These apple cider donut muffins are so simple, yet crazy delicious. The recipe is similar to apple cider donuts, but instead are baked in a muffin pan for simplicity and ease. They still have that baked donut texture full of apple cider flavor and fall spices! Put your favorite fall sweater on and enjoy them with a warm cup of apple cider or coffee for the quintessential fall breakfast!

Ingredients you'll need to make these apple cider donut muffins:
- All-Purpose Flour: You'll need about two cups of all-purpose flour for these muffins.
- Baking Powder: You'll need 1 ½ teaspoon of baking powder.
- Fall Spices: I used a combination of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cardamom.
- Apple Cider: You'll need to start with about 3 cups, which will be reduced down to about 1 ½ cups.
- Unsalted Butter: You'll add one stick to the reduced apple cider, which is then used in the batter and for dipping the muffins after they're baked.
- Brown Sugar: You can use light or brown sugar, which ever you have on hand will work.
- Granulated Sugar: You'll need granulated sugar for both the batter and the topping.
- Whole Milk Plain Yogurt: Yogurt adds flavor, moisture, and a dense donut-like texture in these muffins.
- Buttermilk: I like to use buttermilk to give it a little more depth of flavor, but you can use regular whole milk instead.
- Vanilla Extract: Always always always use vanilla.
Other fall recipes you'll love:
- Brown Butter Cardamom Cinnamon Rolls
- Caramel Layer Cake with Vanilla Bean German Buttercream
- Apple Spice Loaf Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
- Chocolate Cupcakes with Burnt Sugar German Buttercream
- Chai Macarons with Swiss Meringue Buttercream
A few tips to make these apple cider donut muffins:
- You'll need to start with about twice as much apple cider than what is used in the recipe, because you'll need to reduce it down to half the volume in order to concentrate the flavor.
- I used buttermilk in this recipe, but if you do not have it on hand, you can use regular whole milk.
- You can also change up the spice to your preferences!
Happy Baking! x
PrintApple Cider Donut Muffins
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Description
These apple cider donut muffins are so simple, yet crazy delicious. The recipe is similar to apple cider donuts, but instead are baked in a muffin pan for simplicity and ease.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Apple Cider/Butter Mixture:
- 735g apple cider
- 113g unsalted butter (room temp)
For the Donut Muffins:
- 240g all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cardamom
- ¼ tsp salt
- 256g apple cider/butter mixture
- 100g brown sugar
- 50g granulated sugar
- 2 eggs (room temp)
- 56g whole milk plain yogurt
- 56g buttermilk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Spiced Sugar Topping:
- remaining apple cider/butter mixture
- 50g granulated sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp cardamom
Instructions
For the Apple Cider/Butter Mixture:
- Start by reducing the apple cider. Heat all of the 735g of apple cider in a sauce pan over medium heat. Simmer for about 20-25 minutes until you're left with half the volume.
- Add the unsalted butter to the reduced apple cider and set aside.
For the Donut Muffins:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin pan with parchment cups.
- In a large sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together 256g of the apple cider/butter mixture, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, yogurt, buttermilk, and vanilla.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until fully combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly before dipping in the topping.
For the Spiced Sugar Topping:
- In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar and spices.
- Once the muffins are cool enough to touch, dip the tops into the remaining apple cider/butter mixture and then into the spiced sugar mixture.
Did you make this recipe? Let me know how it turned out!