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Years ago, I got a recipe for French Breakfast Puffs from a Quick Cooking magazine (now called Simple and Delicious). These sweet little puffs taste very similar to a cake donut coated in cinnamon sugar. So tender and tasty. My family has loved them over the years.
Then in 2008, I saw that my friend Tina over at Mommy’s Kitchen had a similar recipe listed on her blog. She got from the Pioneer Woman who calls them Donut Muffins. In Tina’s comments about the Donut Muffins, she mention maybe trying a pumpkin version of the recipe.
Well, at that time, I decided to give it a try with my recipe that I had for the French Breakfast Puffs. So, in October of 2008, I converted it to pumpkin breakfast puffs. The recipe turned out great. So, I shared it on my blog.
I have since increased the amount of pumpkin spice in these pumpkin breakfast puffs to 1 teaspoon and the pumpkin to 3/4 cup. Also, I do think it would be yummy to try a powdered sugar glaze to coat these babies in, instead of the cinnamon sugar.


Pumpkin Breakfast Puffs
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 3/4 cup pumpkin
- Coating:
- 1 stick or 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3/4 sup sugar
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, beat shortening, brown sugar and egg until smooth.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice; add to the sugar mixture alternately with pumpkin.
- Fill greased muffin cups two-thirds full (don’t use muffin liners).
- Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.
- Meanwhile, combine cinnamon and remaining sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll the warm puffs in butter, then in cinnamon-sugar. Serve immediately. Makes 12 servings.
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
These are the original photos for this post when it was first posted in October 2008.
4 comments
[…] Pumpkin Breakfast Puffs (aka as pumpkin donut muffins) […]
These were really good. We make the regular french breakfast puffs occasionally but liked the pumpkin version better. Used 1 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice, could have upped it a bit.
Those look really good! Maybe you could do cinnamon and powdered sugar on the outside – yum!
Oooh…these look tasty! So creative!