It is officially pumpkin-everything season, and if you’re like me, you try and make and eat as many pumpkin flavored things as possible. After all, that’s one flavor that you’re only supposed to eat in the fall! And it makes fall all the more special. 🙂 I absolutely love pumpkin bread and wanted to create a healthy recipe that we could enjoy all season long.
This is my second attempt at a pumpkin bread recipe. My first attempt was…not so good. Our teeny tiny oven is pretty difficult to use sometimes. Ryan and I are living in our fifth wheel camper right now while we save for our first house. Its pretty fun, and I truly am enjoying this season of our lives, but I do not enjoy our oven.. I have to cook things longer at a lower temperature to get things to cook all the way through without burning which can be a challenge with some recipes. So that was an issue with baking a thick loaf of pumpkin bread. It also turned out way too UN-sweet. I wanted lightly sweetened, but the previous recipe wasn’t hardly sweet at all which is no good..So I revamped it and swapped my loaf pan for a donut pan. This attempt was much better!
My dad suggested to me that I try using butternut squash instead of pumpkin. I had never heard of this before, but he said that its sweeter than pumpkin. He also told me that butternut squash is all my Nanny ever used in her pumpkin recipes. That was enough reason to give it a shot! So I guess technically these are butternut squash donuts, but that doesn’t sound as good. Haha
The ingredients that make these donuts sweet are the banana, sorghum, and honey!
Disclosure: This post has affiliate links that earn me a small commission but don’t cost you a thing. I only link to products I use and love myself.
Ingredients:
-1 medium butternut squash (or about 1 3/4 cups pureed squash)
-1 banana
-2 eggs
-2 tbs sorghum syrup
-2 tbs honey
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 cups whole wheat flour (I use this)
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-2 tsp vital wheat gluten (I use this)
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
-1/4 tsp nutmeg
Directions:
Peel and seed your squash. Cut into cubes and boil until cooked. Puree the cooked squash. (This takes some time so I did it the night before.) Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. If mixing by hand, mix wet and dry ingredients separately before mixing them together. Grease your donut pan (Buy one here, they come in handy!) and add the batter. Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes. You can eat them as-is, sprinkle powdered cinnamon sugar on top for a sweeter treat, or make a glaze!
*Notes on Sorghum: Curious about sorghum? I didn’t know anything about it until I visited the Amish farms with my parents a few weeks ago. I bought a huge jar of the stuff for just 6 bucks so I had to read a bit about it! Its similar to molasses. Check out the photo below for a few fun facts about it. 🙂 If you don’t have sorghum (which is highly probable) you can substitute any other natural liquid sweetener like more honey, maple syrup, or molasses.
I have been seeing all kinds of donut recipes on Pinterest and have been itching to try my hand at them. Until I saw your post I thought they would be super complicated, but I think I’ll give these a shot. Thanks for sharing! Happy I found your blog. 🙂
Chelsea
Thanks so much Chelsea! Hope you like them. 🙂 I’m off to check out your blog now!
I am going to have to add these to my “must try” list! They look and sound delicious.
Thanks for stopping by!!