Baked Apple Cider Donuts
These healthy Baked Apple Cider Donuts are the best homemade donuts you’ll ever eat! Soft, fluffy, and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, you will love these perfect bites.
I have a friend. Let’s call her Anne. Anne is one of Jack’s godmothers, and one of the best people you don’t know. She lives in Denver. Too far from Washington. She is also a tricky little vixen and loves to send random presents that she thinks will make you smile. One day, years ago, a donut pan appeared on my front porch. Well, I mean it was in an Amazon box. UPS didn’t just drop a donut pan on my welcome mat, knock the door, and then peace out. Gross.
I searched for the perfect recipe to use for the maiden voyage of the donut pan. There are a lot of recipes out there for opening a can of ready-made biscuits, punching a hole in the middle, and calling it a donut. You do you, but when I want homemade donuts, I want those suckers to start from scratch.
The recipe I finally found is from Tasty Kitchen, but adapted to my preferences/tastes. Please don’t fool yourself into thinking that these taste like the fried donuts you find at a bakery – they’re not. But they are amazing and perfect.
They’re delicious cake donuts that will put a smile on your face, make you feel like fall, and pair well with homemade apple cider. From what I understand, they taste best in cozy pants and a fleece. I’m not sure. I’m not a doctor.
Making this recipe or others?
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These healthy baked Apple Cider Donuts are the best homemade donuts you'll ever eat! Soft, fluffy, and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, you will love these perfect bites.
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour I used King Arthur bread flour
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1.5 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp vital wheat gluten
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup brown sugar try homemade
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/3 cup apple juice
- 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract try homemade
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 6 tbsp butter
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush the donut pan with melted butter and sprinkle a little of sugar (evaporated cane juice) over the butter.
- In a bowl, mix together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- In a separate bowl, mix together brown sugar, applesauce, maple syrup, apple cider, yogurt, egg, and coconut oil.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just combined.
- Divide the batter into the donut pan, filling the cavities only halfway. Bake for 13 minutes.
- While the donuts are in the oven, mix 1/3 cup sugar and the 2 tsp cinnamon in a ziploc bag. Shake a few times to combine.
- When the donuts come out of the oven, brush both sides with melted butter. Put 2 donuts at a time in the Ziploc, seal, and shake. Should there actually be any leftover, store in an air-tight container
Homemade vanilla extract is easy to make and makes homemade goodies taste next-level amazing.
Homemade brown sugar only takes five minutes and two ingredients.
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Hooray! I received donut pans for Christmas and have been searching for a baked donut recipe to christen them. These are going on my to-do list for today!
Yuuuuum!
Laura and All About Us – let me know how it turns out if you make the recipe!
Anne – she is awesome. And hot. And all the boys love her.
Confession: I tried to eat a donut from my laptop screen. Now, my screen is all gooey with slobber.
You two are so money smart. Do you ever read the blog–Don’t Read this; It’s Boring? If you don’t,it’s in my blogroll. She is older than you, but she keeps things to the penny and prepares for everything.
I found one of these pans (brand new, still wrapped) at a consignment store for a dollar. Sadly, I’ve never used it. I need to change that. 🙂
This “Anne” you speak of sounds seriously awesome. Also, she wants a donut!
Want! (Especially chocolate glazed….)
Erica, I’ve been thinking about a chocolate glazed, but am still hunting for the perfect recipe.
Practical, maybe I need a post on how to clean drool off of laptops? ;-D
I haven’t read that blog, but will check it out this weekend; thanks for the suggestion!
I am going to try these tonight! I am from Northern California, and in the fall I spend most weekends at Apple Hill eating these bad boys. Now I live in the middle of nowhere in West Texas. Land of no water, no trees, and shit loads of pump jacks. I miss my September – November dates with warm apple cider, doughnuts, and apple pie. Sarah, you just made my month! Thank you!!! Oh and I love your blog!!!
Oh that sounds miserable! I know when we lived in LA, I craved green and seasons. I feel your pain.
Please let me know how the donuts worked out for you!
I have found your website so wonderful and have tried a few of your recipes. I was wondering how to get ahold of you to ask a few questions. The email link that is set up on your website won’t let me send an email or show the address. I would be very happy to know your email address to send you an email 🙂 Thank you very much, Cortney
beingfrugalbychoiceblog at gmail dot com
Super yummy sounding recipe and I added the doughnut pan to my wish list awhile ago and they seem to have been really popular but I still don’t have one!!! Maybe Santa will bring one this year 🙂 I made easy doughnuts and used cinnamon powdered sugar. I highly recommend trying that because I love the powdered sugar goodness!!!
Where do you find the time to prepare all these home made items? I mean homemade brown sugar, applesauce, apple juice, yogurt and vanilla??? Whats your secret?
Where do you find the time to prepare all these home made items? I mean homemade brown sugar, applesauce, apple juice, yogurt and vanilla??? Whats your secret?
Well a lot of those things are pretty hands off, so once you get it started, you’re done. The vanilla and brown sugar are like that – you only spend about 5 minutes “doing” it and then it’s done and you can move on to something else!
what is ” vital wheat gluten” and how important is it? I have everything except that, including two sizes of donut baking pans.
Hi Lisa, this post will tell you all about cooking with whole wheat flours and why vital wheat gluten (VWG) is so great with whole wheat baking. http://sustainablecooks.com/grinding-your-own-wheat/
If you don’t have vital wheat gluten, I would just use two cups of bread flour instead of 1 cup bread flour and 1 cup whole wheat.
Oh I wish I had a donut pan so I can make these right now
Can I use apple cider instead of juice?
Yep, it will work the same.
you had me at donut 🙂
yummy!