Apple Cider Donut Holes

Apple Cider Donut Holes
Adapted from Live Well Bake Often

Ingredients

For the donut holes:

• 1 cup apple cider (reduced to 1/2 cup)
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cool

For the coating:

• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Method

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray your baking pan.
2. Add apple cider to a sauce pan over medium-high heat and simmer until it has reduced by half. Remove and let cool for at least 15 minutes. 
3. In a large bowl mix together your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.
4. In another bowl mix together your wet ingredients: reduced apple cider, Greek yogurt, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and melted butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined.
5. Evenly distribute batter between all holes in your tin. I filled up a zip-loc bag, cut one of the corners out, and used it as a disposable piping bag. Fill up each resevoir all the way to the top to get that nice rounded dome effect.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 11 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the donut holes comes out clean. Cool in the pan.
7. Once your donut holes are cool, place them in a large bowl. Drizzle your melted butter over them and toss to coat. Mix your pumpkin pie spice and sugar in a separate bowl before sprinkling over the butter covered donut holes, and toss once again to coat. Devour immediately or store in an air tight container for a day or two.

Hi everyone! It's officially feeling like fall! There are always so many things to do this time of year and I especially love being outside during sweater weather. Last weekend Jack and I went to an apple and cheese festival where I purchased some delicious unpasteurized apple cider. Fast forward to late last week when I was racking my brain to come up with something special to bring to my last potluck breakfast at work tomorrow when I realized I had a baking gold mine on my hand with that cider. Cue some quick googling and some drooling over all the fall desserts, until I finally picked a winner: apple cider donut holes! That you can bake! LIKE IN AN OVEN. No scary deep frying for me!

This bake was made possible by an obscure purchase Past Catie made several years ago. While I was looking for kitchen stuff for my new college apartment I saw a donut hole pan on sale for 99 cents. I didn't know when I would ever use it but a girl just can't pass up a deal like that. It's been sitting in my oven drawer since then (migrating to my new oven after I moved) just waiting to be used to create delicious buttery donuts. Well today was that day.

Side note: I've read online that if you don't have a fancy (uni-tasker) donut hole maker you can always use a mini muffin tin for a similar effect. Honestly it doesn't matter what shape you made your donuts, you will devour them regardless.

When I reached for my cider today I noticed the container bulging and when I shook up the sediment the mixture was fizzy to my surprise! Some internet sleuthing led me to believe that my cider was still safe for consumption, but on its way to hard cider.

"Even with refrigeration, raw cider will begin to become slightly carbonated within a week or so and eventually become hard cider as the fermentation process continues. Some producers use this fermentation to make hard cider; others carry it to acetification to create artisanal apple cider vinegar." -Wikipedia

A quick taste test revealed this statement to be very true and I am intrigued to see what it might be like a week from now. Maybe my next post will be homemade hard cider!

Today's cooking playlist is brought to you by my best friend's upcoming 20s Halloween Party. We've been working on a playlist and it's somehow bled into my normal listening queue. Enjoy your 20s themed donut making music!