Stepping into my kitchen during the fall immediately hits you with the rich smell of spices that assures you fall treats are baking. Today, it’s Baked Apple Cider Donuts, a recipe that packs a big Fall punch. Unlike the donuts you find at a bakery, these are not fried but baked, which makes them somewhat dense yet moist on the inside.
What makes them an instant fall favorite across the USA is their intensely flavored, concentrated apple cider base, offering a taste that’s synonymous with a leisurely stroll through an apple orchard or a trip to a pumpkin patch. A perfect complement to cakey interiors, their sugary, cinnamon-coated outside adds to their heavier, more substantial nature that quickly reminds you of classic donuts without the hassle. In the morning, there’s nothing more convenient; with no mixer needed, this recipe turns a hectic start into a moment of delicious calm.
My personal tips for these amazing treats include taking the time to reduce your apple cider to ensure each donut is intensely flavored and densely packed with moist goodness, rivaling the nostalgic chai spice donuts, pumpkin donuts, and cinnamon sugar donuts. Despite being dense and muffin-like, they maintain a rich crumb that’s characteristic of baked apple cider donuts. Served alongside a warm cup of hot apple cider, these donuts are ready to make any autumn excursion inside or outside the home a memorable experience.
Tell Me About These Apple Cider Donuts
Texture
The texture of Baked Apple Cider Donuts is what sets them apart from their bakery counterparts. Achieving the ideal cakey yet moist interior paired with a dense, almost crumbly exterior comes down to a perfected recipe. Each bite through the cinnamon-sugar coating reaffirms that homey, comforting feel, making them the quintessential donuts to savor as leaves turn auburn.
Flavor
When it comes to flavor, these donuts are a tribute to APPLE picking season, infused with warm CINNAMON and alluring SPICE. Each donut carries the essence of fall, making it easy to envisage enjoying them amidst a backdrop of colorful foliage and a bakery-fresh aroma wafting through a crisp morning air.
Ease
The ease of creating these delectable treats is unexpectedly delightful; the combination of wet and dry ingredients incorporating apple cider concentrate comes together with a satisfying snap. The process to prepare these goodies is as brisk as a crisp fall morning – no mixer, rolling pin, or donut cutter required, just a simple batter and donut pan.
Time
You’ll find these homemade apple cider donuts on your plate, stacked high, in less than an hour. The convenience of this recipe makes it a prized find, especially when the desire for a homemade, cozy breakfast item strikes with urgency.
This Trick Changes Everything
- Fall Treats: Baked apple cider donuts embody the essence of fall with a concentrated apple cider flavor.
- Rich Smell: Aromatic spices in the recipe promise an olfactory delight reminiscent of an apple orchard.
- Bakery vs. Homemade: Unlike fried donuts from a bakery, these homemade ones are baked, offering a moist interior and a cinnamon-coated exterior.
- Convenient Morning: This no-mixer recipe is a time-saver, turning hectic mornings into delicious moments.
- Reduction Trick: Intensify the flavor by reducing apple cider to a thick, potent liquid, a crucial step in the recipe.
- Dense and Cakey: The baked donuts have a rich, muffin-like crumb that’s packed with moist apple taste.
- Flavor Boost: The reduced apple cider adds a big, delicious taste that’s superior to store-bought donuts.
- Pairing: Perfect when paired with a warm cup of hot apple cider or apple cider sangria for an autumn excursion.
- Ease and Comfort: Simple to make, these donuts add a cozy touch to easy mornings and are well worth the cooling time after baking.
Why this recipe works
The secret behind these Baked Apple Cider Donuts lies within the delicate balance of recipe modification. Similar to pumpkin donuts, the allure of this treat is in its perfect blend of cake-y texture and great flavor. However, achieving such perfection requires an adjustment in the ratios of liquid to dry ingredients, ensuring the donuts retain enough moisture for that moist, dense bite, without being weighed down.
By altering conventional loaf breads and loaf cakes formulations, where structure often trumps fluffiness, this donut recipe finds its sweet spot. A generous pour of apple cider is equally perfect for enhancing flavor while the combination of egg, baking powder, and melted butter ensures a proper rise and yields a super fluffy, yet tender texture. Every bite assures you won’t be left with the unpleasantness of tasting dry; it’s the sweetness of the cider that’s the hero here, evoking a nostalgia that’s as comforting as autumn itself.
Right Ingredients: Melted Butter & Apple Pie Spice
Melted butter
In the realm of baked apple cider donuts, melted butter is the unsung hero, the crown jewel that imparts a rich, decadent flavor. Brushed on warm, fresh out of the oven donuts, it acts as the ideal adhesive for that must-have sweet coating. Once dipped in a mixture of granulated sugar and cinnamon, the butter not only adds to the taste but also helps to form a slightly crispy exterior. This delicious method makes for a donut that captures the essence of fall’s comforting flavors in every bite.
Apple pie spice
As for apple pie spice, it’s a game-changer. You could use store-bought blends, but for the true fall baking fanatic, homemade is where it’s at. Combine cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg to create a concoction that makes these donuts rival even the most delicious pumpkin treats, like pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cake, pumpkin bars, and pumpkin pie. An added pinch of this flavorful blend to your batter offers a complexity that can elevate your donuts from simply homemade to artisanal.
How to Make Baked Apple Cider Donuts
Reduce the apple cider.
To imbue our donuts with that dense, cakey, fall-perfect flavor, we start by placing the apple cider in a small saucepan. Over low heat, let it simmer; this is the reduction process. Vigilantly checking every few minutes, we await the magical moment when our cider has thickened – an unmistakable promise of the taste to come. Once done, set aside to cool. This step can be done ahead of time to streamline your baking day.
Combine the dry ingredients together.
In a large bowl, I combine all the dry ingredients. This blend of flour, baking powder, and spices will yield the foundational structure of our batch of donuts.
Combine the wet ingredients together, except for the apple cider.
Separately, I combine all the wet ingredients, except for the apple cider. The wet blend complements the dry mix, ready to converge into the beginnings of our donut batter.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Add the apple cider.
Now comes the union of the concoctions. I cautiously mix the wet and dry ingredients together, and then add the apple cider. It’s crucial that I whisk until the mixture is smooth and well combined, forming a thick batter that promises cakey, dense donuts.
Fill the donut pan.
Here’s a neat trick; fill a zipped-top bag with the batter, cut off the corner, and pipe it into the donut pan. This method makes transferring the batter both neat, quick, and easy, just filling each cavity halfway to allow for the rise.
Bake.
The donut pans slide into the oven to bake. A touch test for doneness—if you gently poke the top of a donut and it bounces back, they’re perfect. The trays are taken out of the oven to cool for a few minutes before a gentle invert to release the donuts. I often re-grease the pans for the remaining batter.
Coat the donuts.
Meanwhile, I prepare a medium bowl with granulated sugar, cinnamon, and apple pie spice—a tantalizing apple spice topping. I handle each donut with care, dunk their sides into melted butter, and then generously coat them in the sugar mixture for that perfect apple spice finish.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Baked Apple Cider Donuts are not just treats; they are an autumnal experience. With their moist, dense interior balanced by a crispy cinnamon sugar exterior, they truly capture the essence of the season in every bite. The simplicity and ease of the recipe, coupled with the delightful convenience it brings to brisk fall mornings, make them a favored choice for homemade breakfast indulgence.
The clever trick of reducing apple cider to amplify the flavors ensures these donuts are packed with all the warm, comforting tastes of fall, from aromatic spices to the nostalgic sweetness of apple. Whether enjoyed alongside a steaming mug of cider or as an accompaniment to a festive fall gathering, these donuts offer a perfect blend of homey comfort and seasonal celebration. Truly, the Baked Apple Cider Donut recipe not only works, but triumphs as a testament to the power of combining the right ingredients with a patently perfect process.
FAQs
What is so special about apple cider donuts?
These are soft, spongy, moist, perfectly sweet donuts filled with spice, applesauce, and real apple cider. They’re coated in crunchy cinnamon sugar and taste as though they come right from the bakery. Easy to make. Best of all, my homemade cider donuts are fresh from the oven in 20 minutes.
How are apple cider donuts different from regular donuts?
Cider doughnuts are cake doughnuts that get their flavor from cinnamon, nutmeg and apple cider used in the batter. They are a harvest tradition in autumn in the northeastern United States and are sometimes sold at cider mills.
Why are apple cider donuts called apple cider donuts?
Cider Donuts are to be eaten with cider, that’s where the name comes from. So if you grew up in rural New England, as I did, you have indelible memories of the smell of cider donuts at Apple Orchards this time of year.
Do apple cider donuts taste like apple cider?
Note that while apple cider donuts include apple cider, they’re not designed to TASTE very strongly of apple, per several readers. Fittingly, most of these recipes are excellent cinnamon sugar cake doughnuts with a hint of apple.
Are apple ciders healthy?
The polyphenols in the cider provide health benefits. While cider might not have the same concentration of polyphenols that whole apples have, these antioxidants can help to improve your health and lower your odds of certain conditions such as inflammation and cancer.
Are apple cider donuts good?
Flavor-wise, they’re APPLE and CINNAMON and SPICE all over. They taste like they’re straight from the bakery! Ease: A simple mix of wet and dry ingredients plus the apple cider concentrate makes these a snap to prepare for crisp fall mornings. No mixer, rolling pin, or donut cutter is required!