Easy-Bake Apple Cider Donuts

My favorite part about Fall in New England is the Apple Cider Donuts!

 They have the perfect texture and are so very sweet, plus there are apples mixed in, which means these donuts are actually good for you. Seriously, they are the best! I have been making all kinds of goodies since our apple picking adventure...apple pie, apple crisp, even apple butter. But the treat we love most are these apple cider donuts. This is what Fall is supposed to taste like! 

I love to bake, but I've never made donuts before. As far as I'm concerned, that's a task best left to the good people at Dunkin' Donuts. But for these, I decided to make an exception. I probably read a couple dozen recipes before I started playing around with my own version. And I have to say, these were surprisingly EASY to make. I baked these at Husband's place so I didn't have my stand mixer, which was just fine because I didn't need it...just a good whisk and a sturdy hand. To make things simpler, I picked up this donut pan, or rather Husband did once he realized there were homemade donuts in his future. If you don't have a donut tray, a mini cupcake pan works great for donut holes. I made a few different batches, so I'm sharing the recipe for the ones that turned out best 

{although Husband happily ate all of them}

Ingredients 

For the Donuts 

1 cup apple cider 

1 whole clove 

orange slices 

½ cinnamon stick 

2 cups flour 

1 and ½ tsp baking soda

1 and ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon
¾ cup brown sugar 

½ tbsp lemon juice 
½ cup of milk 

2 tbsp melted butter 

2 tbsp apple sauce 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1 egg 

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Cinnamon Sugar Topping

3 tbsp melted butter 

1 cup sugar 

1 tbsp cinnamon 

Instructions

Yields 12 donuts OR 30 donut holes 

1.) Pour apple cider into a saucepan. Add in clove, cinnamon stick, and desired amount of orange slices. Boil until approximately ½ cup of apple cider remains. Be sure to remove the clove, cinnamon stick, and orange before setting aside the remaining apple cider concentrate.

Baking Tip: boiling the cider strengthens the flavor in the donuts 

2.) While the apple cider boils, preheat the oven to 350. 

Mix milk and lemon juice together. Set this mixture aside. 

3.) Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon together. 

4.) In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients: melted butter, egg, brown sugar, vanilla, milk mixture, apple sauce, and apple cider concentrate. Whisk together vigorously.  5.) Combine the dry mixture from Step 3 with the wet mixture from Step 4. 

The batter will be thick. 

6.) Spray your donut pan with nonstick spray. Only fill the pan about ¾ of the way, giving the donuts room to rise. Bake for 10 minutes and allow donuts to cool. 

7.) For the cinnamon sugar topping, whisk sugar and cinnamon together. Dip a donut in the melted butter and then dip into the cinnamon sugar mixture. 

if you have no shame like me, you can dip each donut multiple times to make it extra sweet 

ENJOY!