The weather has been so murky and misty lately that I decided to try out an autumn recipe early with the children who are on ‘summer’ holidays.  These are very moist, sour cream doughnuts, spiked with cinnamon and coated in pumpkin pie spice sugar.

The doughnuts are baked rather than fried, so you don’t have to heat a vat of oil and then worry about the kitchen catching fire. Or is that just me?

I used to have a neighbour who refused to deep fry in her kitchen, due to the oily residue left behind. Her family still wanted deep fried chips, so she had her deep fat fryer installed in the garage and made them do it outside!

Anyway, no frying here, just baked delicious and gently spiced doughnuts, brushed with melted butter and coated in pumpkin pie spice sugar.

The doughnut moulds I used came from Amazon.  They are silicone, full sized and come in a set of three, so no waiting while one batch cools before baking off the rest.

I have used one of my disposable piping bags to pipe the batter into my doughnut moulds, but you could easily make these in a mini muffin tin too.

These are so quick and easy to make, I have also used cups here, so no weighing out either.

Ingredients:
½ cup sour cream
1 extra large egg
1tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup vegetable oil + a little extra for greasing the doughnut mould
½ cup golden caster sugar
1 cup plain/all-purpose flour
1½tsp cinnamon
½tsp baking powder
½tsp baking soda
½tsp salt

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC and prepare the doughnut moulds.  This recipe makes 8 full sized doughnuts, but if you have a mini doughnut mould, you will get more

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk together the sour cream, egg, vanilla, oil and sugar together until its light and smooth.

In another bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon together.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.

Transfer to a piping bag, cut off the end and pipe the batter into the prepared moulds.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Leave in the moulds to cool for 5-10 minutes while you prepare the coating.

Pumpkin Pie Spiced Coating:
1 cup golden caster sugar
2tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
Generous knob of butter – melted and cooled

Method:
Brush the doughnuts with the butter and place into the sugar.  Using your hands, completely coat the doughnut in the sugar, tapping off the excess.

Enjoy while fresh and warm!