- Hey, I'm John Kanell and today on Preppy Kitchen,
We're making incredible apple cider donuts.
So let's get started.
First off, we're adding two and a half cups
or 600 mils of apple cider right into a pot.
Let your cider come to a boil
and reduce over medium high heat.
Should be about a cup after 15 to 20 minutes.
(pitched chiming)
This reduced smells so nice in here.
Let's see how much we have left over.
That is just about a cup exactly.
If you reduced way too much, like you lost track of time,
just pour a little bit more apple cider in
and it'll be just fine.
We're gonna let this cool down.
I can actually pop it into the fridge.
And once it's room temperature,
we'll go on to the next step.
(upbeat music)
After your cider cools down a bit,
it does not have to be completely room temperature,
we're gonna add all the wet ingredients
and give it a good mix.
One quarter cup of granulated sugar, 50 grams.
Yes to brown sugar in apple cider.
Half a cup, 110 grams.
And by the by, marshmallows in your brown sugar
keeps it nice and moist.
I'm gonna crack two eggs in.
You really just wanna make sure the apple cider reduction
isn't so hot that it curdles the eggs.
But that's not gonna happen.
And six tablespoons or 85 grams of melted, unsalted butter.
If you wanted to use salted butter, just reduce
the added salt by a quarter of a teaspoon.
All right, we're gonna give this a nice mix.
I've had so many like mediocre
or just bad apple cider donuts.
I thought they were actually just not delicious.
So like that can't be. They must be good fresh.
So I made this recipe up and I worked on it for a while
to like really get a lot of apple flavor in there
with the perfect texture.
And they are superb.
I think about this recipe all summer long and all fall.
Nicely mixed, we're gonna set this aside
and get on to the dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, I'm adding three and a half cups
or 420 grams of all-purpose flour, along with one teaspoon
of salt, in you go, two teaspoons of baking powder.
So these donuts, by the way, are fried, not baked.
But they are cake-style donuts.
So we're not using yeast. They have leaveners in them.
And they're like just cakey and perfect on the inside
and crisp and golden on the outside.
Ah. I'm also adding in half a teaspoon of baking soda.
That apple is acidic so it's gonna react
with the baking soda and puff 'em up a little bit extra.
For the spices, I'm adding half a teaspoon of cinnamon,
a quarter teaspoon of cardamom, one of my favorites,
and a quarter teaspoon of freshly-grated nutmeg.
Nutmeg, apple, cardamom, cinnamum.
(pitched chiming)
Cinnamon. So good.
Our scale is done.
Right now, we're gonna give this a good whisk
to get everything well distributed.
This already smells so good.
And when this is frying, oh my gosh, it is fall perfection.
And now we're gonna pour the wet into the dry
and mix that until it's just combined.
And if you're wondering like, whoa,
this looks very liquidy right now.
How are we gonna roll this out into donuts?
The answer is chill time.
We're gonna chill this up for a few hours
and let it get nice and firm.
And then they will roll out and cut so easily.
This dough wants two to 12 hours of chill time.
And if you wanted to make these as an overnight treat
so you have the dough ready in the morning to fry,
which I love, you can totally do that.
Technically, the leavening agents
are a little bit less reactive after 12 hours
so they might not puff up as much
but the convenience is priceless.
This looks nice. You can see how loose the dough is.
Oh my gosh, it smells like apple pie.
Ah. Cover your delicious dough up.
And we're gonna chill this for two to 12 hours.
But we'll be right back.
(pitched chiming)
My dough's nice and chilled.
And towards the end of the chill time,
I fill the Dutch oven with three inches of veggie oil.
And it's over high heat right now
'cause I need it to come to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
This smells so good. I really hope you make this recipe.
It's like very, very like quintessential fall deliciousness.
Okay, here's the deal though.
This dough is delicious but sticky.
So I'm gonna need you to really, really flour your surface
that you're gonna work on.
Flour, flour everywhere.
So we're gonna get all of this sticky, amazing,
delicious dough out onto our floured surface.
I'm gonna pat my dough out into a half-inch thickness.
Flour your hands and get to patting.
You don't wanna pat too thin
because then your doughs won't puff up.
So really try and maintain that half-inch thickness.
That's that thick.
If you roll the dough too thick,
those donuts will be raw in the middle.
So make sure it's really about half an inch.
I'm not gonna lie. Your dough might stick to the surface.
If that happens, don't panic.
Just grab a bench scraper, scrape it up,
and sprinkle some flour underneath.
That way you won't have as many problems
when you lift them up off the counter.
Now you're gonna use a three-inch circle cutter
and a one-inch circle cutter to make your donuts.
So plop that right down.
Lift it up.
It's gonna wanna stick so flour in between every cut.
Flour, flour, flour. And then cut out your donut hole.
Place your donuts onto a sheet of parchment paper. Ah.
♪ One more time ♪
Flour, remove, transfer to a sheet of parchment paper.
And cut that circle out.
That's the assembly line.
So don't let your donut hang out on the counter.
It should go right onto parchment paper.
And really that should be on a baking sheet
so you can move it over to the oil.
I have a lot of scraps now so I can make
all the donut holes in the world or you can re-roll them
and make some more donuts, which is what I'll do.
Luckily, the dough is so wet, it re-rolls really easily.
My donuts are cut. The oil's at 350.
It's time to fry.
Slide this in. It'll sink but it'll pop back up.
And you can do like a donut and a few donut holes
to get started or if you're feeling bold
and you're used to frying, add the first full batch in.
My oil actually got a little bit hot so the heat was off
but once you add the first batch in,
the temperature will drop so maintain the heat.
You'll have to go up and down, up and down,
as you do your frying.
Ooh, ah, so golden and amazing.
The donut holes only need about one minute.
The donuts need one to two minutes per side.
When they're done frying, transfer your donuts
onto a wire rack to cool and drain just a little bit
before we toss them in some cinnamon sugar.
And you can see I'm using a bench scraper
to scrape my donuts up and plop them in.
If they're ice-cold because you're working quickly
or it's a cold day, you'll be able
to lift them up with your hands.
And if things got very melty, you could just pop them
into the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to firm up.
While these are frying, I'm gonna make my cinnamon sugar.
You might have cinnamon sugar in your pantry at the ready.
For one cup of sugar, I'll need one tablespoon of cinnamon.
And we're gonna give it a mix.
Sometimes I like to add a little bit of cardamom
or a pinch of all spice.
These guys fry up so quickly.
If you take a look, the donut holes
just flip over on their own.
You can always give them a little nudge
but that's how you know they're done.
These are a beautiful golden brown color.
Let them cool down just a little bit
and drain just a little bit.
Then plop them in the cinnamon sugar,
get them nice and coated, and repeat.
If you ask me like what is your favorite donut recipe,
especially in the fall?
It's this one hands down. It's so good.
I said so good so many times. But it's true.
These donuts are good all day
but you know they're best fresh.
That's the magic of frying.
In fact, straight out of the fryer,
they're just about perfection.
Mmm.
Melt in your mouth amazingness full of apple flavor
but so crisp, golden, and amazing on the outside.
I hope you get a chance to try this recipe.
And if you like this video, check out my donut playlist.