Baked Apple Cider Donuts
We carved pumpkins on the first really cold night last week. It was so fun to be bundled up in the garage, letting the kids go wild with the carving tools, oohing and awwing at their designs. My 4-year-old nephew was much more interested in the slimy insides, carefully picking through the giant bucket of pumpkin slime for as many pumpkin seeds as possible. We lined the pumpkins up on the front porch, taking pictures and debating who’s pumpkin was the spookiest. Luke, my 10-year-old, who’s always up for a project, continues to modify his pumpkin just about every day. I find him outside, carving tool in hand, making the smile bigger, adding a tooth, changing the eyes from rectangles to circles.
As we round the corner to Halloween this weekend, we decided to put together a little backyard get together for the kids instead of the regular trick-or-treating of years past. We’re planning on a candy scavenger hunt through the pasture and orchards and a chili cook-off. I’m going to make my almost-famous (not really) smokey sweet potato and black bean chili. If you need the recipe (it really is a good one) you can hop over to my blog for it.
Because the kids won’t have pillow cases full of candy to devour over the next couple weeks, I figure a special treat is in order. These baked apple cider donuts are so delicious and very easy to put together. The apple cider in the batter gives the donut a lovely apple sweetness while the cinnamon sugar dusting right out of the oven almost makes you believe you’re at the pumpkin patch.
I can’t take any credit for the recipe, I found it on a lovely website called The Faux Martha, a recipe blog out of Minnesota. I’ve made the donuts a couple times, most recently for my oldest’s twelfth birthday. We devoured the tray in a couple of hours and I love the recipe for a couple reasons. First and foremost, they are baked. I am not about to fry donuts in oil at home. That’s way out of my wheelhouse and too much mess for an at-home project. Besides, there’s too many good donuts available locally to need to take that on at home. The other thing I love about this recipe is it makes a small batch. Most of the recipes I share here are rather large portions, meant to feed a family or a small crowd. This is not that recipe. This makes just 6-8 donuts which is perfect. Everyone gets a taste without having to figure out how to giveaway or avoid eating a dozen yourself.
Happy Halloween whatever your plans might be. Hopefully they include a warm, just out of the oven, donut and a few pilfered milk ways from your kid’s stash.
Baked Apple Cider Donuts
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/3 c. + 2 tbsp. apple cider
1/2 c. white whole wheat flour
1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg, freshly ground
1/4 c. pure cane sugar
2 tbsp. honey
1 large egg
Apple Cider Glaze
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 c. apple cider
1/3 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 400°F degrees.
Make the donuts. In a small pot, melt the butter along with the cider until the butter is half melted. Set aside to cool and finish melting. Meanwhile, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Into the cooled butter mixture, whisk in the sugar, honey, and egg until evenly combined. Side note, dip honey measuring utensil in the melted butter first for easy honey removal. Stir together wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Over-mixing will create a tough donut. Spray donut pan with cooking oil. Add batter to a piping bag and evenly pipe into the pan. Bake for 7 minutes. Allow to cool 1 minute before removing donuts onto a cooling rack. Meanwhile, make topping. Melt butter and cider. In a flat-bottomed bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar. Quickly dip each donut in butter mixture and lightly coat in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Place back on cooling rack. Best served same day, slightly warmed. If storing leftovers, lightly cover, if at all. Covering will create a soggy leftover donut by morning.