Pear Doughnuts. These delicious breakfast, brunch or dessert treats feature the wonderful flavor of fresh pear, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and light brown sugar. Fresh from the oven, still nice and warm, these doughnuts are amazing. Brushed with butter and rolled in cinnamon brown sugar or dipped in maple or chocolate glazes, these doughnuts go to a whole other level of perfection.
Baked doughnuts are a bit more like muffins or cupcakes than deep fried doughnuts. They’re definitely heartier and more filling. Crafting a baked doughnut recipe provides an opportunity for packing in some amazing flavor. Today we paired fresh Bartlett pears with ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and light brown sugar. In addition to the amazing flavor inside the doughnut, a garnish, or a toss in flavored sugar, or a dunking in a complimentary glaze or two can provide a variety of different breakfast treat offerings from the one baked doughnut.
I have posted several baked doughnuts in the past including apple doughnuts with whipped ganache, chocolate doughnuts, lemon blueberry doughnuts and coffee cake doughnuts. Each is unique and fun to make. Each is finished with a glaze or two and/or a variety of toppings so you can pick a favorite style of treat to make at home.
Next up, I will share my baked carrot cake doughnut with honey ginger glaze.
For these doughnuts I chose some nice ripe Bartlett pears. I peeled, cored and grated two of them and saved the rest to eat out of hand. Bartlett pears are soft, juicy and delicious. Perhaps too juicy. You want the meat from the pear and some of the juice, so you’ll want to rest the grated pear on a few paper towels, and even squeeze the pears wrapped in paper towels or a clean kitchen towel, if necessary. That is what I did with my Bartlett pears. They were ripe and incredibly juicy, so I gave them a good squeeze between a few paper towels to remove excess liquid.
I baked 8 jumbo doughnuts. I brushed a few with melted butter and rolled them in a mix of brown sugar and cinnamon. I chose chocolate and maple glazes for the remaining doughnuts, as both pair nicely with fresh pear. I sprinkled some finely chopped almonds on one of my chocolate glazed doughnuts.
These glazes are flavored with cocoa powder and pure maple syrup. They set up fairly quickly and pretty firm. I’m able to stack these doughnuts once the glazes have completely hardened.
Why You Should Make These Doughnuts
- pear + cinnamon + nutmeg + brown sugar.
- these doughnuts have a wonderful fall / winter flavor profile.
- delicious when rolled in cinnamon brown sugar or dipped in maple or chocolate glaze.
- store extremely well in an airtight container.
How To Make These Pear Doughnuts
I start by prepping my doughnut pans. They are lightly oiled with vegetable oil. I put a little oil on a paper towel and wipe each doughnut cavity.
The all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, fine sea salt, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg are added to a small mixing bowl. The dry ingredients are whisked to combine and set aside momentarily.
Next, I remove the stem from two pears (I chose Bartlett pears). The pears are peeled, cored and grated on a box grater. I use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin. The pears are halved lengthwise. I use a paring knife to remove the core and any hard bits near the stem. The pears are grated on a box grater. The shredded pear is placed on several paper towels or a clean kitchen towel to remove moisture. In my case, the pears are quite juicy so I wrapped the paper towel around the shredded pear and gave it a good squeeze over the sink.
The grated pear is added to a stand mixer with the granulated sugar and light brown sugar. Using the paddle attachment, the pear sugar combo is beaten on low until well combined.
Vegetable oil is added and the mix is beaten on low for about 15 seconds until combined.
Four large eggs are added, one at a time. Each is beaten on low just long enough to incorporate.
The bowl is removed from the stand mixer. The reserved flour mix is added a half cup or so at a time. Each addition is folded in with a large spatula. Avoid over mixing.
The doughnut batter is added to a large sealable plastic bag. Cut a small hole in corner of bag. Seal the bag and squeeze the batter through the opening into the doughnut pan cavities about 2/3 of the way to the top. Smooth batter, if necessary, with a wet finger or the back of a small spoon.
Jumbo doughnuts are baked in a hot oven for 20 minutes. Regular size doughnuts are baked for 10 to 12 minutes. Doughnuts will be firm to the touch.
The doughnut pans are removed from the oven and cooled on a wire rack.
Other Baked Doughnuts You Might Enjoy
Some of our most popular baked doughnut recipes include baked apple doughnuts, baked chocolate doughnuts, baked lemon blueberry doughnuts, and baked coffee cake doughnuts.
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Pear Doughnuts
Equipment
- 3 (6-cavity) regular small doughnut pans OR 2 (4-cavity) jumbo doughnut pans
Ingredients
Pear Doughnuts:
- 285 grams all-purpose flour (2-1/4 cups), sifted
- 5 grams baking powder (1 teaspoon)
- 5 grams baking soda (1 teaspoon)
- 2 grams fine sea salt (1/2 teaspoon)
- 2 grams ground cinnamon (3/4 teaspoon)
- 1 gram ground nutmeg (1/4 teaspoon)
- 180 grams peeled, grated and pressed pear (1-1/2 cups)
- 150 grams granulated sugar (3/4 cup)
- 250 grams brown sugar (1-1/4 cups)
- 275 grams vegetable oil (1-1/4 cups)
- 100 grams egg (4 large)
Chocolate Glaze:
- 90 grams powdered sugar (3/4 cup)
- 15 grams unsweetened cocoa powder (2 tablespoons)
- 5 grams vanilla bean paste or extract (1 teaspoon)
- 30-45 grams milk (2 to 3 tablespoons)
Instructions
Pear Doughnuts:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray three 6-cavity doughnut pans (OR two 4-cavity jumbo doughnut pans) with non-stick cooking spray or wipe with vegetable oil. Set aside.
- Add-all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, fine sea salt, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg to small mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Add prepared pear, granulated sugar, and brown sugar to stand mixer. Beat on medium low until well combined, about 30 seconds.
- Add vegetable oil to stand mixer and beat on low for about 15 seconds.
- Add eggs, one at a time. Beat on low until incorporated, after each addition.
- Remove bowl from stand mixer. Add reserved flour mixture to stand mixer about 1/2 cup at a time. Fold in with large spatula. Do not over mix.
- Add doughnut batter to large gallon size plastic storage bag and cut a small hole in corner of bag. Seal the bag and squeeze the batter through the opening into the doughnut pan cavities about 2/3 of the way to the top. Smooth batter with wet finger.
- Bake jumbo doughnuts in hot oven for 20 minutes. Bake regular doughnuts 10 to 12 minutes. Doughnuts will be firm to the touch.
- Remove doughnut pans from oven and cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pans to cool completely.
Chocolate Glaze:
- Add powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, milk, and vanilla bean paste to small bowl. Stir to combine. Add additional milk in 1/2 teaspoon increments to achieve desired thickness. Glaze will be very thick. Dip doughnuts in chocolate icing. Invert doughnuts and place on rack for the glaze to set.
- If you are garnishing your doughnuts, its best to do so right after you dip the doughnut in glaze as the glaze begins to set very quickly.
