Liz Bakes for You: Orlandough PSL Old Fashioned Donuts
(this post contains affiliate links—which basically means I’ll link you through to the products I suggest and then if you buy them by following that link I will get a small little “thank you” commission from amazon. You can find all these at the bottom in the resources area. And, yes, Amazon is tracking how good my links do and will take back my ability to link to product and make money this way if within 180 days I’m not performing well enough. Yay!)
You could be eating donuts within the hour…
That is, if you have all the ingredients an hand, i.e. you also keep a can of pumpkin puree on hand at all times—maybe it was purchased in a pumpkin frenzy in 2020 when you encountered an end-cap FULL of pumpkin and thought “I’m going IN”—or maybe that was just me.
I, like everyone else, have a few traditions developed over the years around the fall-idays (that is “Fall-Holidays—Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas). Here are a select few:
I play “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on HEAVY repeat from Black Friday until New Years. I’ll admit an exception was made in 2020 and I began this tradition in September because I NEEDED it, okay?
I make some overly complicated dessert for Thanksgiving. It used to be one of the few times I had enough time to tackle an involved bake. And then I started a baking business and that time vanished into thin air. Ironic.
Pumpkin Spice Stuff .
It comes as little surprise that I am well within the bell-curve of “things most people like”—I love to dive into pumpkin and spice and pretend we have Fall here in Florida as soon as the rest of the country starts to whip out sweaters.
After the holidays, however, I do not want to see or speak of pumpkin for at least the next 8 months. I’m sure you all understand. It reminds me of a time I ate an entire box of Fudge Rounds after school one day and how few Fudge Rounds I ate after that incident.
But here we are, back again at the beginning of Fall and looking to get messed up by some cinnamon and clove. The best way I know to kick off this season is with Pumpkin Old Fashioned Donuts.
These donuts have a little crunch, a soft and caky interior, and a nice punch of pumpkin and spice. They HIT THE SPOT. In fact, the day I made them for Liz Bakes for You the smell of deep-fried spice slapped me across the face and transported me to all the comfy memories of my holidays’ past. I inhaled so deeply thinking “ahhh yeah that’s the STUFF.”
And that first bite of a still-hot, delicately sweet donut? Heaven.
Perhaps you’re also unaware of how much you are missing these donuts? For many people these flavors hit a similar epicenter of wholesome memories. The best part is this recipe comes together in minutes so you’re eating hot, delicious donuts in under an hour. If that doesn’t sell you, who knows what will.
Get you a dose of that good brain juice by frying up a batch of these donuts ASAP.
Looking to get your bearings a bit before diving into these homemade donuts? I got you! Check out my episode on Pumpkin Spice Latte Donuts on YouTube now and watch me make them from start to finish!
Pumpkin Old Fashioned Donuts, Pumpkin Spice Latte Variation— from Orlandough By Liz Doerr
Yield: 10-12 Donuts
You’ll need:
To read through this entire recipe before you start. I promise it’ll help. Watching the video should be a big help too!
Stand Mixer with paddle attachment
Bowl for glazing
3.5 inch donut cutter
Spatula
Rolling Pin
bench scraper (helpful but not 100% necessary)
Drying/Wire Racks (2 to 3)
Small pairing knife
parchment paper
Chopsticks for flipping donuts
4 inch deep pan to fry in (I use cast-iron)
Instant read thermometer
Spider to get donuts out of the oil (helpful but not 100% necessary)
Ingredients: I have preferences for most of these ingredients. They’re all linked at the end of the post
🎃 PUMPKIN SPICE DONUTS 🎃
3 1/2 cups AP flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbls baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground clove (see note below about these spices)
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk**
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
4 tbls unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Oil for Frying (1 qt should do it depending on pan size, make sure it has a high smoke point. I use corn. But vegetable or canola should also work)
If you don’t have these four spices on hand because you don’t have much other use for them grab a small pumpkin pie spice mix and save yourself from the clutter of the extra spices.
☕️ THIN COFFEE GLAZE ☕️
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 +1 tbls water
1 packet Starbucks instant coffee powder
Method:
Mix the dry ingredients: in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment on low combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
Mix the dough: Gently whisk the pumpkin puree, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and egg in a separate container to combine. Add this mix to the bowl of the stand mixer and pulse it a few times. Then turn the mixer on low and stream in the melted butter. The butter can seize up when it hits the cold wet ingredients so I like to stream it in to avoid this. Mix until the dough comes together. Don’t worry too much about some dry areas of the bottom of the bowl.
Roll out your dough: Get your table ready to roll out the donuts. Get your rolling pin, donut cutter, a spatula, and some flour for dusting. Using the spatula, turn the dough out onto a clean work surface—be sure not to put too much flour down yet as excess flour will get trapped in the dough and create large pockets potentially. Knead the dough into a cohesive ball with a relatively smooth surface, being sure to incorporate those dry spots if you have them. Once you believe it’s together, check the bottom and make sure the dough has sealed back together. If it hasn’t, just pinch it back together.
Cut out your donuts: Using the dough scraper if needed, pick up your dough and liberally flour the work surface. Place the dough back on the work surface, dust the top with some flour, and roll it out to between 3/4 inch thick. Pick up the dough from time to time to make sure you don’t have any stuck areas. Using your donut cutter and starting close to the edge, begin punching out donuts. Keep these cuts close by without overlapping. You want each donut to have a clean cut all the way around for a uniform donut. Once you cut out as many donuts as you can, bring the scraps back together into a ball and repeating the rolling-out and punching-out process until you can't cut out anymore donuts. Place your donuts on a pan so you can transport them to the frying area easily.
Prepare your oil: turn on the vent fan above your stove top. Remember if you have any issue with the grease/fire: smother it, don’t try to put it out with water. Grab your pan (my favorite is linked below, just be sure you use something with taller sides and wide surface area). Add 2 inches of oil to your pan and turn the burner on high—I like to set a timer to check on the temp after 5 minutes. You’re looking to get to about 350F. Once your oil reaches 350 F, turn the burner to just below medium heat to maintain the temp. Temp the oil from time to time while you’re frying—it will drop when the donuts are added and rise back up but you want to stay in the range of 325-365F whenever possible.
Prepare the pan for finished donuts: place a drying rack inside one of your baking pans. Position this pan right near the pan your frying in to catch the finished donuts.
Prepare to fry your donuts: Double-check your oil temp—make sure it’s at least 335 and not hotter than 375. If it’t too hot, turn off the burner and wait for it to cool to the temp zone. Grab your chopsticks and have your instant read thermometer handy. Grab your pan of donuts and bring it as close to the oil as you can. Grab your pairing knife and score each donut with four cuts in a grid pattern going about halfway through the donut. This will control the direction in which the donuts expand in the fryer.
Fry your donuts: Once scored, add your donuts to the oil. Be sure not to overcrowd the pan—generally it will fit 3-4 donuts at a time, you want them to have room to move around a bit.They will sink down. Once they float to the top of the oil again, check that they’ve opened up at the scored areas. If they haven’t, use your chopsticks or pairing knife to coax them open at those points. Once this is done, flip them over and set a timer for 90 seconds. Once they’ve cooked for 90 seconds on the first side, flip them again so the scored side it facing up again and fry for 65-75 seconds (less time if it took you a bit in the beginning to get the scored areas open).
Remove your donuts from the oil: Using your spider or your chopsticks, lift your finished donuts out of the oil and place them on the drying rack. Repeat the frying process with the remaining donuts.
Glaze the donuts: Once your donuts are cool enough to handle, dip the craggy side into the glaze. Keeping it in the glaze, jiggle it around a bit. Continuing the jiggling movement, gently begin to pull the donut out of the glaze until it’s free of it, then flip the donut over and place it back on the drying rack. When you pull it up out of the glaze, be sure the glaze is getting into the nooks and crannies. Repeat with the rest of the donuts.
Enjoy your fall-flavor packed pumpkin spice donuts!
Bonus Recipes:
Thin Vanilla Glaze (swap for the coffee glaze for plain pumpkin spice old fashion donuts)
3 cups of powdered sugar
1/3 +1 tbls water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Using a whisk, mix these ingredients together. You’re making a thin glaze so it will be runny—but it should still maintain a ribbon texture when you pull the whisk up out of the mix, it should’t drip. If it drips, immediately, it is too thin. Add a tablespoon on powdered sugar at a time til it’s the not longer immediately drippy.
Cream Cheese Buttercream (I use this for decoration in the YouTube Video—you can also use a similar technique from the Milk Bar Inspired Old Fashioneds and fill your pumpkin donuts with this—just be sure they’re fully cool before attempting to fill them.)
3 cups of powdered sugar
8 oz cream cheese (one package), room temp
8 oz butter (2 sticks), room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Pinch of citric acid if you have it
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine cream cheese and butter until homogenous. This is nearly impossible with both items cold from the fridge so be sure they’re room temp. Add in the sugar a cup at a time and mix until smooth. With the final cup of sugar add in the salt and citric acid and mix until smooth. Be sure the donut is completely cool before using this or it will melt.
You can also play around with swapping the pumpkin puree in this recipe for another squash (acorn, butternut) or sweet potato puree.
**A note on buttermilk:
Buttermilk is the byproduct of cream being made into butter. It is not the same as yogurt or sour cream which will have varying levels of water and fat when compared to buttermilk. However, I have had equal success with this recipe using sour cream, apple cider vinegar paired with WHOLE milk, or powdered buttermilk.
If you want to swap out the buttermilk (maybe you just don’t have it on hand and don’t want to go get it) for sour cream, just keep in mind the dough will be drier. You can add up to 1/4 cup extra sour cream in this recipe to get a similar result as buttermilk. With ACV + whole milk it is 1:1 with buttermilk. Combine just until a cup of milk with a splash of ACV and stir. Allow to curdle. Add to the recipe. For powdered buttermilk, follow the instruction on the package and add to the recipe as instructed.
One thing I haven’t tried is yogurt. If you’d like to try it out, go for it! Start with a 1:1 swap with the buttermilk and see how it goes. Or try out Bon Appetit recipe for Yo-nuts which was specifically designed to work with Greek yogurt.
Resources: Links to my preferred items!
Ingredients
King Arthur All Purpose Flour (full disclosure this is DEFINITELY cheaper at Publix or Costco)
Pink Himalayan Salt (I know people prefer kosher but this is what I’m used to and what I’ve tested this recipe with. Keep in mind some salts are saltier than others—sounds weird, doesn’t it?)
McCormick Imitation Vanilla Extract
McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice 1.12oz
Resources
Hit me up on Instagram with any questions I’m happy to help out with any questions you have about donuts and/or this recipe. Just shoot me a DM!
Kitchen Tools
Kitchen Scale (this one is well reviewed on Amazon. But similar to the one I use it requires AAA batteries and honestly I hate having to change them out, it’s a process... There are rechargeable ones as well if that’s your preference)
Thermometer (this is the one I use, but this one is also preferred by a lot of cooks)
Ateco Standard and Mini Donut Cutters (a set with both options in case you want to mix it up!)
Ateco Cutter Set (create a range of sizes with this one! Keep in mind the cutter in this set you should use from the center-hole of the donut is the second-from smallest one, not the smallest, for a regular sized donut—the smallest one will be too small for a regular sized donut)
Bench Scraper (this one has inch measurements on it which are great for donut letters (class coming soon!))
Bowl Scraper (set of two) (two seems like too many but these work so much better than spatulas for getting dough out of bowls and you might just get addicted to using them and need both…)
Lodge Cast Iron Pan with LID (love a lid, helps speed up the oil heating imo—not backed by any evidence just me thinking it—and also nice to have so once you’re done frying you can cover it up and curb the oil smell a bit)
Rising Pan Options: similar to what I use here (set of two) and exact ones I use here but not an affiliate link
Cooling Pans and Racks (set of two, perfect for this batch and other cooling and glazing needs!)