These doughnuts are a hit at our annual Homestead Heritage Craft and Children’s Fair.
TIME
About 3 hours
SERVING SIZE
Makes 15 doughnuts
- Boil apple cider in small saucepan until reduced to 1/4 cup; this will take about 8-10 minutes. Cool.
- Beat butter until creamy; slowly add reduced apple cider and beat until fluffy.
- Add 1 egg at a time; beat until smooth. Add vanilla; mix. Add dry doughnut mix and milk and mix well.
- Cover and let sit in refrigerator for 1-2 hours. (Dough will be very sticky.)
- Transfer dough to floured board and pat to 1/2-inch thickness, Cut with 2 1/2″ to 3″ doughnut cutter. Reserve doughnut holes. Reroll and cut scraps.
- Add enough oil to fill a deep pan 3″ deep. Heat oil to 375°. Fry several doughnuts at a time, turning once or twice until browned and cooked through. This takes 2-3 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and let drain on paper towels.
Mix 1 cup fructose and 1 T cinnamon. Sprinkle over warm doughnuts.
A few more notes from the mill kitchen
Apple Cider Cake Doughnuts sits in the sweeter side of the mill kitchen, where freshness still matters even when the recipe looks simple. Cookies, muffins, cakes, doughnuts, pancakes, and pie components all benefit from flour that still tastes alive instead of acting like a blank white powder.
Flavor starts before the sugar
Sweet bakes usually get credited to butter, spice, maple, fruit, or chocolate, but the flour underneath them sets the ceiling. Fresh stone-ground grain brings more nuttiness, more aroma, and a fuller crumb so the final bake tastes rounded instead of one-note sweet.
That does not mean every recipe needs to be heavy or aggressively whole grain. It means the base ingredient can contribute enough flavor that the rest of the formula feels more intentional and less dependent on extra sugar or frosting.
Use the short post as a starting point
Many of these older blog recipes are fast references rather than full teaching pages. The related links below help readers compare flour options, move into the full shop catalog, or find related mill guides before the next bake.
That gives a simple recipe a clearer path into the rest of the mill kitchen instead of leaving it as a one-off note.
Use the article, then keep going
Cookies and Doughnuts
