Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfaits and Baked Pumpkin Donuts

I finally got into my first can of pumpkin for the season and also used my donut pan for the first time. I had some cooked quinoa in the fridge and saw this fun idea for a Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfait. I've tried other recipes that use quinoa in a non-savory breakfast way and this was a great one. Very original and a great way to change up the humdrum of your normal breakfast, snack or dessert.

I also saw this recipe for Baked Pumpkin Donuts that uses melted ice cream in the batter. I had just the perfect amount of leftover vanilla ice cream in my freezer from a recent birthday and whipped these up just in time for my husband to take them to work with him in the morning. I didn't get to try one, but my kids really enjoyed the mini donuts!

Here is the recipe for Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfaits
* I used plain nonfat greek yogurt and added a little bit of pure maple syrup
* I used less graham crackers crumbs than called for
* I topped it off with some crumbled pecan nut clusters

Here is the recipe for Baked Pumpkin Ice Cream Glazed Donuts

Mini Pumpkin Donut Muffins

These Pumpkin Donut Muffins have been popping up all over.
I saw them in Everyday Food Magazine and definitely wanted to give them a try.
The nutrition information was a little bit scary to me for the regular size muffins, but I guess that is where the "donut" part of this recipe got the better of the muffin.

I decided that I would have to make minis, in order to make all of that go away. The Food Librarian beat me to it- check out her post about these HERE

My daughter had to bring a snack to school, so I knew that mini muffins would be a great way to have a little something sweet to share with her class. She saw the picture of them and was very excited about having them as the snack. The other kindergarteners were excited too. These mini muffins were a huge success.

I sent the rest of the minis with my husband to work and they were enjoyed by everyone.
I sampled one and they were really delicious.
These could be dessert of breakfast. You decide.
The perfect little goodie for the holidays!


Recipe for Pumpkin Donut Muffins
* I made mini muffins and got 48 from the full recipe
* I used half the amount of melted butter called for for the tops of the muffins. I dipped the top of each mini muffin in the melted butter and then put the mini muffins in the cinnamon-sugar topping. Because the mini muffins were warm, some of the cinnamon-sugar topping stuck to the parts of the muffin that had not been dipped in melted butter.

Spiced Pumpkin Doughnuts

Let me just start out this post by saying that I do not enjoy frying foods at home. I rarely ever do it. And even when I do fry things, I use just a tiny bit of oil.
I saw these Spiced Pumpkin Donuts in, (surprise!), a holiday baking magazine and loved the fact that the dough was very simple to mix together- there was no yeast involved, and was interested in a pumpkin flavored donut.

I mixed up the donut dough/batter the night before I wanted to fry the donuts because it had to rest for at least 3 hours in the fridge, so I figured why not overnight?
I decided to make them on a school morning, so I had to get up a little earlier than usual to get them done. It was the day that I was taking my mom back to the airport. It also happened to be my son's teacher's birthday. He wanted to take her something, so he ended up bringing her a warm donut.
These donuts couldn't be easier. (Sorry the picture above is so blurry! My camera was dying and I was hurrying to get to the airport)
Like I mentioned before, you mix up the no-yeast-involved dough and let it rest in the fridge for couple of hours. Then you roll out the dough, but it into donut shapes and fry them for a few minutes on each side. Then they are rolled in a spiced sugar mixture.
I let my kids each have one, my son took one to school for his teacher and my hubby took the leftovers to work. The flavor was good and the spiced sugar was really tasty on these donuts.

When I went to fry them, I only had a tiny bit of canola oil, so I barely had enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan I was using. I was scared that the donuts wouldn't puff up or cook because I didn't have enough oil, but they still came out just right.

If you have a special occasion over the holidays or want to make a special breakfast, these donuts would be a perfect addition!

Recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Doughnuts

Buttermilk Donuts

I don't love donuts. They are one food that I can have in the house and I will never even want to take a bite. They just aren't my thing. My husband on the other hand, can and will eat a dozen Krispy Kremes without blinking an eye. In less than 24 hours. How do I know this? He has done it before. The other day, my friend called me and said that she had found a really interesting recipe for donuts that didn't use yeast, didn't have any resting time for the dough, and she wanted to give them a try. I told her to come over and we had hot donuts less than a half an hour later. Seriously.

My friend found this recipe in an old, little booklet called Famous Mormon Recipes by Winnifred Jardine. She had been given the booklet by her grandmother and I realized I had seen this recipe in the local paper a couple of months ago. I have the link to the article below. I also realized that this compilation of recipes was put together by Winnifred Jardine, who wrote a meal plan/grocery list/ cookbook, that my mother used all the time when we were growing up. That really has nothing to do with this recipe, but it was interesting to me.

We were both amazed at the simplicity of this recipe. You stir together eggs, sugar and buttermilk (we even used low-fat buttermilk), mix together a few dry ingredients, combine those together and add a little melted butter. We did this all with a spoon.

Then you roll out the sticky dough on a floured surface, cut out the donuts and fry away. We fried them in an electric skillet, in about an inch of canola oil. The dough was quite thin, but when the donuts hit the oil, they puffed up beautifully. We drained them on wire racks, with paper towels underneath, and dusted them heavily with powdered sugar.

We had happy family members who came home from school and work to warm donuts.

We were both delighted by the texture and flavor of these donuts. They were very light, not too sweet, and the hint of nutmeg was perfect. The donut holes were perfect for my younger kids. Unfortunately, the true donut lover in my family was not here to taste them, but I just might have to make them again to get his opinion.

If you have wanted to try making homemade donuts, this is a really easy recipe to start with. Let me know how it goes!

here is the article that was in the local paper a couple months ago about these donuts

here are 3 different recipes variations of this donut

Brigham Young's Buttermilk Doughnuts (Modernized by Winnifred Jardine in "Famous Mormon Recipes")

This recipe belonged to Emily Dow Partridge Young, wife of Brigham Young and my great-grandmother. Because there was not a great variety of foods, when something was made it was generally made in large quantities and Grandmother Young's recipe was double this size. You may double the recipe or cut it in half and you'll find the doughnuts are as tender and crispy and delicious as anything made out of a modern cookbook. Nutmeg, incidentally, was the chief spice in the early days and was grated tediously by hand over tiny metal nutmeg graters.

2 cups buttermilk (we used low-fat)
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
5 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons (baking) soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 cup melted butter or shortening

Combine buttermilk, eggs and sugar and blend well.

Beat in sifted dry ingredients.

Then stir in melted butter.

Roll or pat dough on floured board about 1/4 inch thick and cut with 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter. Fry in hot fat (canola oil) (375° F) till golden brown on both sides. Drain and sprinkle with sugar as desired. Makes two dozen doughnuts. (We had at least 40 donuts and lots of holes)

Coming Tomorrow- TWD- Fresh Mango Bread Muffins