Pumpkin Cinnamon Apple Donuts

The beautiful fall flavors of pumpkin, cinnamon, and apples coming together into a wonderful cake doughnut perfect for the season! 

Alright, I've been getting far too behind at life. But when you think about it, how could I not? The last month...actually just the last two weeks. I mean, how on earth could I not get behind when our office manager gets fired in a big way, me and the boyfriend call it quits, our office had a board meeting....in which we had to smooth over all the byproducts of the office manager's mess, I catered a wedding, and then a breakfast, and went out of town for three days, and to top it all off my car is in the shop. Life. Is. Awesome. 

Actually life really is good. I can't complain. I mean, let's just look at that list the other way: I have a job, I have been loved, I have a semi-successful blogging life, I get to travel, I have good food and I have a car. Honestly, that pretty well puts me about the top of the ladder as far as I can see. I have a nice little life, even if it is a bit full. 

I have been promising wedding catering posts. I have been promising posts about my recent trip (and that is going to be one AMAZING post!). I have two other posts that I still haven't gotten to, but since every one of those sentences started with "I have" I'm just going to go ahead and say it means I have a lot to be thankful for! 

These little doughnuts are coming from the breakfast I did last week. They are chock full of yummy apples, and pumpkin and cinnamon and nutmeg, or in other words, chock full of YUM! I took a large parcel of them with us on the road trip. It was so hard not to eat them all in one sitting! I hope you like them too! 

Pumpkin Apple Cinnamon Cake Donuts

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

½ teaspoon Vietnamese cinnamon

½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup peeled, cored and chopped apple

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons Vietnamese cinnamon

apple cider or water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 doughnut molds.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, pumpkin and oil. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stirring just to moisten. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into doughnut molds filling roughly half full.

Bake for roughly ten minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool, and decorate accordingly.

To make the apple cinnamon glaze mix powdered sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Add cider or water until you reach the desired consistency. Dip each doughnut in and allow glaze to set.

Enjoy! 

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Pumpkin Chiffon is a light, smooth, creamy version of tradition pumpkin pie. It's my mother's favorite, and that right there says it all! :) Mama knows best, right?

For my birthday party we held a mini-pumpkin themed night. Or at least we tried to. We were going to play games like mini pumpkin bocce, capture the mini pumpkin, mini pumpkin relays, and of course, mini pumpkin pie eating contest! In the end, the weather made most of our plans impossible, and though playing in the rain can be fun....this would have been playing in a downpour. Not. So. Fun. 

We did however get to have our mini pumpkin pie eating contest and these little beauties were it! I made them in a cupcake tin! I'm not sure how it happened, but I FINISHED DEAD LAST! Everyone kept yelling at me not to be dainty. DAINTY?!?!?! Are you kidding me? I had pie across half my face! The stupid  adorable little pie kept scooting farther and farther away from me as I tried to eat it. I spent half my time trying to pull it back with my teeth so I could get another bite! Epic. Fail. My friends Tristan and Hugh won practically in a dead tie. Amazing. My favorite part had to be when someone commented "Wow. That was the best pie eating contest pie I've ever had!" ....first off, thank you, but secondly, how many of those have you had?!?! This was my first! 

In a few weeks I'm going to the Giant Pumpkin Regatta in Goffstown, NH. I hear the festival has a pumpkin pie eating contest. I hope so, because I could use a little redemption! 

I also recommend making the pumpkin chiffon filling and simply putting it into individual ramekins or hallowed out mini pumpkins as a pumpkin mousse dessert. 

Chiffon Pumpkin Pie

2 baked 9” pie shells or about 24 mini pie shells

4 tsp. gelatin

6 tsp. cold water

1 15 oz. can pumpkin

¾ cup milk

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

2 cups sugar minus 4 tablespoons

4 eggs, yolks and whites separated

To slightly beaten egg yolks, add ½ cup of the sugar, pumpkin, milk, salt, and spices.

Heat in a double broiler. Pour cold water in small bowl and sprinkle gelatin on top

of water. Once set add to hot pumpkin mixture. Mix thoroughly and cool. Beat egg

whites with remaining sugar to make a meringue. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour into

previously bake and cooled pie shells. Chill in refrigerator.

Phyllo Pie Shells

sugar

cinnamon

nutmeg

butter

phyllo dough

Make up a cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg mixture to your preferred ratios. Take phyllo and layer it, about four deep, brushing with melted butter in between each layer, and sprinkle the sugar mixture on every other layer. Press down into your molds and bake at 350 for a few minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool in the pan completely before trying to remove.