Baked Mini Buttermilk Pumpkin Doughnuts with Brown Butter-Maple Glaze

  

I bet you can't bake these and not eat two before you get them anywhere near a serving plate. Or is that just me?



Baked Mini Buttermilk Pumpkin Doughnuts with Brown Butter-Maple Glaze
adapted from The Café Sucré Farine
Makes 12

For the Doughnuts:
100g cake flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
30g unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used grape seed oil)
40ml buttermilk
1 large egg
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Glaze:
30g unsalted butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon buttermilk, or a little more if needed
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup icing sugar, or a little more if needed

Make the Doughnuts:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Spray a mini doughnut pan generously with cooking oil spray. (I use olive oil spray).

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl and whisk to combine and break up any lumps. Set aside.

Put the melted butter, oil, buttermilk, egg, dark brown sugar, pumpkin puree and vanilla in a large bowl or measuring jug. Whisk to combine.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until combined. Pour the batter evenly into the pans. I have a purpose-built squeeze bottle for squeezing out pancake batter that I use for this, but if you don't have one (and why would you?), then just pour the batter into a disposable piping bag and cut a 1cm hole in the end.

Bake for 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the doughnuts comes out clean. Leave the doughnuts in the pan for 5 minutes before turning them out into a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.

Make the Glaze:
Put the butter into a small pan and melt on medium-high heat. Keep cooking the butter. The butter will melt then start to foam, then sizzle and turn nut-brown. Remove it from the heat and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

Add the dark brown sugar, buttermilk and maple syrup and whisk. Put the pan back on a medium heat and whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat. Add the vanilla and icing sugar and whisk until smooth. The glaze should be thick enough to thinly coat the doughnuts. If it's too thick add more buttermilk, if it's too thin, add more icing sugar.

Dip each doughnut into the glaze, covering 3/4 of the surface. Let the excess glaze drip back into the pan and then put the doughnut back on the wire rack to let the glaze set. Drizzle a little extra glaze over the doughnuts with a fork if desired. Allow the glaze to set for about 15 minutes before serving.