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Baked Apple Cider Donuts. These Cider donuts have amazing spiced flavor with concentrated cider. Perfect for fall. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. Nutfree Refined Sugar-Free Oilfree Glutenfree option Jump to Recipe
These Apple Cider Donuts are perfect for fall or any time of the year for that matter. The key to all the fall flavor is reducing the cider! Apple Cider gets cooked for a bit to concentrate all that amazing flavor of apples and spices. Concentrated cider, flour, more spices all baked into a flavorful spiced donut! Toss in cinnamon sugar or drizzle icing of choice. These will be a hit with everyone. 15 mins of Active time, no refined sugar!
The donut batter does not use yeast, so it can also be baked into regular size muffins or mini muffins as well. Add some finely chopped apples to the batter, top with a streusel and they are ready for to go breakfast. Lets make these!
More Donuts and Muffins
- Pumpkin Donuts – yeasted
- Spiced Sweet Potato Doughnuts with Cinnamon sugar SF
- Gluten-free Lemon Donuts
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
- Classic Donuts.
- Banana Bread Donuts
The batter also makes fantastic muffins. The concentrated cider adds a ton more flavor than regular cider. It also makes the donuts slightly dense, which means even more packed flavor!
Baked Apple Cider Donuts Vegan
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups + 2 tbsp apple cider (not vinegar, but the fermented apple drink)
- 1/4 cup sugar, (coconut sugar, date sugar, regular or use maple syrup), 1/3 cup for sweeter
- 1 cup flour, (I use a mix of 1/4 cup whole wheat and 3/4 cup all purpose), see note for gluten-free
- 1 tbsp almond flour, , or use more flour
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp cardamom or nutmeg
- dash of black pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp oil or applesauce, (or both for extra moisture when using whole grain flours)
Cinnamon sugar topping:
- 1 tbsp cane sugar
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 deg F(180 C). Grease a donut pan or line muffin pan. Cook 1.5 cups cider and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat for 20 to 25 mins to reduce to a scant 1 cup. Cool the cider to room temp. (cooling will reduce the cider further to about 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp)
- In a bowl, mix the rest the dry ingredients. Add the concentrated cider and oil/applesauce. Mix well to combine. If the batter is too thick, mix in non dairy milk 1 tbsp at a time until it is just a bit flowy to be able to spoon it in. If the batter is too thin, add in 1-2 tbsp flour
- Immediately spoon the batter into the donut pan or muffin pan. Even out the batter for even shape for donuts.
- Bake for 11-12 mins for donuts or mini muffins, 20-22 mins for regular muffins. Cool for 5 mins, then release from the pan.
- Mix the cinnamon sugar into a ziplock.(or add to a shallow bowl)
- Cool the donuts for another 5 mins. Brush donuts with the non dairy milk or cider, or use oil/melted vegan butter. Add to the ziplock and shake, or dip in the sugar mixture.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Wonderful tasty recipe! I love that it is lower in oil. It only yielded 5 donuts for us. We skipped dusting it with sugar or cinnamon and it still tasted perfect. Didn’t read the recipe closely enough the night before so the time required to reduce the cider caught us off guard while we were still foggy from waking up. The prep or cook time should take the reduction time into account. Will definitely make this again, probably reducing the cider the night before so we can have fresh warm donuts for breakfast. Another winning recipe from Richa!
awesome! yes, i thought i noted it, but must have forgotten. added it to the times.
Richa, these are delicious as muffins. I’m wondering if next time (yes, there will definitely be a next time), if I can put the topping on before baking the muffins. They smell and taste so good. Thanks for another winning recipe!!!
yes you can put cinnamon sugar on before baking just like my cinnamon swirl cake
Hi Richa. Made these today and they’re delicious! Just a couple questions. Should it be TBS instead of tsps of cider reduction to reserve for brushing the finished donuts? I forgot to do that, so I mixed some cider and maple syrup to brush them with. Used way more than 2 tsps.
Also, my batter wasn’t pourable at all, but it looked the same consistency as yours. I doubled the recipe so maybe that’s why? I spooned the batter into the donut pans and it worked ok. Just not as pretty as yours. I was tempted to pipe the batter in but wasn’t sure if it would wreck the batter.
Thanks. Great recipe. I’ll be making it again. I’ll try the gf version with some cream cheese frosting, I think.
awesome! yes the batter can thicken as flours absorb moisture differently.
I used less than a tbsp of the cider mix to brush as i was brushing very lightly. thats a great idea to to just use cider + maple as much as you like later!
I also used a spoon as I dont have the patience to pipe :). Once you put the batter in, you can use a fresh spoon, lightly coat it in oil and use that to oven out the top. or a small spatula. Even the thicker batter should even out.
When doubling in baking, you often will need slightly less than double the flour/dry. So start with 1.75 times the flour and see if the batter needs any more and then add more. My batter looks thick but its pretty fluffy inside with the baking powder starting to react already.
Thanks. I thought it was cool that the batter was fluffing up so fast. I was afraid of “deflating” it with my slow pan filling skills! I’m a pretty good cook, but baking is another story. They still came out great
Is that 1 1/2 cups of apple cider vinegar?
no just cider. vinegar would be insanely vinegary 🙂 .
You an also use just apple juice. You can buy cider from the store or make your own, use sweetener or not , eg https://divascancook.com/easy-homemade-apple-cider-recipe/
Really amazing recipe… My mom just loved it… And I love all of your cooking ideas… Keep sharing and lao support me
how is the texture of these different from cupcakes?
these are denser. You can use use the batter for cupcakes if you add 2 to 3 tbsp oil for a softer crumb.
Made this tonight as mini muffins and they didn’t last long! Loved the dense texture and bright fresh apple cider tartness. Excellent, easy recipe thanks!
awesome!
How many doughnuts does this make?
6
Can these be made using all whole wheat pastry flour or is it best to use a mix?
For baking its best to use a mix as they will get a bit too dense with the limited fat and sugar. You can use a mix of spelt flour and wheat flour. Spelt is whole grain but bakes up lighter than wheat. You can use an icing to help keep them more moist.
Hello Richa, this looks absolutely fabulous, but I cannot get apple cider in my country. Can I use apple juice instead? Ir anything else?
Yes use apple juice. Cook it to concentrate similarly. Cider generally has spices added, so just add a bit more of the spices listed to the flour