Fall Harvest: Apples & Pumpkins

Apple Donuts

By Heidi Lee

Adapted from Aran of Cannelle et Vanille

Apple Donuts| Photo by Heidi Lee

• 375 grams flour
• 55 grams almond flour
• 10 grams baking soda
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp freshly ground ginger
• 10 grams salt
• 110 grams homemade apple sauce
• 40 grams milk
• 20 grams apple cider
• 40 grams sour cream
• 100 grams sugar
• 2 eggs,
• 60 grams butter, melted
• Oil for frying

Cinnamon Sugar Coating

• 400 grams sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

Sift the flour, almond flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.  If another bowl, whisk the apple sauce, milk, cider, sour cream, sugar, eggs, and melted butter.  Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture (it will be wet and sticky).

Dust your work surface with flour.  Knead dough on work surface until it comes together.  Add more flour if necessary.  Roll Dough to ½” thick.  Use a doughnut cutter or 2 round cookie cutters to cut out doughnuts.

Fill a pan up to 2” with frying oil.  Heat oil until 375°.  Fry doughnuts a few at a time.  They will sink to the bottom of the pan, then float.  Fry until golden brown, then turn doughnut over and fry until the other side is golden brown.

Drain on paper towels.  Then, while still warm, toss in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Homemade Apple Sauce

• 2 medium sized apples (I used 1 McIntosh and 1 Spencer)
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• Dash of salt

Peel and core the apples.  Cut apples into eights.  Toss cut apples with sugar, spices, and salt.  Cook in a pan over medium low.  Stir apples every once in a while to prevent sticking and burning.  Cook until soft and mushy, approximately 12 minutes.  Transfer apples to a blender or food processer and blend until pureed.

This recipe comes from one of my favorite food blogs, Canelle et Vanille.  It is a recipe for pumpkin doughnuts which is what I originally wanted to make.  However, after going to 3 different supermarkets, all of which had run out of canned pumpkin, I decided to forego making the pumpkin doughnuts.

A week or so later, I went apple picking at Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow, Massachusetts.  At their Appleshop, they sold pressed cider, honey, a variety of apples and pears.  Best of all, they sold freshly made cider doughnuts, still warm from the fryer.  The doughnuts were fluffy and tender, not too sweet with just a hint of apple.  These cider doughnuts gave me the idea of substituting the pumpkin puree with apple puree, essentially apple sauce, to make apple doughnuts.

The doughnuts were delicious, but the flavor of the apples did not come through enough.  They were a little dense, but nice and moist.  When dipped in cold milk they turned into a sponge, soaking up the milk and becoming very cakey.  The richness and density of the doughnut allowed me to only eat one at a time, as they were very filling.  Overall, while the doughnuts were very tasty, I would have liked to see a lighter doughnut with a more pronounced apple flavor.

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