Apple Cider Doughnuts, a Daring Baker?s Challenge

Well folks, I  took the plunge and signed up with The Daring Kitchen.  It isn’t like I don’t have enough to do already, but I figured one post out of the month was manageable, and would help stimulate me a bit.  I opted for the role as a  daring baker since baking is my cup of tea.  Lori of Butter Me Up  hosted this months challenge, and at her request we all made homemade doughnuts. 

Before I get into the actual doughnut making, I’ve got to tell you that I’ve ate a lot of doughnuts in my lifetime, but never made them myself.   It’s one of those things I’ve always wanted to do, but just never got around to doing.  This seemed like perfect timing to me. 

Not much makes me nervous in the kitchen.  I’ve work with lye when I make my homemade soaps,  and I’ve deep-fried foods before, but I have to admit I was a wee bit worried about  deep-frying the doughnuts.  Not because I had to work with the hot oil in general, but because I was afraid I’d overcook the doughnuts with too hot an oil, or lose temperature, and my doughnuts would turn out oil soaked.  There is nothing worse than an over, or under cooked doughnut.

Part of the reason I worried over this?   I had a horrible time with my thermometer.  It wouldn’t clip to the side of the pot I used to deep fry the doughnuts in.  I dropped the thermometer in the oil at least three times during the frying process, a nightmare.   While I was deep-frying my doughnuts thermometer,  I vowed that I would never make doughnuts again.  But….

The recipe I used to make these doughnuts was provided by Lori.  It was posted by Ed Levine on Serious Eats, and is a Nancy Silverton  Buttermilk Cake Doughnut recipe. I tweaked the recipe to accommodate my original plan, which was to make apple cider doughnuts.  The three things I did to alter the recipe?  First, I used 1 tsp. of pumpking pie spice in place of the 1 1/2 tsp. of nutmeg the recipe called for.   Secondly, I used 3/4 c. plus 2 tablespoons of apple cider in lieu of the buttermilk. Lastly, I added grated apple from one small apple to the batter.  I finished the doughnuts off by shaking them in a bag filled with cinnamon and sugar.

When all was said and done, the doughnuts tasted great.  I thought they were a bit heavy, probably due to the grated apple.  If I make them again, I’ll cut the amount of the grated apple in half.  One thing that struck me odd with this recipe, it called for yeast.  Most of the other cake doughnut recipes I looked at didn’t call for yeast.  I’d like to try a recipe without the yeast just to compare the two, and I’d like to make raised doughnuts too.

Now you ask, what do you do with over a dozen doughnuts?  You share.  I delivered fresh doughnuts to some friends of ours who happen to have four little girls.  You should have seen the girls eyes light up when they saw what I had brought for them.  Watching the girls devour my doughnuts erased most of those bad memories I had of deep-frying my thermometer.   And now, I’m up to making doughnuts again, and the next time I do,  I’ll be a whole lot wiser.