Tis the season for fresh apple cider! I am not a huge fan of drinking cold apple cider, I do like warm cider and cooking with cider is delicious. My guys were working a few towns away and went by a cafe in the middle of nowhere that made cider doughnuts that they raved about. Of course it took them a few months to actually bring me one home. Honestly they were just OK – I was told by the guys that “they needed to be eaten first thing in the morning when they were fresh” Well that wasn’t going to happen for me.
This was a couple of years ago. A week or so ago my daughter brought home some store made cider doughnuts that were just plain terrible; there was an after taste. I figured maybe I just plain ole didn’t like cider doughnuts. On Halloween my company put out some hot and cold cider and again some cider doughnuts. Third times a charm – NOPE it was not. You would think I would just give up – not me; I had some cider in the fridge that wasn’t going to last too much longer. I decided to make my own cider doughnuts. Voila’ success – finally a cider doughnut that has great flavor, fairly easy and I finally get to taste a cider doughnut that I got to finish.
The only problem I had was I don’t own a doughnut cutter nor a fryer. I looked a few places for a cutter, no luck. I try not to fry too much but when I do I always use my dutch oven; it can handle the high heat. I have a ridiculous amount of cookie cutters. I riffled through them and for a 3” round cutter; now I needed a small round cutter for the hole in the center. For the people reading this that know me really well; they are going to LOVE this. The smallest and closest thing I had to a small circle was a tiny frog cutter. Since I was little I have always collected frogs; I have moved away from the mass produced ones to ones that are unique funky and pretty cool. Making in happen here in NH – just saying.
Apple Cider Doughnuts
Ingredients:
2 cups cider
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
⅔ cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp of each cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ground cardamom
2 large eggs
6 Tbs butter, melted and cooled
Oil for deep frying
Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring cider to a rapid boil and cook over high heat until reduced by half – cool completely
In a large bowl, whisk flours, brown sugar, salt, soda, powder and spices. In a small bowl whisk eggs, melted butter and cooled cider. Stir into dry ingredients until moistened (dough is pretty sticky). Cover and put in the fridge for at least an hour, you want the dough firm enough so you can shape the doughnuts.
Divide dough in half, on a floured surface pat each portion to ½ inch thickness; make sure to flour your hands and cutter(s) cut out about a dozen doughnuts.
Heat oil to 365’ and fry a few at a time. 1 minute on each side or until golden brown. Fry holes a few at a time approx. 1 minute on each side. Drain and cool slightly. Using a paper lunch bag; if you have one on hand; add some cinnamon and sugar and enjoy!
Recipe adapted – Taste of Home