Apple Cider Donuts
Soft and delicious Apple Cider donuts that are cakey, baked and infused with homemade apple cider. Coated in cinnamon sugar with a touch of apple spice, these will be your favorite donut recipe!
Ingredients
Apple Cider
- 1 1/2 cups homemade apple cider Recipe here , or storebought
Donut Batter
- 2 cups Flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon apple spice optional
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup avocado oil
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup buttermilk or yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Coating
- 1/3 cup melted butter unsalted
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon apple spice
Instructions
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The first step, which is the most time consuming is reducing down the Homemade Apple Cider. This means simmering it over medium low heat for about 20 minutes until you're left with 1/2 cup.
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Once it's reduced down, you can place it in a freezer for 10 minutes to flash cool it, or in you fridge for 30 minutes. You may alternatively make this days in advance, and use the reduced Homemade Apple Cider on drinks and desserts.
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray your donut pan with avocado oil spray.
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In a small bowl, whisk in the dry ingredients together. This includes flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, apple spice (or cinnamon, or both). A simple whisk to get rid of any clumps here is all you need.
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In a larger bowl, you'll mix in the wet ingredients together, including the cooled apple cider. All you need is also a whisk to make the batter smooth.
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Now you'll add the dry ingredients bowl into the wet ingredients bowl and use a spatula or a whisk to blend the batter together. Avoid over-mixing the donut batter.
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Transform the batter into a ziploc bag. This is the EASIEST way to fill our your donut pan. Use a large size ziploc to give some room for the batter. Take the air out and seal the bag really well.
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Push the batter in the sealed bag in ausch a way to make a cone shape where one of the corners of the bag would be used to pipe. Now take a scissor and snip off a small 1/8 inch slit of that corner.
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Hold the bag at the top where the seal is, and like a cone shape where the pointing edge is the cut off slit of the bag start pushing the batter out of the bag.
Fill the donut pan 2/3 of the way up because the donuts will puff during baking. Depending on the quality of your donut pan, you may choose to spray it with oil or not before piping the batter.
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Continue piping the batter until you have filled out all the donut pan cavities as shown. The batter will feel relatively thick, which is how the donuts come out SUPER tender! Now you're all set for baking.
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It's best to let the donuts cool slightly in the pan before attempting to remove them. They're very soft and cakey, and hence can easily break apart if you handle them while still hot. So we wait 8-10 minutes before removing them.
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Now one by one, you'll take the apple cider donut and rush them with melted butter. You can alternatively dip them entirely in the melted butter, however we found that brushing is better. This way, you still get the buttery flavor, the cinnamon sugar still sticks on the donut, yet you don't get a greasy feel.
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Now dip the brushed donut right into the bowl of cinnamon sugar and shake the bowl really well to coat the donut. You can likewise brush the donut on the tops only for a cinnamon sugar coating on top. Or you can brush it all over.
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Stack the donuts one over the other in piles of 2-3 and they're ready to enjoy!
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Another way we LOVE to serve these donuts is with a slather of our homemade Apple Butter !! OMG the apple flavors here are insane! Like imagine a rich. sweet apple butter infused with cinnamon and vanilla, spread over warm apple cider donuts.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Apple Cider Donuts TIPS
- Homemade Apple Cider is always better than store bought for this recipe, however you can substitute with your favorite store bought brand if you have one.
- Simmering the apple cider down concentrates the flavor and intensifies the apple taste in your donut recipe.
- Make sure to cool down the apple cider before adding it into the batter. You can do so by flash freezing it for 10 minutes or in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Have the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and make sure all the powders are whisked.
- Place the wet ingredients in a large bowl as this will be the main batter bowl.
- When blending the dry ingredients into the wet bowl, make sure to avoid over-mixing the batter.
- A tightly sealed ziplog bag is best for piping out the dough into the donut pan. Make sure you air tight the bag as best as possible for easy piping. Also try to gather all the batter into one side so the bag has the shape of a cone.
- Snip off a 1/4 inch size cut to allow for easy pouring of the batter. If you snip off a larger piece you will risk the batter pouring out too fast.
- We prefer spraying the donut pan always with a non stick avocado oil spray.
- Fill the donut pan only 2/3 of the way full to allow for expansion in the oven.
- Once baked, let the donuts cool off in the pan for at least 6-8 minutes. These apple cider donuts are very tender and may break apart if you handle them while still hot.
- You may dip the entire donut in melted butter to coat, however we felt that to be too greasy of an option. We prefer brushing the surface only with the melted butter rather than the dipping option.
- The coating we used is cinnamon sugar, you may also opt for adding apple spice to the coating--so good!
What if you don't have a Donut Pan?
You can fid these readily available online and in stores. Since they won't be used except occasionally, you don't need to invest in an expensive one.
If you want a more DIY solution, you can use a regular standard size muffin pan. Use regular aluminum foil cut up into a square about 5 inches. fold the foil in half and coil it to make a round. Seal the ends to create the hole in the donut shape.
Now place the rounded aluminum coil in the center of each cavity of the muffin pan to create a donut shape.Spray the pan with avocado oil spray and press down the foil so it sticks to the pan. Pipe the donut batter around the foil as you would for a donut pan.
What goes with apple cider donuts?
Our favorite thing to serve with this recipe is our homemade Apple Butter. Be sure to read that post for tips on making your apple butter in the crockpot, stove or instant pot.