Old Fashioned Apple Cider Donuts
When you close your eyes and take a bite out of one of these old fashioned apple cider donuts, you’ll wake up wearing a cozy sweater, standing in the middle of an apple orchard, with golden leaves all around you. Yes, they’re that good. Made with an apple cider cake dough and covered in an apple cider glaze & cinnamon sugar coating, these donuts truly are the essence of fall!
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 360 g (3 cups) cake flour
- 6 g (1 ½ teaspoon) baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 140 g (⅓ cup) apple cider concentrate
- 56 g (4 tablespoon) unsalted butter
- 106 g (½ cup) dark brown sugar
- 1 egg, cold
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 63 g (¼ cup) unsweetened applesauce
- 56 g (¼ cup) sour cream
For frying:
- 1 ½ -2 quarts (48-64 oz) vegetable oil
For the coating:
- 28 g (2 tablespoon) unsalted butter
- 35 g (1 ½ tablespoon) apple cider concentrate
- 100 g (½ cup) granulated sugar
- 3 g (1 ½ teaspoon) cinnamon
Instructions
For the dough:
- In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, place the apple cider concentrate and butter over low-medium heat until the butter is fully melted. Remove the pan from heat.
- Vigorously whisk in the brown sugar until fully dissolved, then pour the mixture into a large bowl.
- Quickly whisk in the egg and vanilla. Then, mix in half of the dry ingredients until barely combined, followed by the applesauce and sour cream. Add in the remaining dry ingredients and gently fold with a rubber spatula until just combined.
- Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to chill for at least one hour or overnight.
To fry the donuts:
- Just before rolling out the dough, fill a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot with enough vegetable oil to cover 2” (5 cm). Heat the oil over low-medium heat and bring to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
- Place a wire rack over a paper towel lined baking sheet. On a separate baking sheet, cut out 13 4” (10 cm) parchment squares for the donuts.
- Meanwhile, make the coating. In a small bowl, melt the butter and stir in the apple cider concentrate. Set aside. In another medium bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon.
- Roll the dough out between two pieces of well floured parchment paper to ½” (1.25 cm) in thickness. Brush away any excess flour.
- Use well floured 3” (7.5 cm) and 1” (2.5 cm) round cutters to cut out as many donuts as possible and place each on a parchment square. Re-roll the dough and cut out more donuts as needed.
- Use the parchment squares to gently lower 2-3 donuts into the hot oil. Fry the donuts for 3 minutes on the first side, then flip over and fry for an additional 2 minutes.
- Transfer the donuts to the wire rack. Wait a couple minutes for the oil to come back up to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C), then continue frying the donuts.
- Once the donuts have cooled just enough to handle, brush the butter cider mixture on the top of each donut. Then, toss them in the bowl of cinnamon sugar to coat.
Notes
- Chill the dough for at least one hour. This is a very soft dough, so be sure to chill it long enough to firm up to the right consistency.
- Wait for the oil to temp to rise again before frying more donuts. When frying, be sure to wait a couple minutes in between each set of donuts for the oil temperature to come back up to 350 degrees F.
Nutrition Facts
Serving: 1donut | Calories: 231kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 29mg | Sodium: 170mg | Potassium: 70mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 210IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 51mg | Iron: 0.5mg
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