These tender, flavorful Glazed Apple Cider Donuts are spiked with an apple cider reduction and finished off with a cinnamon spiced glaze. The perfect Fall breakfast!
So I’m pretty much known as the resident donut lady around here or baker, it goes both ways. People know that I love to bake, but they also know I love making donuts.
Donuts were one recipe that I would experiment with over and over again, trying new recipes with all different flavors and sending them to work with my husband.
None came home, so that was always a good sign. These Glazed Apple Cider Donuts are one of my favorite breakfast or dessert to make during the Fall.
The flavor of the spices and apple cider and glaze all come together to create the perfect donut! I’m not lying, if you are a fan of apple cider, then you have to try these.
These Apple Cider Donuts are easy, the hardest part is reducing the cider, and if that is the hardest part then that tells you exactly how easy these are.
Some of my other favorite apple recipes that we have on our site include: Apple Cinnamon Muffins, Apple Monkey Bread and Crock Pot Easy Apple Crumble.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- With apple cider in both the donuts and glaze it is a perfect flavor that is not too overpowering.
- This batch is easily able to be doubled for any occasion, or cut in half to serve a smaller family.
- These are baked! Which not only saves time, but you get to eat them faster.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM):
Apple cider
Cinnamon stick
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Apple pie spice
Cinnamon
Baking soda
Salt
Granulated sugar
Light brown sugar
Egg
Whole milk
Unsalted butter
Vanilla extract
Powdered’ sugar
HOW TO MAKE GLAZED APPLE CIDER DONUTS, STEP BY STEP:
- In a small saucepan, add the apple cider and a cinnamon stick.
- Simmer over medium heat until the liquid is reduced to about ½ cup. This usually takes about 20-25 minutes. You can check how much liquid is left by transferring it into a heat-proof measuring cup. At the 15-minute mark, I begin to check how much is left every 5 minutes or so.
- Reserve 2 tablespoons of cider reduction for the glaze.
- Preheat oven to 350° F and spray your donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sifted flour, baking powder, apple pie spice, cinnamon, and salt, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add together granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg, milk, melted butter, vanilla and apple cider.
- Whisk until everything is combined.
- Slowly stir wet mixture into dry ingredients until smooth and completely incorporated.
- Fill a piping bag with the donut batter. Snip the tip about 1½-inches from the bottom and fill each cavity in the greased donut pan about two-thirds full. If you don’t have piping bags, a resealable food-storage bag will work, also. You will have enough batter to fill a 6-cavity donut pan twice.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the donuts are slightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the thickest part comes out clean.
- Allow donuts to cool until cool enough to handle, then transfer to a wire cooling rack with foil or parchment paper underneath (you’ll need to catch the glaze drippings later). Repeat with remaining batter.
- Meanwhile to make the glaze, in shallow dish add together powdered sugar, milk, reserved apple cider reduction, cinnamon, and apple pie spice.
- Whisk until everything is combined and smooth.
- Dip the donuts face-down into the glaze, covering the top half of the donut.
- Place glazed doughnuts back onto the cooling rack, glazed side up, so the glaze can drip down the sides and through the rack. If you prefer a hardened glaze, allow it to sit and harden for about 30 minutes.
IF I DON’T HAVE A DONUT PAN?
So there are a few things that you can do here, you can do here and let me explain them below!
Donut Pans are a relatively inexpensive kitchen item and fun to have on hand if you are a donut fan, but what if you don’t own one?
If you don’t feel the need to purchase a pan here are some options:
- Muffin tin donuts: Roll up foil into a log shape that is taller than your muffin wells and about 1″-1 1/2″ in diameter and place it in the center of the well. While it doesn’t quite give you the right shape, it will still give you donuts.
- Free form: Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment paper then pipe your donut batter into circles about 2″ apart on the tray and bake in oven. Now they may not stay in place depending on how thick your batter is.
- Holes: You can also always make delicious donut holes with this recipe as well. Using a mini muffin tin, just fill the wells with batter and bake, checking for doneness after about 5-7 minutes.
- Muffins: If all else fails you can make Apple Cider Muffins instead, now I’m not against that at all! You can fill a standard-sized muffin pan ¾ full and bake the batter at 350° F for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Makes 8-10 muffins.
DO I HAVE TO GLAZE THESE?
No, if you are not a glaze person do not feel obligated to make a glaze. We love glazed donuts but you can also make a cinnamon sugar topping as well.
After donuts are done baking just mix together some cinnamon and sugar to your liking and melt aboud 1/4 cup butter and tip the donuts in the butter then in in the cinnamon sugar.
HOW TO STORE:
This Apple Cider Donut Recipe is best served immediately but can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.
These can also be frozen, place in an airtight container for freezer bag and they should keep for up to 2 months.
Though you can freeze them glazed, the glaze tends to get a little watery as it defrosts and is probably best left done after the donuts have been completely defrosted.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- If you can’t find apple cider you can use apple juice in a pinch, but it wont have that potent apple flavor.
- Don’t skip reducing your apple cider, this really gives the apple flavor throughout these.
- You can make your own Apple Pie Spice if you can’t find any in stores.
- This recipe can be doubled or halved depending on the amount of people you are serving.
- You do not have to glaze these, see my option for cinnamon sugar above.
- These can be frozen, again see tips above.
If you want that flavorful fall breakfast that I know you’ve been craving you HAVE to make these Glazed Apple Cider Donuts!
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried these GLAZED APPLE CIDER DONUTS or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
Glazed Apple Cider Donuts
Ingredients
For the Donuts:
- 1 ½ cups apple cider
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon apple pie spice
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg at room-temperature
- ½ cup whole milk
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 2 tablespoons reserved apple cider reduction
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon apple pie spice
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, add the apple cider and a cinnamon stick.
- Simmer over medium heat until the liquid is reduced to about ½ cup. This usually takes about 20-25 minutes. You can check how much liquid is left by transferring it into a heat-proof measuring cup. At the 15-minute mark, I begin to check how much is left every 5 minutes or so.
- Reserve 2 tablespoons of cider reduction for the glaze.
- Preheat oven to 350° F and spray your donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sifted flour, baking powder, apple pie spice, cinnamon, and salt, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add together granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg, milk, melted butter, vanilla and apple cider.
- Whisk until everything is combined.
- Slowly stir wet mixture into dry ingredients until smooth and completely incorporated.
- Fill a piping bag with the donut batter. Snip the tip about 1½-inches from the bottom and fill each cavity in the greased donut pan about two-thirds full. If you don’t have piping bags, a resealable food-storage bag will work, also. You will have enough batter to fill a 6-cavity donut pan twice.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the donuts are slightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the thickest part comes out clean.
- Allow donuts to cool until cool enough to handle, then transfer to a wire cooling rack with foil or parchment paper underneath (you’ll need to catch the glaze drippings later). Repeat with remaining batter.
- Meanwhile to make the glaze, in shallow dish add together powdered sugar, milk, reserved apple cider reduction, cinnamon, and apple pie spice.
- Whisk until everything is combined and smooth.
- Dip the donuts face-down into the glaze, covering the top half of the donut.
- Place glazed doughnuts back onto the cooling rack, glazed side up, so the glaze can drip down the sides and through the rack. If you prefer a hardened glaze, allow it to sit and harden for about 30 minutes.
Notes
- If you can't find apple cider you can use apple juice in a pinch, but it wont have that potent apple flavor.
- Don't skip reducing your apple cider, this really gives the apple flavor throughout these.
- You can make your own Apple Pie Spice if you can't find any in stores.
- This recipe can be doubled or halved depending on the amount of people you are serving.
- You do not have to glaze these, see my option for cinnamon sugar above.
- These can be frozen, again see tips above.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Leave a Reply