Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts

With their brilliant orange color, pleasingly moist texture, and delightful pumpkin flavor, these baked (not fried) doughnuts are the perfect on-the-go breakfast for a crisp autumn day.

Doughnuts
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar*
1 1/2 cups pumpkin purée (canned pumpkin)
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, or 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus heaping 1/4 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour**
*See "tips," below, for a lower-sugar option.
**See tips, below, to substitute Self-Rising Flour.

Coating
3 tablespoons cinnamon-sugar

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two standard doughnut pans. If you don't have doughnut pans, you can bake these in a standard muffin tin; they just won't be doughnuts.
2) Beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt, and baking powder until smooth.
3) Add the flour, stirring just until smooth.
4) Fill the wells of the doughnut pans about 3/4 full; use a scant 1/4 cup of batter in each well. If you're making muffins, fill each well about 3/4 full; the recipe makes about 15, so you'll need to bake in two batches (unless you have two muffin pans).
5) Bake the doughnuts for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. If you're making muffins, they'll need to bake for 23 to 25 minutes.
6) Remove the doughnuts from the oven, and after about 5 minutes, loosen their edges, and transfer them to a rack to cool.
7) While the doughnuts are still warm (but no longer fragile), gently shake them in a bag with the cinnamon-sugar. If you've made muffins, sprinkle their tops heavily with cinnamon-sugar.
8) Cool completely, and store (not wrapped tight) at room temperature for several days.
Yield: 12 doughnuts or 15 muffins.

Tips from our bakers
We've baked these doughnuts cutting the sugar back to just 1 cup; and while they were slightly less tender, we found them just as delicious. 

Want to make these doughnuts with Self-Rising Flour? Reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon; omit the baking powder, and substitute 2 cups (8 ounces) self-rising flour for the all-purpose flour. Bake the doughnuts for about 18 minutes. 

Don't wrap leftover doughnuts tightly in plastic; they'll become soggy. If you're not going to consume all of the doughnuts at one sitting, add the final coating of cinnamon-sugar only to those you'll eat; store the rest, without their sugar, on a plate covered with a cake cover; or in a plastic bag that's not fastened shut. Add cinnamon-sugar coating just before serving.