Apple Cider Old Fashioned Doughnuts Recipe | Sur La Table (2024)

FAQs

How are apple cider donuts different from regular donuts? ›

Cider doughnuts or apple cider doughnuts are American cake doughnuts that get their flavor from cinnamon, nutmeg and apple cider used in the batter. They are a harvest tradition in autumn in the northeastern United States and are sometimes sold at cider mills.

Old-Fashioned Doughnuts are basically cake doughnuts that have been fried. This gives them a slightly crunchy outer shell, that's usually lacquered with glaze or dusted with sugar. The inside tends to be less dense than the cake of your typical powdered doughnut and less airy than a Krispy Kreme-style glazed.

Perfect texture. These are soft, spongy, moist, perfectly sweet donuts filled with spice, applesauce, and real apple cider. They're coated in crunchy cinnamon sugar and taste as though they come right from the bakery. Easy to make.

It is typically deep-fried, and may be deep fried at a lower temperature compared to other doughnut styles, having a crunchier texture compared to other cake doughnut styles. Frying at a lower temperature contributes to its rough, cracked texture.

Note that while apple cider donuts include apple cider, they're actually not designed to TASTE very strongly of apple, per several readers. Fittingly, most of these recipes are basically excellent cinnamon sugar cake doughnuts with a hint of apple.

Use real cake flour – not DIY cake flour!

DIY substitutions don't really cut it, and AP flour will not create doughnuts with that same soft texture. Also, bleached cake flour will work best. Unbleached (like King Arthur Baking) won't absorb as much moisture, and you may end up with doughnuts that crumble while frying.

Sour cream adds a bit of moisture and smoothness to the texture of these bakery staples. Whether glazed, covered in plain sugar or smothered in ganache (our favorite!) these homey donuts are sure win.

The mashed potatoes are the secret key ingredient and the spices and flavorings all marry with them to make the most moist, spongy, dreamy, delights you could ever imagine. Many have asked our family if we would start a doughnut shop, but we've never felt that to be our calling.

As their name suggests, cider donuts are made with apple cider, and they've been a mainstay at orchards and cider mills for decades. However, their origin can actually be traced to one of the great donut pioneers, a Russian immigrant named Adolph Levitt.

Combine classic warming spices like clove, allspice and cinnamon in your cider for an especially autumnal treat.

What does old fashioned cider donut smell like? ›

Old Fashioned Cider Donut

With scents of an old-fashioned cake doughnut, baked apples and brown sugar cinnamon, the Old-Fashioned Cider Donut Candle will transport you right to an apple orchard that's making some fresh doughnuts and cider.

We have found that peanut oil or vegetable shortening yield the best texture for donuts, with shortening producing the crispest exteriors.

'Amish crack' is a yeast-raised donut, fried, dipped in caramel, and sprinkled (heavily) with cinnamon-powdered sugar.

Cream of tartar has an acidic and tangy taste with a slight hint of citrus, similar to vinegar or lemon. It's often added to baked goods to boost the flavor of other ingredients and bring a bit of tangy zing.

Yeast doughnuts, as the name clearly spells out, are made from dough leavened with yeast (think brioche), whereas cake doughnuts are traditionally made from a kind of cake batter that uses a chemical leavener (i.e. baking powder or baking soda).

Cider Donuts are to be eaten with cider, that's where the name comes from. So if you grew up in rural New England, as I did, you have indelible memories of the smell of cider donuts at Apple Orchards this time of year. A bunch of folks have been asking me if we can make these more often.

CIDER DONUTS have become nearly as synonymous with a New England fall as apples and foliage. Every orchard's cider donuts are different, and every orchard's are the best, according to its devotees, who are often passionate on the subject.

Most Krispy Kreme doughnut varieties are made of the same yeast-raised dough as the original glazed, but they're prepared differently. Some are dipped in chocolate, caramel or other toppings and some are loaded with filling. Some speciality doughnuts are ring-shaped original glazed coated with different toppings.