Chocolate Pumpkin Donuts

I have seen a lot of people make donuts and really wanted to try them myself.  I bought a donut pan yesterday so it was time to try.  Now this is a baking pan so the donuts are baked, not fried.  To make this recipe, I modified a pumpkin sheet cake recipe (which I made too).

I also wanted to play with different types of chocolate.  So I used a ganache for these donuts.  The ganache is easy to make and gives a nice coating for the donuts.  I think I did pretty well in dipping the donuts but there is a little bit of an art to dropping them far enough in the ganache to cover the top third of the donut.

 Recipe
Chocolate Ganache Pumpkin Cupcakes (adapted from Taste of Home):

Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
1 can (15 ounces) of pumpkin puree
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 stick of softened butter
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
In a large bowl, beat the sugar, pumpkin, oil, butter and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt ; gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
Pour into a greased donut pan. Bake at 350° for 8 – 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate Ganache (I used this as a base for my next recipe so this is more frosting than you need):

Ingredients
15 ounces chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 cup heavy cream

Instructions
Place chocolate pieces in a large bowl with the heavy cream and heat on medium high stirring constantly. Allow ganache to cool slightly before pouring over the donuts. When ready, dip donuts in the chocolate and return to cooling rack to set.