A Disaster; Pumpking Spice Doughnuts

So I know I've been fairly obsessed with pumpkin stuff lately...the cookies, the rice pudding, the soon-to-come sweet potato and apple soup in pumpkin bowls...but hey, it's the season for that so it's ok right?  Well, this is yet another pumpkin attempt.

Key word here is attempt.  


I've been talking about making from-scratch doughnuts.  Well, the ones I really want to make will take me all day because they have to rise multiple times, and plus I need an oil thermometer, which I currently do not have and find an annoyance to buy.  So to avoid my probably very easy-to-solve problem, I decided to just try and make some oven-baked doughnuts.

bad idea.

First of all, They were as sticky as all get out.

I kept adding flour thinking that it would even out the liquid in the dough.  Well I was very wrong. Apparently you can add way too much flour, because I did.  Not only did the dough continue to be sticky and prove to be very hard to make a decent looking circle...

but the unruly amount of flour that I added ended up making them  quite dry after they were baked.  Oh, and they did not rise.  Nope.  They were flat little doughnuts.

So even though the final picture below makes the doughnuts seem halfway decent by deceivingly look like they are doused in powdered sugar, this is not so.  It's the flour.  

Even though these doughnuts did not rise, were very dry and looked pathetic, they actually did not taste bad at all.  They had a very subtle pumpkin flavor, along with all the good fall spices.  So maybe not a complete disaster.  Hubby ate them after all, so that counts for something i suppose.  

I would share the recipe...but it's not really worth it.  One day I'll suck it up and buy an oil thermometer and then make real doughnuts and give you the recipe then. K?  k.

Thanksgiving is in a few days.  My great grandma is usually the one that makes all of the pies (all being about 6 or 7).  She makes her own crust and usually just has an array of different fruit pies.  Great grandma is almost 90 and is very weak to be up in the kitchen rolling dough around to make a bunch of pies for everybody, so this year, I am in charge of pies.  I'm pumped! I have them all picked out and ready to be mixed and baked.  

We'll be leaving to go to Michigan on Wednesday.  Pie posts to come when I return!