It’s the time of year when folks go out to orchards; spend the day filling bags with apples, going on hay rides, running through corn and bale mazes, before finishing up with cider and cider donuts. In honor of that, I decided to try and make my own. Baked, not fried.

I haven’t purchased cider in a while and was a little shocked at the cost – but I bought from a local orchard, so it was worth it. Excellent flavor.

These turned out pretty good – unless you’ve got donut tins, these are going to be a little lopsided, not perfectly round as the dough is more like muffin dough. They are much lighter than muffins, more like a good cake donut, and once you coat them in cinnamon and sugar, no one will notice their little flat bottoms.

This recipe made about 3 ½ dozen holes or 2 ½ dozen mini muffins.

Apple Cider Donut Holes

Dry ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2/3 cup brown sugar, packed

Wet ingredients:

• 2 cups of apple cider (reduced to ½ cup)
• 2 cloves
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• ½ cup buttermilk (or 2 tbsp buttermilk powder and ½ cup water)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 small apple, shredded or 2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce

Topping:

• 3 tbsp melted butter
• ½ granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Saucepan, large mixing bowl, Mini-muffin pan or donut pan (these usually make mini-donuts), two small bowls

To reduced cider – add to a saucepan with cloves and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove cloves. Cool completely

Preheat oven to 350° F   Spray muffin tin thoroughly

Whisk together dry ingredients. Using a fork, blend in wet ingredients until well mixed. Batter will be lumpy, but make sure all the dry ingredients are moistened.

Add by teaspoon or cookie scoop to muffin tin, filling to ¾ full for muffins, only about ½ full for donut holes. Do not overfill.

Bake for 9-11 minutes – until a toothpick comes out clean in test donut

Prepare topping mixture:  mix cinnamon and sugar in one bowl, add melted butter to second bowl.

Let donuts cool enough to handle easily. Dip in butter and roll in sugar mixture.  I just did the tops of the mini muffins and rolled the donut holes completely.

I also played with toppings – most were cinnamon and sugar, some I added a bit of ginger to the mix, and finally, for the last dozen, I added pumpkin spice, which was super yummy.

I’m thinking next I’m going to use the basics of this recipe, but make pumpkin spice donut holes. Stay tuned…