Pumpkin Poppers

Prepare yourselves. These are quite possibly the best thing you may ever make this season...or ever. I know it is for me. These taste like pumpkin donuts, but with the coating of an apple cider donut straight from the orchard. It's like eating fall. I'm definitely going to have to make these for Thanksgiving. I will probably replace the pumpkin bread I make every year with these pumpkin poppers.

You're supposed to make these in a mini muffin pan, but I don't have one of those so I just made them in regular-sized muffin tins. They were like giant pumpkin donut holes, and there's NOTHING wrong with having giant-sized donut holes. I probably would like to get a mini muffin pan to make these in, though. Using the regular-sized one only yielded me about 10 of these guys, which isn't ideal for parties/gatherings.

I'm so happy to be able to bake with pumpkin. I just can't bring myself to do it if it's not fall. That means I get about 2-3 months to use it. And you can bet that I'm going to take advantage of it! I have more pumpkin treats in store. :)


Pumpkin Poppers
Source: Just The Little Things, with italicized noted by me. :)

Ingredients:

Poppers:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup milk

Coating:

1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and spray mini muffin tins (or regular muffin tins) with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine flour, baking soda,salt, and spices in a bowl and whisk until combined.

In another bowl, mix oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin, and milk.  Pour in flour mixture and mix until just combined.  Fill muffin tins until almost full and bake 10-12 minutes. If using regular muffin tin, bake 15-18 minutes.

Melt butter in small bowl.  Mix sugar and cinnamon in a separate small bowl.  After poppers cool for a few minutes, dip them in the butter and roll them in the sugar mixture. Eat right away because you know you just can't hold yourself back...or is that just me? :)