Spice Donuts

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp sodium-free baking powder
  • 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ¼ cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt*
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 15-ounce can pumpkin ((plain, not pumpkin pie filling))
  • 1 cup sugar

Espresso Glaze

  • 2 cups powdered sugar ((sifted**))
  • 2 tsp espresso instant coffee ((like Medaglia D’Oro Instant Espresso Coffee))
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter ((melted))
  • 2 Tbsp milk ((more if you like a thinner glaze))

Instructions

Pumpkin Spice Donuts

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare the donut pan by spraying it with cooking spray. Set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice.
  3. In a separate larger bowl, whisk the oil, yogurt, eggs, pumpkin, and sugar until creamy.
  4. Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture until combined. Do not overmix.
  5. Fill a pastry bag (or a large Ziploc bag with a corner cut away) with the donut batter. Pipe the batter into the donut pans until each tin is 3/4 full (perhaps a hair more full, since the sodium-free baking powder doesn’t rise quite as well as regular baking powder).
  6. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until the donut springs back when you press it with your finger. Depending on the size of your donut pans, you may need to bake several batches.
  7. When the donuts are finished, let them cool on a cooling rack while you make the glaze.

Espresso Glaze:

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and espresso instant coffee. Add the melted butter, vanilla and the milk. I like a thick glaze; if you prefer a thinner glaze, add more milk (about 1 teaspoon at a time) until it reaches your favorite consistency.

Assembly:

  1. For easy clean up, place a sheet of parchment paper under a cooling rack. The glaze will drip onto the parchment paper and you can just toss it when you are finished.  (optional).
  2. Once the donuts have cooled, dip each donut in the glaze and place (glaze-side up) on a cooling rack, which will allow the excess glaze to drip away. Allow the donuts to rest for about 10 minutes, or until the glaze has firmed up a bit. (Or go crazy and eat them immediately. 🤷)
  3. These donuts are best the same day, but will keep for a few days in an airtight container.

Notes

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 24 servings, 1 donut per serving
Sodium: 11.6 mg, Calories: 155.8, Total Fat: 4.0 g, Saturated Fat: 1.0 g, Cholesterol: 25.8 mg, Carbohydrates: 27.9 g, Fiber: 0.7 g, Sugar: 19.0 g, Protein: 2.3 g.

* You can replace the Greek yogurt with apple sauce or with more oil. Both will change the nutritional breakdown.

** I highly recommend sifting powdered sugar to get rid of any lumps. This is especially important for thinner frostings and glazes.

If you don’t have a donut pan, you can bake these in a regular muffin tin, a mini muffin tin, or in a DIY donut pan. The oven temp stays the same for all three, but you will have to adjust the baking time. To make a DIY donut pan, follow the instructions at https://tiphero.com/diy-doughnut-pan-and-recipe/. I have tested each of these methods and they work fine; of these three our favorite was the DIY donut pan. For my full take on why we liked these best and how to adjust the recipes, read blog post above.

Note that the nutritional information, I counted 100% of the glaze. The reality is that you will lose roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the glaze (some will be left in the bowl and some will drip off). This doesn’t change the sodium count by too much, but it would change the total calories, carbs, and sugar content.

Find it online: https://www.sodiumoptional.com/pumpkin-spice-donuts/