When I told my mom we were going to have donuts and bagels at our post wedding breakfast, she responded sadly with "... but not gluten free donuts, huh?" My poor, sweet, wheat free mamma (and papa, and almost-husband) don't have the luxury of going out to the local donut shop to pick up sweets for breakfast. (WHYYY doesn't Babycakes NYC open up in my small ass-town?!?!)

I could hear that dream of having gluten free donuts being crushed in the the minds eye of the lady that gave birth to me when I responded: "No, mom, it'll be pretty impossible to get donuts for us unless I make them myself." Followed up with a good hard look at myself in the mirror where I pointed at my face and said "No donuts, Renee. Do not try and make donuts for everyone after your wedding. That would make you a fucking crazy person."

Wouldn't it be wonderful if your kitchen could read your mind and make whatever sort of breakfast thing you wanted as soon as you wanted it? Would that be sort of dystopian-future scary? Maybe half scary half awesome. Like *bing* "Oh honey let's go get our coconut bacon, avocado, and egg BLT's on gluten free bagels! Hey KITCHEN ROBOT is coffee ready?! Oh what am I talking about, of course it is." And then I would turn the wall television off, put on my scooter slippers, and set my window screens  to "sunny with soft cumulus."

If you haven't noticed yet, it's Fall. I have a 3 foot by 2 foot by 1 foot box in my kitchen just piled with all the squash I could get my hands on. Mostly because the colors. I sort of want to stack them in a display on my coffee table. But seeing that my coffee tables (and side tables, and card tables, and pretty much all surfaces) are functional only in that I use them to collect magazines, extraneous paper, computers, bowls, cups, mugs, bags of chips, extra hard drives, jewelry, mail, string and tape and ink pads, recipe books, and empty bottles of beer -- seeing all of that... ornamental stacks are really NOT in my future. One pumpkin chilling amongst the silent and yet cacophonous hullabaloo of homeless items works out OK. File that under reasons we have yet to buy a Christmas treetogether. Clutter-love.

Again -- FALL. You know what is superior in fall? Donuts and coffee. Or donuts and cider. Or cider donuts. Squash donuts come in a close second to cider donuts. Only in that cider donuts are usually rolled in cinnamon sugar and accompany a crisp walk through an apple orchard with a stunningly handsome, tall man friend wearing plaid and a light scarf. One thing I've learned this year, thanks to Amanda Paa and her new book Smitten with Squash, is that delicata squash should be in waaaaaaay more desserts. I put it in a batch of brownies the other day. You know what happened? They's was good. And in vanilla custards. Dreamy. And they's good in these donuts too.

It's magical, really. Delicata melts into anything with vanilla extract involved and becomes almost undetectable. Except for the helpful squashy texture that it imparts to baked sweet things. Other magical things? This GIVEAWAY from Amanda Paa! Enter to win a copy of her awesome book, Smitten with Squash, a solid resource for both the wheat and non-wheat baker who wants to give every type of squash a whirl. It should be noted that I used my own gluten free flour blend in this recipe, although Amanda does provide a gluten free flour blend recipe in her book. 

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Delicata Squash Donuts (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

Ingredients

• 50 grams brown rice flour
• 40 sorghum flour
• 30 white rice flour
• 20 arrowroot powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 3 tablespoons ghee or coconut oil
• ¾ cup delicata squash puree (roasted at 400F for 25 minutes then blended skin-on with 2 tbsp water)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• ½ cup packed brown sugar or turbinado sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• powdered sugar (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a doughnut pan; set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the brown rice flour, sorghum flour, white rice flour, arrowroot flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the ghee (or coconut oil), squash puree, egg, sugar, and vanilla. Carefully fold the wet mixture into the dry until just combined, being careful not to over mix.
2. Fill the prepared doughnut pan with the batter using tablespoon. Each mold should have about 2.5 tablespoons of batter -- filled until ¾ of the way full. Bake 12 minutes in the oven, until doughnuts are puffed and a light golden brown. Remove from oven and allow the doughnuts to cool for 3 minutes before turning them onto a wire rack to fully cool (at least 10 minutes before eating). To serve, dust with powdered sugar (optional). A dunk in hot coffee is a good move.