Apple Cider Doughnuts, a Daring Baker’s Challenge

Well, 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 it 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 I have never made them.   It’s one of those things that I’ve always wanted to do but just never did.  This seemed like perfect timing to me.

There isn’t much that makes me nervous in the kitchen.  I’ve work with lye when I’ve made my homemade soaps,  and I’ve deep-fried foods before, but I have to admit I was a wee bit worried about  deep-frying these doughnuts.  Not because I had to work with the hot oil, but because I was afraid I would over cook the doughnuts.   Or worse yet,  I was afraid my cooking oil would  lose it’s required temperature and my doughnuts would turn out oil soaked and soggy.  There is nothing worse than an over cooked or under cooked doughnut.

Part of the reason I fretted over this?   While making the doughnuts I had a horrible time with my thermometer.  It wouldn’t stay clipped to the side of the pot I used to deep-fry the doughnuts in.  I dropped the thermometer in the hooil at least three times during the frying process.  What 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 it a bit 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. And 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 will 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  to compare the two, and I’d like to make some raised yeast doughnuts also.

So, what do you do with over a dozen doughnuts?  You share them.  I delivered fresh doughnuts to some friends of ours who  have four little girls.  You should have seen the girls eyes light up when they saw the freshly made doughnuts.  Watching the girls devour my doughnuts helped erase most of the bad memories I had concerning the deep-frying thermometer incident.    I’m up to making homemade doughnuts again, but the next time I do, I’ll be a whole lot wiser!

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