Apple Cider Donuts

My first experience with warm, delicious apple cider donuts was 5 years ago visiting my son at the University of Virginia. It was October 2014 and we visited Carter Mountain Orchard in Charlottesville~~where they served WARM apple cider donuts. I was in love. Every trip back for the next 4 years included a trip to this apple orchard. Getting these mouthwatering morsels was worth a pound or two of adipose tissue.

Prompted by an Instagram picture of donuts from my friend, Joe Pepe, I was on a mission last week during our New England trip to again experience these donuts. Apple orchards are few and far between in Phoenix, hence apple cider donuts are not available.

We were fortunate to stumble upon Averill Farm in Washington, Connecticut and promptly purchased a dozen. I’m almost embarrassed to say we devoured them over the next few days.

I am the type of person that when I get a hankering for something, it just won’t go away. Yesterday, here in Phoenix, the morning temps were in the 40s!!!! and I was dreaming about a hot cup of coffee and guess what? Yep, apple cider donuts.

The recipe is from Sally’s Baking Addiction and can be found here. Perhaps the longest part of this recipe is reducing the apple cider to intensify the flavor. I did it the night before while I was preparing dinner and let it cool overnight.

After mixing all the ingredients together, the recipe suggests filling a large Ziploc bag with the batter and cutting off the tip… a makeshift pastry bag.

I purchased these pans years ago from Williams Sonoma (which are still available) or you can order them from Amazon (click here). Or if you live in Phoenix you can borrow mine! Also the recipe allows for no donut pan by using standard muffin pans.

Short baking time of 10 to 11 minutes. Since these are non-stick pans, the donuts easily released after baking.

Brush with butter and douse them in sugar and apple pie spices.

And viola! In less than 1 hour, you have warm, apple cider donuts! I would even suggest pre-measuring all the ingredients the night before to quicken the production process.

This recipe makes 12-14 donuts.

Since these are baked vs. fried, I’m thinking they are healthier? Now I need to go and exercise! Happy Wednesday!