Frosted Pumpkin Mini Donuts

There was a yard sale 2 doors down from my house Saturday.  Couldn't resist taking a peek.  I found a mini donut pan for 50 cents.  Thought it was cute and would be fun to play with.  I figured there would be mini donut recipes online.  Or I could use a regular cake mix.  Or my favorite fall recipe for Frosted Pumpkin Cookies came to mind.

My search on the internet didn't yield anything exciting, so thought I'd go with my Frosted Pumpkin cookie recipe.  I thought it would work well for a couple of reasons.  One I really love maple frosted donuts.  Two the recipe makes a cake like cookie perfect for a mini donut.  Recipe is below, but see my notes below the recipe for instructions on how to use the recipe with a mini donut pan.

Frosted Pumpkin Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly
2 Large Eggs
1 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin
1/2 tsp Lemon extract
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup all purpose Flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup pecans, chopped

Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 T milk
3/4 tsp maple extract

Cream butter; gradually add brown sugar, beating well at medium speed of an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in pumpkin and flavorings.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Stir in pecans.

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 F for 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Frost with Maple Frosting. Makes 7 1/2 dozen.

Frosting: Cream butter; gradually add 1 cup powdered sugar, beating well at medium speed of an electric mixer. Add remaining sugar alternately with milk, beating until smooth enough to spread. Add maple extract, and beat well.

Lynne's notes for mini pumpkin donuts: I put a couple of tablespoons of milk in dough to loosen it up a little. I spooned pumpkin dough into a ziploc sandwich baggie (if you don't have a ziploc use a twist tie to close bag and keep dough in bag) and then cut the tip off enough to let the pecans pass and fill mini dough pan at least 1/2 way with one pass. This technique filled pan easily, quickly and without a mess. I buttered mini donut pan feared the donuts would stick. Last batch I sprayed pan with Pam and that worked great too.

I baked mini donuts for 8 minutes. The 10 minutes for cookies was too long for the donuts.  I made a 1/2 batch and it made 36 adorable and delicious mini donuts. 

For the frosting I added a tad more milk to loosen it up a little too. Don't want it too runny. Dipped top of donuts in frosting and placed on plate.

Make sure you set a few aside for yourself as your family will inhale them before you get back to the kitchen.

P.S. I make my own Pumpkin Pie Spice.  I always have all the spices to make it and I don't use it often enough to have a whole jar of it alone.

3 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground nutmeg

Stir to blend.  Makes 2 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice.