Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts

What do you do when you're 22 weeks pregnant and craving an apple cider doughnut at 7:30pm on a Friday night? No, I did not send my husband to bang on the door of the nearest apple orchard to plead with them for a dozen for his pathetic pregnant wife...and tell them to throw in a jar of pickles just to be safe. :) Instead, we got to have a little kitchen date and make our own apple cider doughnuts!

These are baked and then lightly fried just to crisp them up a bit and help the cinnamon sugar stick. Much healthier than deep frying-so you can eat more....right?? The cider came from the Congerville Farmers' Market last night and the apples came from our backyard! How much more local (and delicious) can you get? I should also note that these were hot and ready to dunk in a glass of cold milk in less than an hour...perfect for a quick fix to a craving! YUM!

Baked (then fried) Apple Cider Doughnuts
recipe from Healthy.Delicious.http://healthy-delicious.com/2011/09/baked-apple-cider-doughnuts/

• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon  nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 apple, diced small
• 1/4 cup oil for frying-I used canola oil
• cinnamon and sugar for dusting

In a small saucepan, boil apple cider until reduced by half (it will look like a very small amount...don't worry, you're concentrating the flavor). Once reduced, cool to room temperature.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, & cooled cider. Mix to combine.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, & salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet. Fold in apple pieces, then add remaining dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. *Note: dough will be very sticky

Place a 1/3 cup of flour on a foot square piece of parchment paper or foil. Turn dough out onto flour, flouring the top of dough and your hands. Press dough into a 1/2 in circle. Chill dough for 15 minutes in the fridge to let it firm up a bit.

Heat oven to 425F. Remove dough and cut into doughnut shape. You can use a doughnut cutter or a doughnut pan if you have them. I have neither, so I just used a glass to cut the big circle and an apple corer (ironic, huh?) to cut the hole. Transfer doughnuts and holes to a lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.

Now you can fry these lightly in a 1/4 cup of really hot oil in a shallow skillet for 10 seconds on both sides, then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar while they are hot. Otherwise, you can brush them with melted butter, then sprinkle them, if you don't want the added task of frying. Either way would be great! We fried ours, but I think I'll try the butter the next time.

These were great fresh. I'm going to try these again, but make a double batch and use the leftovers to make apple cider doughnut bread pudding...oh yeah. :)




 <----Doughnuts before frying

Enjoy!