baked apple cider donuts (tons of apple cider flavor!)

Apple Cider Donuts are the ultimate fall treat! Reducing the cider into a concentrated syrup (hands-off time!), and combining this with apple butter produces a deep apple cider flavor in these easy baked donuts. Warm donuts are brushed in a mixture of apple butter & reduced cider, and coated in apple pie spice sugar. Dare I say, they’re even better than ones from the apple orchard!

this recipe

This recipe was originally published in Sept of 2018 as a fried donut recipe, but I just updated it in Sept 2023 with new photos and a baked donut recipe. The apple cider flavor is also much stronger in these! Please feel free to reach out via the contact form (found in the header of the website), or leave a comment below if you would like the old recipe.

It never feels like fall until you’ve made the annual pilgrimage to the apple orchard for a paper bag filled with warm apple cider donuts, a steaming cup of cider, oh – and some apple picking. If you feel like every apple donut you’ve ever had is lacking in true apple flavor, prepare to have your faith in this fall treat restored with these homemade donuts!

Why you’ll love these Apple Cider Donuts:

• Apple Cider Flavor – Unlike most cider donuts, these actually do taste like apple cider! Starting with more cider than most recipes, reducing it down to a syrupy consistency, and using a little bit of apple butter has proven to be the perfect formula for apple cider donuts that actually taste like their namesake!
• Easy Baked Donuts – This easy donut batter comes together in just one bowl, with no mixer! These baked donuts are full of incredible flavor, and there’s no hot oil, messy paper towels, or frying to deal with.
• Fluffy, Moist Donuts – This simple batter produces light, fluffy, and moist donuts that hold up for a few days in an airtight container!

Ingredient Overview:

As always, the full recipe with measurements & directions can be found at the bottom of this post.

• All-purpose flour – Spoon your flour into the measuring cup, then level it with a flat utensil for best results, or use a scale. Scooping the measuring cup directly into your flour will lead to too much flour, and a potentially dry bake.
• Apple Cider – Do NOT use apple cider vinegar. Apple Cider and Apple Cider Vinegar are VERY different – one is apple cider like you get at the apple orchard, and the other one is just what the name says – vinegar.
• Apple Butter – Apple butter is essential for amping up the apple flavor in these donuts, so I highly recommend making or buying some.
• Butter – I always use salted buter for the best flavor, but feel free to use unsalted butter if you prefer.
• Eggs – Use large eggs, at room temp.
• Sour Cream – Use full fat sour cream, at room temp.
• Milk – I used 2% milk, at room temperature.
• Vanilla extract – Use real vanilla extract.

Recipe Variations & Substitutions:

• Boiled Cider – If you don’t want to boil your own cider, you can purchase boiled cider online. Just be sure the only ingredient is apple cider.
• Salted Caramel – My salted caramel sauce pairs beautifully with these baked donuts!
• Cinnamon Sugar – If you don’t want to use the apple pie spices in your spiced sugar, you can just use regular cinnamon sugar.

How to Make this Apple Cider Donut Recipe:

Step 1: Reduce the Cider. Reducing apple cider is a simple process that’s literally just heating apple cider on the stove, stirring it occasionally, until it cooks down into boiled cider.

Boiled apple cider has an almost syrupy consistency and a much more concentrated flavor. This step is essential to tasting any apple cider flavor in your baked goods!

Time Saving Tip: You can purchase boiled cider from King Arthur Baking’s website, or possibly find some in a local specialty grocer or at your local apple orchard. (Not sponsored.)

Step 2: Make the Donut Batter. This is a simple, one-bowl donut batter! Start with the wet ingredients. Whisk together melted butter, sugars, eggs, apple butter, reduced apple cider, sour cream, and vegetable oil in a large bowl.

Stir in the dry ingredients last, until just combined. Don’t over mix once the flour mixture has been added!

Step 3: Bake the Donuts. Pipe the batter into pans that have been generously sprayed with cooking spray. Bake as directed in the recipe card below for best results.

Let doughnuts cool in the pans for about 2 minutes, then use a butter knife to gently loosen them, and invert onto a greased cooling rack so they don’t stick.

Step 4: Brush Donuts with Cider & Dunk in Apple Pie Spice. Brush a mixture of boiled cider and apple butter over the donuts for one last punch of apple cider flavor, & dunk them not just in plain ‘ol cinnamon sugar, but in apple pie spice sugar!

Step 5: Optional – Salted Caramel Drizzle. If you, like me, can’t resist drizzling salted caramel sauce over anything and everything each fall, it pairs beautifully with these apple cider donuts! My 10-minute Salted Caramel Sauce recipe is easy and no-fail.

Serving + Storing:

Enjoy these donuts while they’re still a little warm from the oven! These are best on the first day, but will hold up well in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.

In the mood for a fried apple treat? Make my Homemade Apple Fritters!

Expert Success Tips:

• Oven Thermometer – An oven thermometer will tell you if your oven is actually running at the temperature you set it to. Your oven may not be accurate. Accurate oven temperature is crucial for most bakes, so I leave an oven thermometer in at all times to keep an eye on my oven’s calibration.
• Kitchen Scale – A food scale is the best way to make sure your flour is at the proper weight, since amounts will vary SO widely based on how you measure it, as well as the measuring cup you use, as they are not standardized.
• Boiled Cider – You can do this 1-2 days ahead to break up the steps in this recipe a bit. Store it in a jar in the fridge until ready to use. It does need to come back to room temperature along with the other cold ingredients when making the batter.

FAQs:

Special Tools:

• Doughnut Pans – To make the donuts in the size pictured, use this slightly larger baked donut pan. To get slightly more yield from this recipe, use this standard size donut pan.

More Apple Recipes to Love:

• Caramel Apple Cider Cookies
• Salted Caramel Apple Galette
• Cranberry Apple Crisp
• Honeycrisp Apple & Kale Fall Salad
• Caramel Apple Crumb Cake
• Apple Cider Old Fashioned Cocktails
• The Best Recipes to Make During Apple Season

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