Apple Cider Donuts Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are apple cider donuts made of? ›

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.

Use high-quality ingredients: Using fresh, high-quality ingredients will make a big difference in the texture and flavor of your donuts. Use buttermilk: Buttermilk helps to tenderize the dough and add moisture. Add eggs: Eggs add richness and moisture to the dough. Add oil: Oil helps to keep the donuts moist.

There's something almost magical about being at an orchard or fall fair (or even your favorite doughnut shop) and taking that first bite of an apple cider doughnut. A good one is tender yet cakey, has a delicate crust, and is lightly spiced, with an apple-y tang. And it's best eaten warm.

Nothing pairs better with our apple cider donuts than a nice, creamy slathering of our Chiles Family Orchards apple butter. If you're looking to branch out into more fall flavors, try our rich and scrumptious pumpkin butter. A good tip for this dessert is to heat up your apple butter and toast your donut.

Cider donuts originated with the American colonialists. With fall as the butchering season, there was a surplus of leftover fat from the animals. To use it up, colonial cooks would mix the seasonal apples with fry dough, and eventually, cider donuts became a homespun Halloween treat.

Let's be clear: Apple cider doughnuts are not bad. They are simply not special. We get excited to see them because we think they are a nice way to welcome the colder weather and the looming winter.

Use real cake flour – not DIY cake flour!

DIY substitutions don't really cut it, and AP flour will not create doughnuts with that same soft texture. Also, bleached cake flour will work best. Unbleached (like King Arthur Baking) won't absorb as much moisture, and you may end up with doughnuts that crumble while frying.

The secret to Krispy Kreme doughnuts is of course the sweet glaze, and this is achieved by bathing the doughnuts in a glaze of icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk, for a thicker glaze increase the quantity of icing sugar by a few spoons.

Yeast donuts are essentially the kind that you'd get at a typical donut shop, like Krispy Kreme. They're leavened with yeast and then fried, resulting in a donut that's puffy, airy, and light, and they're usually covered in some kind of glaze.

These sweet treats appear each fall. Like chocolate glazed donuts, they are a cake donut flavored with sweet apple cider and often coated with cinnamon sugar. The secret to apple cider donuts is boiling high quality apple cider until it becomes syrup-like in texture.

What is the most unhealthy donut in the world? ›

The Honey Dew Coconut Jelly Stick is the most calorie and sugar-heavy donut on our list with 590 calories and 40 grams of sugar per stick. Not only that, but it has a whopping 680 milligrams of sodium, which is almost a third of the recommended daily limit.

Apple cider doughnuts are very similar to traditional cake or buttermilk doughnuts but have the additional ingredient of cider or apple juice. The doughnuts are likely associated with fall because of the harvest of apples and farm animals. (The slaughter usually meant extra fat with which to fry.)

The best way to store cider donuts is at room temperature in an airtight container or ziplock bag. The donuts will keep for about 1 to 2 days, though the longer you keep them on the counter, the less fresh they taste. Don't try to store them in the fridge. The cold will just make them dry out more.

In a small saucepan, whisk together the cider, cornstarch, and sugar. Boil. Bring mixture to a boil, and continue to cook, whisking often, until mixture is thickened, about 2 minutes.

I liked the flavor but thought the texture was a little dry.

The doughnuts had a sweet but not overpowering apple-cider flavor. In my opinion, the texture inside was soft but a little too dry. The next time I have one, I'll pair it with hot apple cider or dunk it in coffee.

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.

Cider (cyder, United States: hard cider) is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of apple juice; a related product, perry (also known as pear cider) is produced by the fermentation of pear juice. Cider and perry have been produced for more than 2000 years in temperate areas of the world.

Note that while apple cider donuts include apple cider, they're actually not designed to TASTE very strongly of apple, per several readers. Fittingly, most of these recipes are basically excellent cinnamon sugar cake doughnuts with a hint of apple.