My relationship with doughnuts is a complicated one. I have memories of painful childhood dentist visits followed by a trip to Mr. Donut for a chocolate glazed, as a reward. As a young adult, doughnuts filled an emotional void for me. I was a new mom, pregnant with my second child, and we had just moved to a new city. I missed my family and friends, and felt very lonely. After a visit to the doctor, to check on the progress of my pregnancy (and weight gain), I’d stop by Lady Jane Donuts for a chocolate coconut cake doughnut, to drown my sorrows.
Eventually I replaced doughnuts with friends and it was many years before I indulged again. Doughnuts are really best eaten within a few hours of making them which is why I like making them myself. There are two main types of doughnuts, cake and yeast. Yeast style doughnuts, obviously rely on yeast to do the leavening work. They have a more open crumb structure and a chewier texture. Cake donuts, on the other hand, rely on baking powder and/or baking soda to do the heavy lifting. They result in a donut with a tighter crumb structure, and are denser and more crumbly than yeast donuts. Cake doughnuts are my favourite.
Most Apple Cider Doughnuts suffer from a weak apple flavour. They’re heavily flavoured with cinnamon and nutmeg and light on the apple. I wanted to recreate that juicy apple flavour that you get with the first bite of a crisp apple. I learned how to accomplish this from Stella Park at serious eats.com. The secret, it seems, is freeze dried apples pulverized with sugar into a sweet-tart powder for dredging the doughnuts with.
Freeze dried fruit is not the same as dried fruit. Dried fruit is dehydrated and only about 75% of the water is removed. With freeze-dried, the fruit is placed into a vacuum chamber where the temperature is well-below freezing and 99% of the moisture can be removed from the fruit.
A few years ago, I discovered that not all doughnuts need to be fried. There is such a thing as baked doughnuts. They make special doughnut pans, but I decided to use my mini Bundt pans, because they’re a little bit fancy, and that’s how we roll around here at saltandserenity!
The doughnut batter can be made in one bowl and you don’t even need a stand mixer. These are so fast and easy to make.
You’ll have leftover apple cinnamon sugar which keeps forever, in an airtight jar. I have been mixing in a spoonful with my oatmeal every morning and sprinkling it on buttered toast. YUM.
beautiful and I am sure delicious….
Thanks Brigitte. They were so delicious. You need to make them for the boys!!
Wow! These look delicious! And not too fussy too. I like that.
Thanks Lynnie. This one was really fast and so satisfying!!
So much wonderfulness in one post! Using your mini bunt pan for baked cake doughnuts is genius. So obvious once you mention it! The donuts are gorgeous and I thought you had piped them in some fancy manner. I have mini bunt pans. I can actually do this! You are making it very difficult to pick a favorite photo. I love them all. ( Ok. Maybe the spinning doughnut on Instagram was my very favorite. )
Thanks Wendy! I love it when I can find another use for specialty kitchen items. Bundt pans are so genius. They do all the work for you. I’m learning new ways to add motion to my photos. Instagram is a crowded place and it’s getting harder to be noticed.
I almost didn’t click on this because I really don’t love donuts. I love cheese, so it’s not like I’m a health nut, but donuts really are the worst. Fat and sugar. And, I don’t really eat anything sweet. (again, thank god!) but I had no idea you could bake them, and that pan is so fun! Very cool. Friends are way better than donuts, but these look fabulous!
Thanks Mimi. Yes, learning about baked doughnuts was an epiphany for me. I don’t indulge in them very often, but these were delicious and so very pretty!