Are you #teampumpkin or #teamapple when it comes to fall baking? I have both feet firmly planted in the apple camp. It’s not officially fall for me until I make Apple Cider Donuts. I have always made a baked version, but this year, Claire Saffitz convinced me to try frying them.
I was not disappointed. Frying results in a craggy crunchy exterior that can’t be replicated by baking. Donuts are best eaten within hours of being made. The dough can be made a day ahead and stored in the fridge. Then all you have to do is fry them when you’re ready.
Because I never met a kitchen gadget I didn’t like, I have a dedicated donut cutter. No need to buy one though. You can just use a 3-1/4 inch round cutter and a second 1-1/4 inch round cutter to cut out the centre. Don’t throw away those donut holes. They are the baker’s treat!
The donuts are intensely apple flavoured thanks to a dough that incorporates both apple butter and reduced apple cider. The interior is pleasantly dense. These are a cake style donut (as opposed to an airy yeast donut). The dough is very sticky, so it needs a rest in the fridge before cutting and frying. It’s critical to flour your cutter very well. You’ll see in the video that I place each donut on a little square of parchment paper. They are much easier to transfer into the fryer this way. Once they start frying, you can remove the paper from the oil with a pair of tongs.
These Apple Cider Browned Butter Doughnuts are the best thing I have baked all year. Yes, I realize that’s a bold statement, given the number of things I have baked in 2020. (It’s been a heavy baking year… we all deal with stress in our own way, don’t judge!)
Granted, these doughnuts are not as pretty as my black and white ones from a few weeks ago, but OMG, the taste and texture of these is off-the-charts fantastic. I was inspired to bake these after seeing a recipe for Apple Cider Doughnut Cake from food writer Tara O’Brady. I subscribe to her newsletter and every week I get a charming, informative and beautifully crafted email.
Tara baked the batter in a loaf pan. Her description of this loaf is so lyrical. I want to write like this when I grow up.😉 “Out of the oven the texture is almost spongy; jaunty and open. As the cake sits, it settles, relaxing into a sturdiness that is exactly right and as it should be. The crust establishes itself with a gentle crunch as it meets the teeth, while the centre fluff gives way with a velvet weight.“
I made the loaves and fell in love with her recipe. Apples are featured prominently. The batter calls for reduced apple cider and applesauce. I wondered what would happen if I baked the batter in doughnut pans. You could also bake them in muffin tins, but they will take a few minutes longer to bake.
As I was assembling the ingredients, I realized I had run out of applesauce, but I had a jar of apple butter leftover from baking this.
There is no actual butter in apple butter. Apple butter is basically concentrated applesauce, or as I like to describe it, “applesauce on steroids“. Alex Delaney wrote a brilliant article explaining the difference.
The doughnuts come together fairly quickly. You will need to reduce the apple cider and brown the butter in advance.
While the doughnuts are delicious plain, dipping them in browned butter and then rolling them in cinnamon-sugar takes them over the top, so don’t skip this step!
I baked these doughnuts several times, the first time to just test the recipe, the second time to shoot the photos and the third time to shoot the video. Luckily I live in a condo and have several neighbours who happily take the leftovers. I also discovered that they freeze beautifully. Wrap individual doughnuts in plastic wrap and place them all in a freezer bag. They will thaw at room temperature in about 45 minutes.
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGfE0XAZqeI
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.
Chanukah starts tomorrow night. This eight day holiday commemorates a very special miracle of light. After defeating the oppressive Syrian-Greek army, the Jews set out to rededicate their holy temple, which had been destroyed during the war. When they went to light the special candelabra, they found only a small vial of pure olive oil. That meagre supply was enough to light the flame for just one day. Miraculously the oil burned for eight days, thus giving Jews, the world over, permission to eat fried foods for eight nights each year! In North America it is traditional to eat latkes (fried potato pancakes). In Israel, the holiday is celebrated by eating jelly filled donuts, known as “Sufganiyot”. I wanted to create a filled donut, but jelly is just “not my jam”. I wanted a tart filling to counteract the sweet donuts. Flushed with success from my Pomegranate Glazed Donuts, a few days ago, I decided too make a pomegranate curd.
I learned a thing or two about heating pomegranate juice during the making of this curd. By my third batch I’d nailed it! I initially used a lemon curd recipe and added some pomegranate juice to it for flavour and colour. As I heated my sugar, eggs and pomegranate juice, I watched it go from a vibrant ruby red to a disgusting muddy mauve colour. I thought maybe something was wrong with the pomegranate juice, so I bought a fresh bottle and started again.
Round two; still disgusting dark looking hummus-like colour. I turned to Dr. Google and discovered that apparently there is a chemical reaction that occurs when pomegranate juice is heated, changing the colour. Lucky for me the brilliant Sarah of Snixy Kitchen figured out how to counteract this reaction. Turns out dried hibiscus flowers, ground up with your sugar will keep the colour pretty. I had a big jar of dried hibiscus flowers left over from my gin drinking summer days.
Success! This curd is gorgeous. Creamy, smooth, and mildly sweet, tempered with just enough tartness, it made the perfect filling for my donuts.
When the über talented Elizabeth Young of Flowers Talk, emailed me about doing a collaborative post, putting together her flowers and my food, I was game. She suggested we tackle a Chanukah theme. I have been a customer of Elizabeth’s for a long time, and she has an amazing eye for colour and design. Plus, she is just a lovely person. She’s much younger than me and has been giving me pointers on how to grow my Instagram account, encouraging me to reveal a bit of the chaos that my kitchen becomes on shoot days.
As I thought about what food I would feature, I immediately discarded latkes. Too predictable. I wanted something pretty to match the beauty of her flowers. My inspiration for these rose-hued donuts comes from the Israeli custom of celebrating Chanukah with “Sufganiyah” (jelly donuts). I decided to make two kinds of donuts. The first, I’d dip in a tart pomegranate glaze. The second, I’d fill with a pomegranate curd. I’ll post them in a few days. Making pomegranate curd is a tricky endeavour!
This year, Chanukah begins on the eve of Sunday December 2. I have often heard people describe Chanukah as the “Jewish Christmas.” It’s easy to understand this misconception as both holidays emphasize lights, miracles, family time and food. While Christmas and Chanukah both occur in December, the reasons for the celebrations are not at all the same.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, the son of God. A miracle, to say the least!
Hanukkah is a celebration of a different kind of miracle. Hanukkah celebrates the military victory of the Israelites, over the Syrian Greeks. Under Syrian-Greek rule, Jews were oppressed and not allowed to practice their religion openly. Against all odds, a small tribe of faithful Jews defeated one of the toughest armies on earth, drove the Greeks out, reclaimed their Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it. When they went to light the Temple’s menorah they found only a single vial of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days. In memory of this miracle, a national holiday was born. They called it Chanukah, which translates to rededication.
Jews around the world celebrate Chanukah by eating foods fried in oil to commemorate this miracle.
Elizabeth delivered her flowers just as i was mixing up my icing. I think my glaze was a perfect match. I topped these beauties with Edible gold glitter, because we’re fancy around here! (Truthfully, I found a jar of it at the back of my baking cupboard. Can’t recall why I bought it, but it sure is pretty!)
Sometimes, when I’m in the shower, belting out “My Man” from Funny Girl, there’s a little voice inside my head that tells me I could be Barbra’s vocal doppelgänger. But then the steam in the bathroom clears and I realize that, no, I can’t sing like Barbra Streisand. But that’s ok, because you know what I can do? I can bake donuts.
Yes, I said bake donuts, not fry. Who even knew such a thing was possible? Well, as it turns out, lots of people, particularly two of my favourite bloggers, Joy over at joythe baker, created Apple Cinnamon Baked Donuts with Brown Butter Glaze and Naomi over at bakersroyale crafted Baked Apple Donuts with Caramel Drizzle.
Before I knew it, that bossy little voice in my head, ordered me to go online and get these baked donut pans from Amazon. Never mind that I had recently declared a moratorium on online shopping after my girlfriend Paula whispered to me that she was going cold turkey, especially with shoes. She sensibly pointed out “We only have two feet you know. How many pairs could we possibly wear?” The little voice in my head agreed with her and said, “Yeah, no more online shopping for me anymore either.” However, in my defense, I will say that these pans are way cheaper than my current shoe crush.
The big question was, should I make the yeast style donuts that Naomi crafted or the cake style ones that Joy featured? The Cake vs. Yeast Donut debate can get almost as heated as the New York vs. Montreal Style Bagel debate. Apparently, people are very passionate about their foods with holes in the middle.
Yeast style donuts 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. Unable to decide which ones to try, I ended up making both. That way you don’t have to. You’re welcome!
Truthfully, I have no business making any variety of donut this week as there are more pressing matters at hand. Instead of baking donuts, I should be reading Chapter 12 in my Canadian Securities textbook, clearing all the food photography props off my dining room table so I can set it for the Rosh Hashanah lunch I am hosting later this week for 21 people, and watching the season premiere of Big Bang Theory. The cake donut batter is quite loose and can be piped. The yeast donut batter needs to be formed by hand. They are really fun to make.Both varieties were delicious. My friends at yoga inhaled (deeply!) the cake variety and the staff at my hair salon quickly gobbled up the yeast ones. My personal preference was for the yeast donuts. I really liked the chewy heft of the dough. The yeast ones do take longer to make, but it is not hands on time, just dough resting time.
I adapted Naomi’s recipe by adding cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg to the dough and instead of topping them with a caramel drizzle, I crowned them with a Maple Brown Butter Glaze. You can either chop or grate the apples. If you chop them, you end up with little bits of apple poking out from the dough and they look quite rustic. I love it when my baking looks like it didn’t come out of a factory, but rather was made with love in my kitchen. If you prefer a tidier donut, grate the apples so they remain inside the dough.
The topping for the donuts can be made quite thick, so it needs to be spooned on or spread, or thin so you can dip them like a glaze. The main difference is the amount of liquid, in this case, maple syrup, that you add. The other liquid ingredient in the glaze is brown butter. This is a small extra step that makes a huge difference in flavour. If you have never made brown butter, give it a try. It is as simple as melting butter over medium heat until it browns. The nutty aroma and taste will astound you and you will soon be browning butter for everything. One of my favourite restaurants here in Ottawa makes brown butter and then lets it solidify, whips it and serves it with their house made bread. Genius! I don’t want to say goodbye to the summer, but Baked Apple Spice Donuts make saying hello to fall very sweet indeed.
