The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious. There were several options for the type of doughnut you could make including cake style, yeast, pumpkin, or jam filled bomboloni. To get into the Fall spirit of things I decided to go with the pumpkin doughnuts.

Let me start by saying I am not a fryer. Even cooking bacon scares me a little bit. Hot oil and grease popping and flying everywhere? No thanks. But doughnuts were too good of a treat to pass up trying. I borrowed a cooking thermometer from my Mom because I didn’t have one. This is a very important tool to have when frying things. You always want to know the temperature of your oil. Too hot and things will burn, too cool and they will get soggy. Its a tricky balance located somewhere between 365 and 370’F.

I halfed the recipe and still was able to make ten doughnuts/doughnut holes. The dough can also sit in the fridge for a day or so if you want want to make it all at one time. I think the hardest part of this challenge was having the patience to let the doughnuts cool completely before devouring them. My roommates and I love pumpkin anything so these treats were gone fast!
 

Here is the recipe from  Bon Appétit.