I've been craving donuts like crazy for over a week and on a bit of baking kick, so I just had to share these. My partner and I demolished the entire pile in one day. We've been recovering from a two-week-long bout of the flu and living mostly on shop-bought red pepper hummus and easy pasta recipes. I think we both missed the comfort of something a bit more lovingly made!

These are everything you'd want from a sugar donut / doughnut, minus the greasiness, mess and effort of deep-frying. While they're definitely a bit easier on the calorie count than their oil-dipped brothers, they're by no means a 'diet' food. There's still plenty of indulgence going on.

The bread dough is made soft and rich with the addition of pumpkin, milk and butter -I used plant based of course!

Although proofing bread is time consuming, it's very passive. If you're experiencing the chilly cold days we are,you can throw this together then wrap yourself in a blanket and plop yourself in front of Netflix while it does its yeasty thing.

I decided to cut these ones into cute pumpkin shapes, but they honestly weren't super recognisable after the second rise, so I'd recommend a classic round shape, unless you've got a cutter you've got your heart set on!

After baking these, the house smelled amazing. There's nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread, especially of the enriched variety. Better than a yankee candle any day.

While they're still hot, they're brushed with butter and rolled in gorgeous cinnamon sugar, leaving them really looking the part. I'd happily serve these up without mentioning they weren't fried - they really are that good! They are definitely best eaten very fresh, still warm if possible, but I expect they can also be refreshed with a splash of water in the microwave too.

Baked Pumpkin Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

makes 10-12

(vegan, dairy free, egg free, soy free, nut free)

Ingredients For the donuts:

⅔ cup milk of choice (I used soy)

⅓ cup mashed, roasted pumpkin or squash flesh (or use canned pumpkin)

3 tablespoons butter of choice (I used a plant based one), plus extra for glazing

2½ cups plain flour

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

1¼ teaspoons instant yeast

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cinnamon sugar:

⅓ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon sugar

Method