Pumpkin Spice Donuts with Espresso Glaze

It’s fall, and that means pumpkin spice everything. If you’re on a low sodium diet, that makes it tough to enjoy the breads, cakes and cookies floating around this time of year. So I went ahead and made some pumpkin spice donuts, and to make them even more delicious I topped them with an espresso glaze. Call them pumpkin spice latte donuts, if you’d like.  Either way – you’re welcome.

Okay, so I finally broke down and bought myself one of those donut pans so that I can bake donuts. The result is that you will probably get more donut recipes than you know what to do with, but is that really a bad thing? Without the frying, there’s a little less fat and I was able to cut it a little more by using Greek yogurt in place of oil.  They are still chock full of sugar and spice and all things delicious, but maybe are a little tiny bit better to eat than the fried original.

Since it is fall, I decided to try a pumpkin spice donut, and what pairs better with “pumpkin spice” than “latte”? Hence the pumpkin spice donut with an espresso glaze was born. I tinkered a fair bit with these, and practiced them with and without my donut tin.  I tried a regular muffin tin, a mini muffin tin, and a DIY donut tin.

Here’s my assessment of each different type of pan, listed from favorite to least favorite:

1. Donut Tin.  The donut pan that I bought (Wilton brand) was our favorite.  They are fun to eat and baked up very well. They take about 15-18 minutes to bake.
2. DIY Donut Tin. I followed the “How to make a Doughnut Pan” tutorial from Tip Hero to make my own donut tin. The donuts came out a little smaller than with my store-bought tin, but they worked out way better than I thought they would.  They were fun to eat, and took a little less time to bake – about 12-15 minutes.
3. Mini Muffin Tin. These ended up being more like donut holes.  They were a perfect snack size, and also fun to eat.  They took the least amount of time to bake, but very similar to the DIY donut tin – roughly 10-12 minutes.
4. Regular Muffin Tin. Definitely our least favorite.  They still tasted great, but were less fun to eat. The sodium-free baking powder doesn’t quite rise as well as regular baking powder, which helped make these a denser, heavier muffin.  They worked okay and tasted great, but the texture wasn’t our favorite. They also take longer to bake – about 20-25 minutes.

I used a pastry bag to pipe the batter into the tins and I found it easy and neat.  You can also use a large Ziploc baggie with the corner clipped to pipe the batter into the pan.  I tried both methods and they worked just fine. 👌  I prefer a glaze that sets up a bit, so that is how I wrote the recipe. If you prefer a sticky glaze, shoot me a message or comment on the recipe and I’d be happy to send you some tips. Speaking of glaze, I simply dipped each donut in the glaze and let it rest on a cooling rack (glaze-side up) until the glaze had firmed up a bit.  

By the way, these are best if you eat them the same day. If you are not planning on eating them the same day, only put glaze on the ones that you will eat. You can save the glaze in the fridge and either microwave it for 5-10 seconds to thin it out or add a splash of milk to get it to the right consistency.

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.

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 24 donuts 1x

Ingredients

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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))

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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.

The donut recipe is adapted from the King Arthur Flour recipe for Pumpkin Cake Donuts.