Now today, the recipe I made to go with it: Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts (based off the recipe from King Arthur's Flour)! I don't have a doughnut pan (yet), so made them in my mini-muffin pans to resemble doughnut holes. It worked pretty well, I think!
Ingredients
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup applesauce, unsweetened
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons boiled cider
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg*
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger*
1/8 teaspoon ground clove*
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
* The original calls for just cinnamon; I added more for the flavors I like.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Put 1/2 C cider into a sauce pan, bring to a boil, and reduce until just a few Tbsps are left. Set aside to cool.
- In the stand of a mixer, combine all the ingredients except the flour and mix until well combined.
- Add the flour and fold in gently until just mixed. Lumps are ok; overmixing is bad. Overmixing = tough nuggets that resemble doughnut holes but are no fun to eat.
- Spray mini muffin pans (for doughnut holes) or doughnut tins with non-stick cooking spray.
- Fill pans.
- Bake ~10 minutes for doughnut holes or 15-18 minutes for doughnut pans. A toothpick inserted at the end should come out clean, like with cake.
- Loosen doughnuts from pan and let cool for 5 minutes.
- Turn out onto cooling racks to cool.
- (Optional) While still warm, but not hot, toss in a bowl of cinnamon-sugar to coat.
- (Optional) Drizzle/glaze/dunk in the Apple Cider Caramel sauce from last night.
I skipped the sugar coating once I tasted them. SO yummy without the extra sweetness. The caramel is a nice addition instead.
