Sparkling Apple Cider Doughnuts

I have been wanting to make these doughnuts for years and this past weekend I finally did it! I purchased the doughnut pans, grabbed my apple cider, and went to work testing different recipes. All day Sunday the kitchen smelled like apple cider heaven. It took three different attempts, and Adam tried a lot of doughnuts, but I finally got the perfect apple cider doughnut recipe.

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Sparkling Apple Cider Doughnuts

Time: 25 minutes Servings:18 doughnuts

Ingredients:

Doughnuts

• 2 cups bread flour

• 1 tsp. baking soda

• 1 tsp. baking powder

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• 1 tsp. apple pie spice*

• 2 sticks butter, softened

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 3/4 cup apple cider

• 3/4 cup sparkling apple cider

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1 cup pecan pieces

Spiced Glaze

• 2 cups powdered sugar

• 1/2 tsp. apple pie spice*

• 4 TBS. milk

• 1 tsp. vanilla

Apple Pie Spice

• 4 TBS. cinnamon

• 2 tsp. nutmeg

• 1 tsp. cardamom

• 1 tsp. ginger

• 1/2 tsp. allspice

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°

2. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes

3. Add egg to the butter/sugar mixture and incorporate fully, scraping down the sides when necessary

4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and apple pie spice

5. In three separate increments, add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat until just combined

6. With mixer still on, add both apple ciders and vanilla to dough

7. Spray doughnut pan with non-stick spray

8. Either spoon or pipe your batter into your prepared doughnut pan, filling each cavity halfway

9. Bake in oven 10 - 12 minutes or until tops are springy to touch, remove doughnuts from pan and let cool

10. While doughnuts are baking, make your spiced glaze by sifting together confectioners sugar and apple pie spice, then add milk and vanilla and mix well

11. Once doughnuts have cooled, dip each side into your spiced glaze and top with pecan pieces

12. Serve immediately and IF there are any leftovers, put them in a air tight container and they stay fresh for a few of days

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Tips & Tricks

• For these style doughnuts, you will need a doughnut pan. This is the one I used.

• The apple pie spice mix, makes more than enough for this recipe. Store the rest in an airtight container and save it for your next culinary adventure.

• As I am sure you noticed, I used both sparkling and regular apple cider for this recipe. The sparkling cider helps to make the doughnut very light and fluffy; however, the sparkling doesn't have a lot of of the spice flavor that you are normally looking for. The regular apple cider has a ton of flavor and adds a lot more dimension to the flavors in the doughnut.

• I really do recommend going half and half with the sparkling and the regular cider. All sparkling and the doughnut doesn't have quite as much flavor. All regular cider and the doughnut ends up somewhat dense. However, if you can't find one or the other substituting will work, just remember I did warn you.

• Spooning your batter into the pan works but makes a mess if you're not careful. I used a piping bag to pipe my dough into the cavities. If you don't have a piping bag, no problem, grab a gallon size ziplock and fill it with your dough. Get all the air out, zip it up, cut off a little bit of one of the corners, and you're in business.