This Halloween my seven-year-old son decided to dress like “himself” which required no costume, while my five-year-old daughter chose to be Minnie Mouse. So uncool of her, I know! But at least we only had to spend money on one costume this year.

Then people started to tell us that our son has grown up. And I was like, “Really? He’s just seven!” I still have a hard time articulating what I should feel about it. But considered that kids only wear their Halloween costumes once or twice a year, and costumes are not cheap, we were pretty happy about our son’s smart choice!

Now Halloween is over. Mountains of candies are going to be consumed over the year or years. What we had to quickly deal with was the pumpkins that we used to decorate. We had a pretty warm fall this year. The two giant carved pumpkins at the door had started to show signs of rotting. I picked a few small sweet ones inside the house, steamed and pureed them for these pumpkin spiced donuts. What’s so awesome about this one-bowl recipe is that it’s quick and easy, and the donuts are so moist, fragrant and flavourful. They could be mini muffins too if you don’t have donut pans. Just use whatever you have. It doesn’t really matter what they look like, because afterall it will turn out to be absolutely delicious!

Ingredients (36 mini donuts):
Pumpkin Spiced Donut
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purposed flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cinnamon Sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease mini muffin pans.
In a large bowl, lightly beat the pumpkin, eggs, oil and vanilla.
Sift in flour, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. Mix with a spatula until moistened.
Carefully spoon batter in the donut pans only filling half way full.
Bake until risen and lightly browned, about 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
Mix sugar and cinnamon to make cinnamon sugar.
Coat each donut with cinnamon sugar.