Gluten-free Peanut Butter Pumpkin Donuts
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Happy Halloween! Despite Sandy’s best intentions to ruin Halloween, I’m persevering and celebrating it like I do every year. Luckily we have power and heat, so I’m really thankful for that. I’m still praying for my NYC & Jersey friends who aren’t having such luck 🙁 Send them some good vibes, okay? Since Sandy has had enough media coverage (that little B), let’s move onto something a little more uplifting, donuts! Gluten-free peanut butter pumpkin donuts with cinnamon sugar to be exact.
Donuts are as important to Halloween for me as Michael Myers, witches fingers and bite-size candy. When I was growing up, we always had donuts on Halloween. My mom would buy a dozen sprinkled, glazed and powdered and we’d munch on them with a glass of apple cider before we went trick-or-treating. So whenever I think of Halloween, I think of donuts. Soft, cakey, decadent donuts. I also think of the insanely elaborate costumes my mom made for us. Guys, she literally made me a headless horseman costume once, complete with a dangling head.
This year, I decided to keep the tradition alive and stick to my healthy point of view by making these gluten-free and low-fat!
You save over 5 grams of fat alone just by baking them. Then, I subbed out 1/2 of the oil with applesauce and used gluten-free all purpose flour (from Bob’s Red Mill) in place of regular. And you know what? You can’t tell a damn bit of difference. In fact, I was halfway through this post and realized I didn’t even mention these were gluten-free because I completely forgot they were.
They don’t look, taste or even feel like a gluten-free donut. They are so fluffy, moist and decadent without even a hint of dryness. I think the pumpkin and the applesauce help moisten the flour so they stay perfectly soft.
I made these last night and there are about 11 left. I made 22. With the rate we are going here, I doubt there will be any left come Halloween night. At least this means I’ll be too full to eat all the Halloween candy, right? RIGHT?
Gluten-free peanut butter pumpkin donuts
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Yields about 18 donuts. Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: About 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup reduced-fat peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- Dash of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour
- White sugar (for dusting)
- Cinnamon (for dusting)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a donut pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix vegetable oil, applesauce, eggs, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, peanut butter and cinnamon together until fully combined. Gradually add the baking powder, salt and flour and mix until fully combined.
- Fill each donut cavity about 2/3 the way full. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for about 2 minutes.
- While donuts are still warm, roll them into a mixture of white sugar and cinnamon. Let sit for another minute or so and enjoy!
Nutritional information per donut:
Calories: 147.5
Fat: 6 grams
Carbohydrates: 14 grams
Fiber: 4.3 grams
Protein: 9.9 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 4

Tags:donut recipes, gluten-free recipes, Halloween recipes, low fat recipes, pumpkin recipes
Happy Halloween, friend!
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