Flavours Column: Apple Cider Donuts

These little babies were photographed during the apple orchard shoot that Greta (Greta Kenyon Photography) and Shaye (On My Hand) organised a few months back and I've been working at perfecting the recipe since - that's a lot of donut testing. We spent the afternoon at Ataahua styling and taking photos of apple punch, honey, caramel, donuts and a delicious apple and oat stack that's about due to be featured in the upcoming Magnolia Rouge. Yay! Watch this space for that recipe but in the meantime, make these!

Styling: On My Hand
Photo: Greta Kenyon Photography

Baked Apple Cider Donuts

Published in the Bay of Plenty Times, Weds 24th July 2013

Donuts and apple cider, a genius American combination. These light, doughy, baked donuts are gently spiced and have a good hint of apple tang. They take just 8 minutes to bake and are a great alternative to traditional cakes and cupcakes, with less sugar. I purchased donut pans from Culinary Council in Gate Pa (my go-to place for anything kitchen related) and they produced perfect round donuts. If you don’t want to be the proud owner of donut pans like I am, use a muffin pan instead although I don’t think the end result will have quite the same donut charm. These are great as is and even better warmed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! 

Thanks to On My Hand - Props, Styling & Flora for the styling (without Shaye most of my photos would look incredibly average) and to Greta Kenyon Photography for capturing my sweet treats so beautifully.

1 ½ cups Apple Cider (I used Cider House Scrumpy)

75g wholemeal flour

75g cake flour*

½ teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon allspice

1 egg

70ml canola or coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

50g white sugar

25g brown sugar

Boil the apple cider in a pot over high heat until it reduces down to half a cup (around 10mins) then leave to cool. Preheat oven to 200°C and grease your donut pan. Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk the egg, oil, vanilla and sugars together – add the reduced cider once it’s cool. Pour wet ingredients over the dry and mix until just combined. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe into the donut pan (if you don’t have a piping bag use a zip-lock bag and snip the corner), filling the donut holes about 2/3 full. This recipe yields around 8 donuts. Bake for 6-8mins, until they spring back when touched. While the donuts are still hot toss them in a bowl of cinnamon sugar (made by mixing white sugar with cinnamon).

*Weekly Tip: Cake flour gives a lighter, softer texture. Make your own cake flour for this recipe by sifting 60g plain flour with 15g cornflour.