Sourdough Pumpkin Donuts
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It’s easy to make homemade Sourdough Pumpkin Donuts at home using real pumpkin puree, pumpkin spices, and sourdough discard.
The pumpkin puree and sourdough discard keep the fried (or baked) donuts soft for days. They’re crispy on the outside and rolled in pumpkin spice sugar, with tender, moist interiors – perfect for dunking!
Serve the sourdough pumpkin donuts for Thanksgiving breakfast or as a fall dessert, and don’t miss out on frying up the holes to enjoy addictive pumpkin donut holes too.
My detailed recipe will guide you through every step of the process, including how to bake, fry, and store the sourdough discard pumpkin donuts, as well as substitutions and baking options.
👉 Try more fried sourdough recipes, such as Sourdough Apple Cider Donuts, Sourdough Churros, and Sourdough Beignets.
👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Moist and tender interior with a crispy exterior, similar to Dunkin’ Donuts’ pumpkin donuts.
- An easy fall sourdough recipe.
- Can fry or bake.
- You can chill the donut batter overnight to make pumpkin donuts in the morning.
- Made with real pumpkin puree and pumpkin spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
- Tossed in pumpkin spice sugar.
🔍 Tips for Making Sourdough Pumpkin Donuts
- Chill the donut batter for at least an hour before cutting out for easier cutting and to allow the flavors to infuse. This is important for most cookie and muffin recipes.
- Only lightly flour the surface and your cookie or donut cutters as needed to prevent sticking, like making Flaky Sourdough Biscuits.
- Roll out scraps to make more pumpkin donuts or make donut holes.
- Keep a thermometer in your frying oil so it stays within the optimal range and doesn’t get too hot or too cool.
- Wear gloves while frying for safety.
🛠 Tools Needed
- Baking scale
- Flour and sourdough starter can weigh differently from person to person, so weighing your ingredients is the best option! Measuring your ingredients by weight will make your baking more consistent and accurate.
- Whisk, for mixing
- 3″ Donut or Cookie Cutter
- If frying, you’ll need to cut out the donuts with a 3″ donut cutter or a 3″ cookie cutter and a 1″ cookie cutter for the holes.
- Large pot or Dutch oven, for frying
- Instant-read Thermometer, for frying
- Spider Strainer, or slotted spatula for frying
- Donut Pan, if baking
🛒 Ingredients Needed
- All-purpose flour
- You can substitute with a gluten-free flour to make gluten-free pumpkin donuts, such as cup-for-cup or measure-for-measure.
- Use whole wheat flour for a heartier donut.
- Baking Soda
- The baking soda helps the donuts rise.
- Baking Powder
- Helps keep the donuts soft and tender, in addition to rising.
- Salt
- Pumpkin Spices
- Use pumpkin pie spice or a combination of warm spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, and clove.
- Pumpkin Puree
- I use canned Libby’s pumpkin or you can make your own roasting a pumpkin.
- Eggs
- For structure, binding the donuts, richness, and moisture.
- Granulated sugar
- For sweetness and structure. Also, for rolling the donuts in after frying.
- Light brown sugar
- Adds molasses flavor, moisture, and sweetness.
- Vanilla Extract
- Use real vanilla extract or vanilla paste, not imitation.
- Sourdough Discard
- If you don’t have an active sourdough starter, learn how to make one in a week following my how-to guide. See my top sourdough starter tips and other sourdough discard recipes.
- Unsalted butter, melted
- Melt and cool the butter slightly before mixing.
- Can substitute with coconut oil.
- Frying Oil
- I use a neutral-flavored frying oil like vegetable or canola oil, but any high-smoke-point frying oil will work, like refined coconut oil, peanut, or avocado oil.
- If you decide to bake these, you don’t need frying oil.
🎃 How to Make Sourdough Pumpkin Donuts
Follow this detailed recipe guide as you make the best Sourdough Pumpkin Donuts.
1. Mix the Wet Ingredients
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, pumpkin puree, vanilla, sourdough discard, and sugars together until thick and creamy.
Pour in the melted butter last to incorporate and set aside.
2. Mix in the Dry Ingredients
In a small separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin spice.
Then, pour the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients and mix with a spatula just until combined.
3. Chill the Batter
To help the flavors meld and make cutting out the donuts easier, it’s important to chill the batter for at least an hour.
What works best is to line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, lightly flour it, and scrape the donut batter onto the sheet pan. It may seem a bit sticky like cake batter at first.
Flour the top of the batter lightly and use floured hands or a rolling pin to pat the dough down into a ½” thick slab. That way, it’ll chill faster and it’ll be ready to cut out as soon as you’re ready to fry.
Make Ahead: At this point, you can cover the batter and refrigerate it overnight to make in the morning.
If baking, then you can spoon the batter into a piping bag to bake in a donut pan.
4. Cut Out the Donuts
Use a floured 3″ donut or cookie cutter to cut out the donuts and center holes.
Re-roll or pat down scraps back to ½” thick and cut out more. You should get about 16 donuts, and I keep the holes for making pumpkin holes, too.
Refrigerate while you fry the oil.
5. Fry
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat a few inches of frying oil to 350ºF-375ºF (177ºC-190ºC). Use a thermometer to maintain the oil in this range and wear gloves for safety.
Set a large plate aside, lined with paper towels, to soak up some of the oil.
As the oil warms, combine the sugar and pumpkin spice in a wide bowl for tossing the donuts in after frying.
Fry a few donuts at a time in the oil. They may sink at first, but should puff up like Sourdough Bagels and float in the oil after a few seconds.
Fry on one side for 1.5 minutes, then flip over with a slotted spatula and fry for an additional 1.5 minutes on the other side. Remove the donuts with the slotted spatula or spider strainer and place them on the paper towels to cool slightly.
Check the frying oil temperature and repeat the process with additional donuts and donut holes.
After cooling for a few minutes, toss the donuts in the pumpkin spice sugar mixture to coat.
Serve the sourdough pumpkin donuts warm or at room temperature.
Note: Don’t throw away or pour extra frying oil down the drain. Instead, let it cool completely, and strain it into airtight containers to re-use again.
How to Store
Fried donuts are best served the day they’re made, but these pumpkin donuts will remain moist and tender for up to 3 days at room temperature in an airtight container after preparation.
If you’re baking the donuts, they may last up to 4 days at room temperature.
You can refrigerate the donuts for a week to keep, but the texture may change slightly and become less crispy on the outside if fried.
I do not recommend freezing cooked pumpkin donuts as they can get soggy during thawing.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Can I double the recipe?
Yes. Simply double all of the ingredients.
How do I bake sourdough pumpkin donuts?
I recommend frying these donuts for the best flavor and texture, but you can also bake them.
To bake, pipe the donut batter into a donut pan and bake at 350°F for about 12 minutes, until browned and the interior temperature reaches 200°F.
Can I add a glaze?
Instead of coating pumpkin donuts in sugar, you can dip them in a glaze made with powdered sugar.
Some flavored glazes I recommend pairing with pumpkin donuts are maple syrup, cream cheese, cinnamon, or salted caramel glaze.
Why are my donuts oily?
Ensure the frying oil is hot enough and do not overfry them. If the oil is too cool, they take longer to fry, and the oil can seep into the batter.
What other sourdough pumpkin recipes do you have?
I have so many sourdough pumpkin recipes that I have a whole category dedicated to them!
Some other sourdough pumpkin favorites are Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread, easy Sourdough Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread, my popular Sourdough Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins, and these viral Sourdough Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.
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Sourdough Pumpkin Donuts
Equipment
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Half Sheet Pans, lined with parchment paper
- 1 Dutch Oven or Large Pot, for frying (or donut pan for baking)
- 1 Instant read thermometer, for frying
- 1 Spider strainer, or slotted spatula, for frying
- 1 3" Inch Donut Cutter, or 3" and 1" cookie cutters, for frying
Ingredients
Sourdough Pumpkin Donuts
- 226 g Pumpkin Puree, 1 cup, I use Libby's
- 100 g Granulated Sugar, ½ cup
- 100 g Light Brown Sugar, ½ cup
- 2 Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 120 g Sourdough Discard, or active starter, ½ cup
- 85 g Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled, 6 TBS
- 420 g All-purpose flour, 3 cups
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice, or 1 tsp of cinnamon, ½ tsp ginger, ¼ tsp nutmeg, and ¼ tsp clove
- Neutral Oil, for frying, such as canola, vegetable, avocado, or coconut oil
Pumpkin Spice Sugar
- 100 g Granulated Sugar, ½ cup
- 1 tsp Pupkin Pie Spice, or cinnamon
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the pumpkin puree, sugars, eggs, sourdough discard, and vanilla together until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the melted butter last and set aside.226 g Pumpkin Puree, 100 g Granulated Sugar, 100 g Light Brown Sugar, 2 Eggs, 2 tsp Vanilla Extract, 120 g Sourdough Discard, 85 g Unsalted Butter
- In another mixing bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Then, dump the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix with a spatula just until combined and no floury spots remain.420 g All-purpose flour, 1 tsp Kosher Salt, 2 tsp Baking Powder, ½ tsp Baking Soda, 2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
- If frying (see baking instructions in the notes below), line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly flour the parchment and scrape the thick sourdough pumpkin donut batter on top. Flour your hands and gently pat down the dough into a ½" slab. If sticky, lightly flour the surface of the batter.Chill the batter in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to overnight. This will make cutting out much easier.
- Flour your donut or cookie cutters and cut out the donuts. Re-roll scraps to make about 16 donuts, plus donut holes.Refrigerate the cut out donuts until your frying oil is ready.
- Heat a few inches of frying oil in a large pot to 350-375ºF (177-190ºC). Use a thermometer to maintain the oil in this range and wear gloves for safety.Line a large plate with paper towels and set aside. Mix the pumpkin spice sugar in a wide bowl and set aside.Fry a few donuts at a time, about 1 ½ minutes on each side, (they will sink and then float a few seconds later) until golden orange brown. Use a spider strainer or slotted spatula to remove and set on the plate to catch oil drippings.Check the oil temperature to ensure it's in range and repeat with the remaining donuts and donut holes (about 1 minute total for the holes).Let the sourdough pumpkin donuts cool slightly before tossing in the pumpkin spice sugar.Neutral Oil, 100 g Granulated Sugar, 1 tsp Pupkin Pie Spice
Notes
- To bake, pipe the donut batter into a donut pan and bake at 350ºF (177ºC) for about 12 minutes, or until the internal temperature reads 200ºF (93ºC).
- Fried donuts are best the day they’re made. Store donuts at room temperature in an airtight container for 3 days.
- To have donuts in the morning, refrigerate the batter overnight and fry/bake in the morning.
This recipe was good but the flour consistency is too dry. I had to add extra milk for this recipe. 3 cups is too much for the wet mixture.
Did you measure the ingredients by weight? The donut batter should be quite sticky!
The flavor of these donuts was so good it the consistency of the dough was way to sticky to work with even after being refrigerated overnight and lightly floured. I would it make them again.
Thanks for making Donna. The dough is supposed to be a bit sticky like batter. If you scrape it down onto a sheet pan, and use floured hands and flour the top of dough, you can pat it down into a ½” slab and chill and this makes it much easier to cut out and work with.
Great pumpkin donuts!