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Marylin Coulter, Helena, Mo., is the winner of the St. Joseph News-Press pumpkin recipe contest.

Marylin Coulter admits that she isn’t a big fan of pumpkin. However, the judges in the recent News-Press “I Love Pumpkin” recipe contest were big fans of her pumpkin recipe.

The Helena, Mo., resident’s Honey glazed pumpkin donuts won the $100 grand prize. Other entries included several pumpkin bars, pretty desserts, such as a pumpkin-date torte with decorative powdered sugar topping and a fancy pumpkin swirl cheesecake, a pumpkin cake, pumpkin pie fudge (also awesome); and a pie. But the doughnuts earned the highest rating among the majority of the judges.

“Those were kind of a unique taste for a doughnut,” says one judge.

Another judge agrees, adding that she liked being able to taste the pumpkin and the cinnamon.

“It was a very creative use of pumpkin, Delicious,” adds another judge.

Not only was the recipe creative and tasty, but it was original. Marylin created the recipe.

“I just like experimenting,” she says.

Marylin says she’s been cooking since she was a child, and an earlier job at a Dunkin’ Donuts helped fuel some of her creativity. While there, she helped create a special doughnut for Halloween. It was pumpkin.

Now employed at Sara Lee, Marylin says it took her a couple of tries before she settled on the recipe that she serves to her family and co-workers. She usually makes the pumpkin doughnuts only around Halloween.

The recipe is pretty straight-forward. No fancy ingredients or elaborate preparation. The hardest part, Marylin says, is rolling out the dough.

“I just roll it out like pie dough,” she says.

To get the doughnut shape, Marylin often used a wooden biscuit cutter that was purchased at the Silver Dollar City theme park near Branson, Mo. A smaller cutter was used to make the holes. However, when Marylin couldn’t locate those after a move, she improvised.

“I took an old, plastic pill bottle to cut the center,” she says.

She cut off the bottom of the bottle, washed the bottle and dipped the cut edge into a little flour and that pill bottle made a perfect circle for the center of the doughnut.

Once the doughnuts are cut, Marylin deep fries them in canola oil — she used a skillet with about two inches of oil. The doughnuts are cooled on paper towels for a few minutes and then dipped in the honey glaze. Afterwards, they are allowed to dry on racks.

The honey glaze also is original. Like the doughnut, Marylin also experimented until she liked it.

“The glaze was the best part about them,” one judge says.

Honey glazed pumpkin donuts

3 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 tablespoons powdered buttermilk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

2 eggs

2 tablespoons oil (she used canola oil)

1 cup solid pack pumpkin

Mix all dry ingredients together. Beat eggs, pumpkin and oil, add to dry mixture. Mix well. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick, cut and deep fry at 375 degrees. Cool on paper towels for about two minutes. Dip in glazed mixture and drain on cooling racks till dry.

Honey glaze

1/2 cup honey

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup water

2 pounds powdered sugar

Mix honey, butter, vanilla and water. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Mixture can be stored in the refrigerator.

— Marylin Coulter, Helena, Mo.

Lifestyles reporter Cathy Woolridge can be reached at cathyw@npgco.com