Baked paleo pumpkin spice donuts with a cashew cream maple frosting – in case you need a little motivation to get up in the morning!Â
I have a bit of a confession to make.
Let me just preface this quickly by saying that there are a lot of specialty food items that are really hard to find in England. Things that I used to easily get here in the US can be so hard to find – pumpkin puree being one of those things.
I somehow missed the fact that you can actually make your own pumpkin puree, and in my time of need I did what I often do and went to Amazon. A few clicks later I bought myself a single can of pumpkin puree.
I just got it in my head that I needed pumpkin.
That in itself isn’t the crazy part. The crazy part is that I actually paid £4.39 – that’s $6.71 USD.  I paid almost $7 dollars for a solitary can of pumpkin puree. Oops. I’m normally a very cheap frugal person.
Thankfully, Tracy from The Thing’s We’ll Make reminded me that you can in fact make your own pumpkin puree – quite easily! As an American Expat living Spain, Tracy knows all too well how difficult things can be to find. #TheStruggleIsReal. The next week I went out and bought an actual pumpkin and made my own puree using this guide by the Food Network. How about that!
Before I flew back to Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with my family, I noticed that I still had a bit of pumpkin puree left over that needed using. In my mind, left over puree = time to bake some donuts. Obviously. I think in my mind, baking is the solution to many of life’s problems.
Anyways, I’m going to go ahead and cut this this post short from now. I’m still slightly on English time, my dad just poured me a glass of wine. I have a feeling that wine and blogging don’t mix and I’m not particuarly interested in finding out. I’m on vacation, ok? Plus I have a very excited dog who has been dropping his toys at my feet since I sat down to write this. It would just be rude to ignore him much longer.
Long story short: paleo pumpkin spice donuts! And don’t forget about that maple glaze – Â I live for maple glazed things.
Paleo Pumpkin Spice Donuts with Maple Frosting
Baked paleo pumpkin spice donuts with a cashew cream maple frosting - in case you need a little motivation to get up in the morning!
Ingredients
Donuts
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, , melted
- 2 tablespoons coconut milk, (if needed)
Maple Frosting
- 3/4 cup cashews soaked in boiling water for at least 2 hours, (I like to start soaking the cashews the night before so it's ready for the next day)
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup, (or honey)
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil, , melted
Instructions
For the Donuts
- Heat your oven to 375°F/190°C. Grease your donut pans with a little bit of coconut oil and set aside for later.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk your eggs and pumpkin puree together until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, and coconut sugar and mix until fully blended.
- Add the almond flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt to the batter and mix until there are no remaining lumps. You may need to use an electric mixer for this part.
- Pour the melted coconut oil into the batter and beat until smooth. If your batter is too thick add the coconut milk to thin it out a bit.
- Spoon the batter into the greased donut molds fully filling the mold to the top. You can also scoop out the batter into a piping bag or large zip lock bag and pipe the batter into the molds. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Check the donuts about halfway through and flip around if your oven has hot spots.
- Allow the donuts to cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting
- Drain the water from the cashews that have been soaking for at least 2 hours and place the cashews in a blender with all of the other frosting ingredients and blend until smooth.
Notes
Recipe only slightly adapted fromPrimal Palate
Nutrition Information
Serving Size:
g Calories: 480Saturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 59mgSodium: 153mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 4gSugar: 18gProtein: 11gThis post contains affiliate links.  I only post links for products I personally use and believe in. If you make a purchase on Amazon after clicking one of my links, I receive a small commission and the price you pay is not affected.  Thank you!
Camisha says
Oh. My. Gosh. AMAZZING Donuts. I used a different recipe/made our own glaze because we didn’t have cashews or enough time but oh my goodness. And I did use honey instead of the sugar but I’m sure they’d be just as great because we use that sugar a lot!
Sarah Nevins says
Thanks so much Camisha! I’m so thrilled you enjoyed these – thanks for taking the time to come back to leave a review!
Rita Glynn says
Can you use an egg substitute instead of eggs??
Sarah says
Hi Rita! I haven’t tried this recipes using egg substitutes yet so I’m afraid I’m sure. I think a substitute like ener-g would work, but I can’s say for sure. Sorry I can’t be more help here!
Kerry says
Made these this morning without the glaze. Outstanding!
Sarah says
So glad you liked them! Thanks for coming back to let me know what you thought!
Heather says
Silly Question! Do you keep the cashews on the stove in boiling water or just boil some water, take it off the stove and put them in there for 2 hours? Can’t wait to try!
Sarah says
Not silly at all! Just boil some water once and use that! If you leave the cashews overnight you don’t even need to heat up the water at all. Hope you like then!
Pollyanna says
What can be substituted for coconut sugar? So excited about this!! Donuts?? Who would have thought!!
Sarah says
If you want to keep it paleo you can use 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey – it might change the texture slightly though since you’d be replacing a dry ingredient with a wet one. You can also use 1/2 cup or another type of sugar (brown, white, cane etc) if you don’t need to it be strictly paleo
Hope you like them as much as we do!
Melissia says
Just came out of the oven. I used arrowroot flour since I didn’t have tapioca flour. Used a doughnut pan and baked 18 minutes. These are some of the best paleo doughnuts I’ve made and had, and I cook, bake, and eat predominantly paleo. Didn’t need the addition of milk.
Sarah says
That’s fantastic! So glad you enjoyed them! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know how it went!
Erin says
what can you use in place of the tapioca flour?
Sarah says
You can use arrowroot if you want to keep it paleo and I haven’t tried this one myself but I’m almost positive that corn starch would also work here
Ashley says
Do you think this recipe could be altered using coconut flour and maple syrup instead of the other flours and coconut sugar? It’s all I’ve got…
Sarah says
Hi Ashley! Coconut flour really changes the texture/moisture in recipes since it’s such an absorbent flour so I don’t usually recommend swapping it one for one. You might like this recipe better – it’s not for muffins, not donuts, but if you really wanted you could always bake those in a donut pan as well. I haven’t tried that myself yet but I think it would be the same oven temperature and about the same amount of baking time