Vampire Pumpkin Spice Donuts

For those of you who may have just stumbled onto this blog and don’t really know me, it’s important you know one thing about beyond my love for sweets – I’m a dentist.  Yes, it’s weird and totally ironic, but I just happen to love teeth as much as I love the sugary sweets that break them down.  So if you spend enough time looking through my archives you’ll find an unnatural number of tooth-themed sweets.  There are tooth cupcakes (my favorite), vampire caramel apples, tooth cookies, and even lifelike teeth made out of chocolate.  So when I saw this idea for vampire donuts on Thrifty Fun last week, I didn’t waste more than a day before making them on my own.  I mean come on, just look how adorably scary they are!  And those pearly yet pointy whites??  The absolute perfect Halloween treat for Erica Sweet Tooth.

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But of course I couldn’t just buy a box of Krispie Kremes and stick some plastic teeth in them – I had to make the donuts from scratch, and definitely pumpkin flavored to be seasonal. I’ve been putting off buying a donut pan since I’m opposed to hoarding baking tools that are so single-purpose (especially now living in NYC), but I finally gave in and I’m so glad I did!  I’ve made baked apple cider cinnamon donut holes before, but those aren’t really the same as having the classic donut shape, so the pan is totally worth it in my opinion.  I’ve fried apple cinnamon donuts too, which require no fancy pan, but do require braving hot oil, which scares me ever since I burned my face with splatter a few years ago.  So I invested in the pan, made these delicious donuts, stuck in some plastic teeth, and totally had a blast doing it.  They were extremely easy to make, even considering I made the donuts from scratch, and this idea is even ridiculously easier if you get store-bought donuts.  So jf you’re planning a Halloween party in the next few weeks and love teeth as much as I do, these donuts will make the perfect addition to your dessert table.  Scary but cute and definitely sweet!

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I know I’ve said this before in past years, but I just love baking for Halloween.  There are so many flavors (pumpkin, candy corn, candy in general) and muses (vampires, ghosts, spiders), that the creativity you’ll see on baking blogs these days is sometimes overwhelming but utterly impressive.  It makes me want to throw a Halloween party just to have a reason to bake a fraction of the amazing treats I see throughout October.  Unfortunately I can only fit about 6 people comfortably in my apartment, so for now I’ll settle for the dentally-related desserts that catch my eye and appease my love for Halloween sweets :)

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Vampire Pumpkin Spice Donuts

Donut recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour

Yield: 18 donuts

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoonground ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Cinnamon sugar mixture (I did 1 cup sugar + 1 tbsp cinnamon)
18 sets of small plastic vampire teeth
Handful of chocolate chips
Red gel icing

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 6 cavity donut pan with nonstick spray.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, and pumpkin until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, baking powder, and flour. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture until just incorporated. Using a 1/4 cup measure or a large ice cream scoop, portion batter into the donut wells and bake for 12-14 minutes.

Remove the donuts from the oven, let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then gently coat with cinnamon sugar. The donuts will still be warm and fragile, but this allows the cinnamon sugar to stick well. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Wipe the donut pan and fill with batter again and repeat process.

For the eyes, I melted the chocolate chips in a ziploc bag and cut off the corner to pipe small circles. For "blood", squeeze 2 dots of red gel onto each donut. Close the teeth together in your fingers and squeeze them into the center of each donut. I found the pressure from the hinge started to break apart some of the donuts, so I ended up clipping the teeth in half so they weren't actually separated. This way there was no tension on the donuts.

Serve warm or store in an airtight container until ready to share!

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3 Responses to “Vampire Pumpkin Spice Donuts”

  1. #
    1
    sara — October 17, 2013 @ 5:15 pm

    OMG, these are seriously the cutest ever! Love!

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    2
    Mimi @ Culinary Couture — October 18, 2013 @ 1:51 am

    These are so perfect for your blog! Love em!

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    Baking Obsessed — October 22, 2013 @ 6:48 pm

    These are super cute! I will definitely have to make these for my kids’ Halloween party! Keep churning out those great ideas!!!

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