Apple Cider Donuts

I made some apple cider donuts while out on the cape at Dave’s this year. They were pretty delicious. I worked from a few different recipes I found online. These are cake-style donuts rather than yeast, which is fine with me.

Makes something like 15-20 donuts and holes. Helena color-corrected the christ out of this photo; the donuts in fact turn out much less orange and more brown than this.

Ingredients

• 2 c apple cider
• 3 1/2 c flour, plus addition for rolling/cutting
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 4 tbs butter
• 1 c granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c buttermilk
• A lot of vegetable oil for frying
• Several tbs extra apple cider and ~2 c confectioners sugar for the icing

Process

Reduce the 2 c apple cider in a saucepan to aproximately 1/4 c over medium heat (turning eventually to low). Other recipes use regular or slightly reduced cider; I decided to go stronger and I think it served me well. Let it cool off while you do the rest.

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Separately cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the reduced apple cider and buttermilk, then the eggs, then finally the dry ingredients, mixing just until well incorporated.

Line a baking sheet with wax paper and sprinkle it with flour. Spread the dough evenly out onto the sheet in a layer not less than 1/2 inch thick. I think mine was a little thin in places and that those donuts didn’t turn out quite as well. Chill it in the freezer for 20 minutes or so.

Take it out of the freezer and cut out donuts and holes, about 3 inches for donuts and not more than an inch for holes. I used a drinking glass and a cap piece from a drink shaker.

Chill the cut donuts more while you heat up a bunch of oil in a pan. I don’t think you have to use a big pan here — no reason to rush through frying the donuts and you’ll save oil by going smaller diameter — except insofar as you need to be able to flip and pull your donuts from the oil, so you have to be able to get under them well. The oil in the pan needs to be ~2 inches deep to allow the donuts to fluff up well, so start at least that deep and if in the process of cooking it gets shallow you’ll need to add more and wait for it to heat up. Heat the oil to roughly 350F, which should be between medium and medium-high on most stoves. You don’t want badly smoking oil here, but it should pop if you flick water droplets at it.

Put the donuts and holes in carefully, and turn them after 30-60 seconds when they’re browned on the bottom. Pull them after another 30-60. Start with your holes so you can experiment and get the oil temp right. The secret to good frying is good drip time. If they sit in their own oil and get cold they’ll get soggy; optimally you’d have them in a fry basket over the heat so the oil drips and evaporates well, but more likely you’ll need to use a colander and some paper towels underneath and put cooled ones on other paper towels before putting new dripping ones on top.

The glaze is easy; mix confectioners sugar into a few tablespoons of cider until you get a good consistency. I obviously went thick and dipped only the tops (I actually double-dipped them once the glaze had hardened a bit); you could also go thinner and/or dip the whole things in.