Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Donuts

These Baked Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Donuts are a fun fall breakfast or sweet fall dessert! It begins with an easy pumpkin donut recipe (with the addition of mini chocolate chips!) and ends with a cinnamon espresso glaze! 

These Baked Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Donuts are one of my favorite easy donut recipes of all time! I mean, who doesn’t love pumpkin donuts with chocolate chips and a sweet glaze on top??

Guys!

It’s official.

Fall finally made its way here and I’m so happy I could cry. (But for reals, I’ve got a pack of tissues nearby.)

We’ve pretty much had a prolonged summer, and while I do love me some summer, I can’t handle 100 degree temps in October. I just can’t.

I mean, we don’t get significantly cold temps in the fall, but I need it to be at least in the 70’s range to really enjoy the fall foods. Pumpkin Coffee Cake and a Maple Pumpkin Spice Latte just doesn’t taste the same in shorts and the A/C on full blast.

Technically, these sweet little Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Donuts were made a few weeks back (during the sauna fest of 2018), as I was hoping a “if you bake it, fall will come” thing would be happen (it didn’t). But, these were delish nonetheless!

All right, so the best gift I ever gave to myself was a donut pan. I use that bad boy all of the time (a couple favorites: Chocolate Espresso Donuts and Apple Pecan Donuts), and love how easy it is to make baked donuts at home.

(I’m a wuss, and learning how to make donuts from scratch with the whole yeast/hot oil thing gives me all the anxiety. With a donut pan, learning how to make baked donuts was a breeze.)

Also, I’m not entirely sure if this is true or not, but I’m pretty sure that, like, 3 baked donuts are the equivalent of a fried one.

It sounds about right, yeah?

Okay, so let’s get down to the nitty gritty (name that movie) of this recipe.

It’s a one-bowl donut recipe, which means the clean-up for this recipe couldn’t be easier! Less dishes and amazing food?? Sold.

If you add the glaze on top (which I highly recommend!!), you do technically use a second bowl… But it’s entirely worth it.

Oh, and lastly, you can totally make these in a mini muffin tin and turn these Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Donuts into mini chocolate chip baked pumpkin donut holes!

Baked Pumpkin Donuts with Chocolate Chips Tips & Tricks

• All right, so let’s talk about these baked pumpkin donuts. This donut recipe uses buttermilk, which is super important. Why? Well, since these are baked donuts, the richness that comes from the buttermilk helps make these donuts have a very similar texture to cake fried donuts.
• On that note, if you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own buttermilk! You can use a ratio of 1 cup milk to 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (or 1 Tbsp vinegar). Stir the milk and lemon juice together (or vinegar) and allow it to sit until the milk begins to curdle (about 5-10 minutes). Viola! And that’s how you make homemade buttermilk!
• Homemade baked donuts bake quickly so definitely keep an eye on them.

Donuts for life.

5 from 2 votes

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Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Donuts

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

12 mins

Total Time

32 mins

 

These Baked Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Donuts are a fun fall breakfast or sweet fall dessert! It begins with an easy pumpkin donut recipe (with the addition of mini chocolate chips!) and ends with a cinnamon espresso glaze!

Course: Breakfast

Keyword: baked chocolate chip pumpkin donuts

Servings: 7 Donuts

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Donuts

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp sour cream optional, it just yields a richer texture
• 1 Tbsp butter melted
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips semi-sweet (mini or regular-sized)

Cinnamon Espresso Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2-3 Tbsp whole milk 2% is fine as well
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp espresso powder you can omit this if you want, making a cinnamon glaze instead

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 6-count donut pan well.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add in add in the egg, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Gently stir until just combined (batter will be very thick).
4. Add in sour cream, butter, and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined.
5. Lastly, add in chocolate chips.
6. Spoon or pipe batter into the donut pan.
7. Bake donuts for 10-12 minutes, or until the donuts have risen and the tops of the donuts 'spring' back when lightly touched.
8. Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from the tray.
9. In a bowl, whisk powdered sugar, cinnamon, and espresso powder with vanilla extract and 2 Tbsp of milk until smooth (if the glaze seems too thick, add in the last Tbsp of milk).
10. When ready to glaze the donuts, give the glaze a quick stir, then dunk each donut about halfway into the glaze. Place donuts on a wire cooling rack to give the glaze time to set (about 10 minutes).
11. Enjoy!

Here are some other recipes you might enjoy:

Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies

Pumpkin Spice Candied Nuts