Homemade Apple Doughnuts

Normally at this time of year, we make a trip to visit family in Oregon. We're not going this year, and apart from missing grandmas and grandpas, uncles and aunts, and a few friends thrown in, we're also missing our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. There's an orchard near my mother's, that has a beautiful patch plus hayrides, a corn maze, petting zoo, bouncy castles, and our favorite - fresh apple doughnuts and steamy hot apple cider.

We're really missing those doughnuts (and our family too, of course). I thought maybe I could lessen the disappointment of not going this fall, by making apple doughnuts here at home. I'm really not sure if the doughnuts done at the orchard are a cake, or yeast variety, quite frankly they're always devoured so quickly, I've never had a chance to think about it. But, most of the apple doughnut recipes online are the deep fried variety.

The thought of six children in the kitchen with a pot of hot oil, was a little too frightening for me. So I searched around until I found a recipe for yeast doughnuts, that calls for baking instead of dipping in oil, and claims to be as good, if slightly different from, the deep fried variety. I modified it a bit, in an attempt to make them apple doughnuts. I would have preferred to use hot cider, in place of milk, but we don't currently have anything but the powdered mix-type cider on hand, and we're trying not to run to the grocery store every time we need some little ingredient, so I opted to replace part of the milk with warmed applesauce.

Here's what we ended up with:

• 1/3 cup warm milk , 95 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit


• 1 packet active dry yeast


• 2 tablespoons butter


• 2/3 cup sugar


• 2 eggs


• 1 cup warm applesauce


• 5 cups flour


• 2 tablespoons cinnamon


• 1/2 cup melted butter


• 1 1/2 cups sugar


• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  

Proof the yeast in the milk. Then, mix it in with the rest of the ingredients, adding the flour last, a little at a time. Don't over mix.

Turn the dough out on a floured surface, and knead a few times. Place the dough into a buttered mixing bowl, cover, and let rise, for about an hour, until double.

Punch the dough down. Turn it out onto a floured surface, roll it out about 1/2 inch thick, and cut it into doughnut shapes. Place the doughnuts onto a greased cookie sheet, cover, and allow to rise for another 45 minutes. Since we wanted to have doughnuts for the children, for breakfast, we put the doughnuts into the fridge overnight, and then allowed them about an hour to warm back up on the counter this morning before baking. We did however, bake the doughnut holes up last night (as a test batch).

Bake the doughnuts at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, for about 8 minutes - just until the bottoms are browned. The tops may not look brown, but don't over bake. While they are baking, mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl, and melt the butter.

Take the doughnuts from the oven. Dip them quickly into the butter, give them a toss in the sugar mixture, and serve while still warm.

While the taste is more reminiscent of a trip to the Cinnabon, than a trip to the orchard farm store, served with hot cider (sadly, still the powdered variety), as breakfast before Sunday school, they still made for a special fall treat. Our quest for the apple doughnuts we remember, can continue another day, after we've had time to go for a long walk, and burn off a few of the calories we consumed this morning.

It's great to be a homeschooler.