While we never made apple cider donuts at home when I was growing up—we didn’t really deep fry anything at home—apple cider donuts are a big deal in regions like New England. This recipe shows you how to make apple cider donuts, using your own homemade, unpasteurized apple cider.
During the fall months when I was a child, my grandfather always had an incredible quantity of fresh apples to process from the apple trees he had planted outside his home in Dartmouth, MA. He would allow the grandchildren who were around to help create massive quantities of apple cider using this ancient wooden hand-cranked apple grinder and manual apple press. It was a ton of fun.
This very mechanical process resulted in an unfiltered and unpasteurized apple cider product that is completely different in taste and appearance to storebought apple cider or filtered apple juice.
You can replicate this authentic cider-making process at home, using a small quantity of apples, a blender, and a fine mesh strainer. The fresh apple cider made in this recipe is then reduced down to an apple cider syrup and used as an ingredient in the apple cider donuts themselves.
Homemade Apple Cider Donuts
While we never made apple cider donuts at home when I was growing up—we didn’t really deep fry anything at home—apple cider donuts are a big deal in regions like New England. This recipe shows you how to make apple cider donuts, using your own homemade, unpasteurized apple cider. During the fall months when I was a child, my grandfather always had an incredible quantity of fresh apples to process from the apple trees he had planted outside his home in Dartmouth, MA. He would allow the grandchildren who were around to help create massive quantities of apple cider using this ancient wooden hand-cranked apple grinder and manual apple press. It was a ton of fun. This very mechanical process resulted in an unfiltered and unpasteurized apple cider product that is completely different in taste and appearance to storebought apple cider or filtered apple juice. You can replicate this authentic cider-making process at home, using a small quantity of apples, a blender, and a fine mesh strainer. The fresh apple cider made in this recipe is then reduced down to an apple cider syrup and used as an ingredient in the apple cider donuts themselves.
Ingredients
For the Apple Cider Donuts:
- 12 large and delicious apples, (like Cortland, Gala, or Fuji apples, washed)
- 130 g white granulated sugar
- 70 g dark brown sugar
- 80 g salted butter, (softened)
- 2 whole eggs, (room temperature)
- 575 g all-purpose flour, (plus ½ cup for flouring your work surface later)
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 170 g buttermilk, (room temperature)
- ¼ cup apple cider concentrate, (cooled down from earlier)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4” or 5” circular pastry cutter, (for cutting out the donuts)
- 1” circular pastry cutter, (for cutting out the donut holes from the donuts)
- 6 cups vegetable oil, (for deep frying the donuts)
For the Cinnamon Sugar Topping:
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 3 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Cut the apples in quarters and transfer to a food processor.
- Blend the apples in batches until all the apples are fully blended.
- Pass the pureed apple mixture through a fine mesh strainer, until you have at least 2.5 cups of fresh-pressed apple cider.
- *You may find it easiest to do this apple puree straining in stages, as opposed to all at once.
- Reduce the 2.5 cups of apple cider down to ¼ cup of liquid, cooking the cider over medium heat on the stove in a wide pot while stirring constantly, so the sugars in the cider don’t start to burn as the cider reduces down.
- Set the reduced apple cider liquid aside to cool at room temperature.
- In a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream together the white granulate sugar, dark brown sugar, and softened butter.
- Mix on medium speed for 5-7 minutes, or until the mix in light and fluffy.
- Slowly incorporate your room temperature eggs, adding one at a time and blending on medium-low speed.
- In a separate bowl, combine the 575g all-purpose flour with the kosher salt, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, allspice, and ground nutmeg.
- Whisk dry ingredients together until they are evenly distributed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, apple cider concentrate, and vanilla extract.
- Add ½ of the buttermilk liquid mixture to the eggs, butter, and sugar you creamed together earlier.
- Mix on low speed using the paddle attachment until evenly mixed.
- Add ½ of the dry ingredients to the liquid mix.
- Mix on low speed until just combined, while scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently with a rubber spatula.
- Add the remaining ½ of the buttermilk liquid and mix on low until fully combined.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients and continue to slowly mix until the apple cider batter is uniform in consistency.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in the fridge for 2 hours before shaping and deep frying the donuts.
- When you are ready to shape your apple cider donuts, turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface.
- Gently roll the dough using a floured rolling pin (or empty wine bottle, whatever you use) until the dough is uniform in thickness and about ¾” thick.
- Prepare your cinnamon-sugar mixture for coating the donuts after they are fried.
- Prepare your paper-towel lined sheet trays for draining the donuts after they are fried.
- Grease your circular pastry cutters with a light coating of butter and gently dust them with flour.
- Use your large circular pastry cutter to cut out the donuts from the ¾” thick dough that you rolled out.
- Use the small circular pastry cutter to cut out the donut holes from the center of the donuts.
- Save both the donuts and the donut holes for deep frying.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven until it reads 340-350F.
- With any excess dough, carefully reconsolidate the dough into a ball, and re-roll to a uniform ¾” thickness.
- Cut whatever remaining donuts and donut holes you can from the dough.
- Check to ensure that your vegetable oil is still in the 340-350F range.
- Deep fry your apple cider donuts for about 3 minutes on each side, or until each side is a perfect, deep amber-colored golden-brown.
- *You may want to try cooking one donut first, and checking the inside once it is fried to make sure it is fully cooked through and you are happy with the taste. These donuts when they are done cooking should have a deep amber-brown color to them, as opposed to a lighter golden color.
- Quickly remove donuts from the fryer, and coat the entire exterior of the fried donuts in the cinnamon-sugar mixture when they have drained for 10 seconds and are still very hot.
- *Be careful not to burn your hands, as the donuts are going to be really hot.
- Deep fry the remaining donut holes, and coat quickly and carefully in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
- *Note the donut holes will cook much more quickly than the donuts themselves.
- Serve and eat them while they are still warm!
Notes
You can buy “boiled cider” at some stores, which is reduced apple cider.