Baked, not fried, and coated in a delicious Cinnamon Maple Cream Cheese Glaze, these Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Donuts are the ultimate fall breakfast (or dessert!)
Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary! And we’re celebrating with donuts!!! (or doughnuts? I’ll never know.)
That’s right, 3 years ago TODAY, I tricked this handsome stud ↓↓↓ into marrying me. And wooooo boy did I hit the jackpot or WHAT?! I’m pretty sure they coined the term “better half” in reference to the cutie below. Seriously, he’s my everything and more, but I won’t bore you with all of the gushing (that could probably go on for days.)
But, goodness, it’s funny how time flies by. I look at these photos and could swear that this was all only a month ago, but then I do I double-take and think, “did we ever really look that young?! That must have been forever ago!” … or 3 years. Toe-may-toe, Toe-mah-toe.
So why doughnuts (donuts?) to celebrate and not, say, a cake? …you know, like normal people.
I could tell you that it’s because of that whole “they’re a circle and a circle never ends” thing (cue: awwwwww) but it’s not.
I could also tell you that it’s to keep with tradition, as we’ve never had cake on our anniversary — nope, not even on year 1 — which wouldn’t be a lie since some cake monster yours truly has no self-control around leftover gluten-free wedding cake (yes, we froze it to eat on our 1 year anniversary, and yes, I polished it all off 10.5 months prior to that) but that’s not the real reason, either.
I thought donuts would be a fun, unique way to celebrate since we had DONUTS for the guests at our wedding in lieu of serving wedding cake!
You see, our venue was an old train station turned restaurant in Pittsburgh, and they are known for this awesome antique donut machine and the doughnuts that it produces. Seriously, most delicious things ever (not gluten-free though – womp womp). And since we had the whole gluten-free wedding cake dilemma – SO EXPENSIVE to serve to everyone! – we thought: who wants cake when DONUTS are an option, anyway? No brainer, people. (Don’t worry, as I eluded to before, we did have a small gluten-free cake to cut for tradition’s sake).
Soooo it only makes sense to celebrate our anniversary with a big ol’ batch of gluten-free pumpkin spice donuts with a big ol’ smear of maple cinnamon cream cheese glaze, righhhhht? Yup. Knew you guys would agree.
While the donuts at our wedding were most definitely fried donuts, I thought it would be nice to break tradition just a little bit — you know, in favor of still having a sliver of a chance of still fitting into my wedding dress (not that I’m planning to try – don’t you worry haha) — so I went the baked route for these celebratory donuts. (This is my most favorite donut pan!)
Disclaimer: baking the donuts does make them a bit more on the cakey side of things — you won’t quite get those crispy, crunchy edges — but they’re BAKED! Which obviously means it’s okay to have more than 1… or 2… or even 3. We are celebrating after all. 😉
For these celebratory donuts, pumpkin is the only choice for us for 2 reasons:
1) It’s FALL (in case you hadn’t heard) and OCTOBER, which means that all pumpkin everything is now OFFICIALLY allowed.
2) I love pumpkin spice SO much, I always wanted to have pumpkin pie at my wedding in place of wedding cake, but then the whole donut option presented itself and, as you may know, donuts always win. Duh. So now that I have control over the donut batter, it’s pumpkin spice donuts all the way. Best of all worlds. amiright or Am.I.Right.
The thing you will probably love MOST about these gluten-free pumpkin spice donuts? (Other than the fact that they are PUMPKIN, gluten-free, and have an adorable story behind them 😉 of course) the maple cinnamon cream cheese glaze.
This glaze is so good, it had Anthony and I straight up fighting over who got to lick the bowl. Cream cheese frosting meets powdered sugar glaze; packed with rich, luscious amber flavor and a sprinkle of cinnamon — who could possibly resist? Certainly not me!
One very important piece of advice for the glaze: don’t be like me – glaze the entire donut. I only glazed the top halves, and what a mistake that was! When I make these again (probably tomorrow, let’s be honest) I’m definitely going for the whole thing.
Well, I’m off to go celebrate with my wonderful husband over a gluten-free pumpkin spice donut (or five) and a big almond milk latte.
And get this, tonight we’re going to dinner at a restaurant here in Philly called Pumpkin for the second half of our celebration! I wasn’t joking when I said I loooove pumpkin! 😉
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Donuts
- PUMPKIN DONUTS:
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup canola oil
- 1 egg
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 ½ cups gluten-free flour blend
- 1 teaspoon xanthun gum (omit if your blend contains it)
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoons soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- MAPLE CINNAMON GLAZE:
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 oz cream cheese
- 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly spray the cavities of the donut pan with cooking spray.
- In your stand mixer or in a large bowl, thoroughly mix the sugar, oil, egg and vanilla together. Add the pumpkin puree, and mix in until fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, mix the gluten-free flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. Spoon or pipe (using an icing bag) the batter into the donut pan, filling just to the rim of the pan.
- Bake the donuts at 425 degrees for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for another 7-9 minutes.
- Remove the donuts for the pan and allow them to sit for 2-3 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the rest of the batter.
- While the donuts are baking, prepare the glaze: using an electric mixer or stand mixer, mix the cream cheese, milk and powdered sugar together until smooth and fully combined. Add in the cinnamon and maple syrup, and mix for another 30 seconds.
- Once the donuts are mostly cool, gently dip them into the glaze one by one, and return to the wire rack to allow the glaze to set.
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