Fall is without a doubt the best part of the year, everybody knows that. Part of the reason is all the cozy food, including apple cider donuts. This recipe makes the most apple-y apple cider donuts imaginable, and the secret is the applesauce reduction.
Prep Time | Cook Time | Serves |
45 Minutes | 15 minutes | 12 Donuts |
Apple Cider Donuts
4 cups AP flour + more for rolling - 480g
2 cups cider reduced to 1/2 cup - 450 grams reduced to 120
2/3 cup granulated sugar - 160g
4 tbsp butter - melted 57g
1/3 cup brown sugar - 70g
1/4 cup sour cream - 55g
1 cup Applesauce reduced to 1/4 cup - 260g reduced to 65g
2 large eggs - room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt - 4g
2 tsp baking powder - 8g
1 tsp baking soda - 5g
1 tsp cinnamon -2.5g
1/4 tsp nutmeg - .7g
1/4 tsp cardamom - .7g
Shortening For Frying
Cinnamon Sugar
100g white sugar
5g cinnamon
Salt
Step 1: Reduce The Cider and Applesauce
Start with 450g of apple cider, be sure to not use a spiced one here. In a wide pan over medium low, slowly reduce until it’s one fourth the weight. Cider has a good amount of sugar in it, so don’t leave this alone. Stir and lovingly reduce it. Depending on your stove, this could take upwards of 15-20 minutes. It will reduce faster as the liquid cooks off. Remove this from the pan once it’s reduced to about 120g and let this cool. Be careful with this stuff, because there’s so much sugar in it, the liquid can get really hot.
Add your applesauce to a small pot over medium. Cook this down until about one fourth of the weight. The reduction on this step is more about caramelizing the applesauce into a new substance. Something more apple-y sweeter, and much thicker. This will take about the same amount of time that the cider does, so you could do these at the same time if you have 2 pots. Remove the thick sauce from the pan and let it cool completely before it gets incorporated into the batter.
Step 2: Make The Batter
Start by beating 2 large room temperature eggs with white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk these together until lighter and slightly fluffy. Add your cooled cider, applesauce, sour cream and melted butter. Whisk that in until fully combined and that’s your wet mix completely taken care of.
At this point, get your fryer set up. Set a large heavy pan over medium low and add in enough shortening mixed with vegetable oil to come up about halfway. This needs to come up to around 350f for frying, but time it so it’s not super hot before the batter is done mixing.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.
When you’re ready to go, and the fryer’s all set, add your dry mix into the wet and begin stirring to combine. Mix these until all the ingredients are well incorporated. To prep for rolling these out, get a bunch of flour down on your surface, and have a little bowl of flour nearby. Put a piece of parchment paper on a sheet tray so you’ve got a landing spot for your cut donuts.
Lay your mixed batter onto your floured surface and flour the top of the batter so it’s easier to roll. Roll the dough out to half an inch thick and then grab your cutters. Roll this out until 1/2 an inch thick. Cut the donuts, and then punch out the holes.
If your oil is at 350, you’re good to gently slide these into the oil. They’re going to sink to the bottom, but then then baking powder and soda kick in and give the donut a rise. This time between when it’s on the floor and when it’s floating is called the floor time. It’s important that it doesn’t sit on the bottom too long. Fry donut holes for a total of 90 seconds.
For the donuts, use a spider or large spoon to gently flip them after 60-70 seconds of frying. You need to be very gentle so they don't break apart in the flip. They will need another 60-70 seconds on the other side to fully cook. Let these cool on a wire rack while you work through each batch. These need to be a little warm when we coat them in cinnamon sugar, but you don’t want them too hot too handle. For the cinnamon sugar, the secret is a pinch of kosher salt.
Cheers!
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