Baked Apple Cider Donuts with Maple Bourbon Glaze

Fall is in the air and I LOVE IT!!!  The leaves are changing, and the days are still warm enough that you really don’t need a jacket but you could get away with a light denim one or even long sleeves. 

The evenings are cool and crisp all you want to do is light a fire, snuggle up with your baby, and be all lovey-dovey.  Saturdays are meant for college ball and Sundays are meant for Steelers games.  I can remember when I was little, we’re talking wee little Dad would pile us into the car, Mom would pack enough food for a week and we’d drive up towards Laurel Highlands and the mountains here (about an hour from Pittsburgh) right when the leaves were starting to change.

We’d drive around using up almost an entire tank of gas (back when it didn’t require you to take out a 2nd mortgage to fill up your car!), hit up every backwoods country road, and pretty much get lost for a day.

We’d get home all tired from our adventure and unpack. Dad would be tired and go take a nap while Mom would put the stuff away in the fridge.  I’d run to my room and grab some plain paper and my ginormous gallon bucket of crayons (know those 1-gallon plastic buckets you can buy ice cream in?  Mine was FULL of crayons!). I ran as fast as I could back to the kitchen table where all of my treasures were.

I’d line out all of my leaves on the table and then either try to draw them free-hand (which was never successful as I can barely draw a stick figure let alone something recognizable like an intricate leaf) or I’d lay theM under the paper and take one of my unwrapped crayons and rub it all over top of the paper making an outline.  Then I’d color it in.  Our poor fridge had 9 bajillion pictures on it. Do kids still do this?

During our adventures, we’d always stop at this one place that made homemade apple cider. While I’m not a big apple cider drinker theirs was amazing. For me, Mom would heat it up and give me my own mug. But the best, BEST part of all of this was waking up the next day to have Mom & Dad make homemade donuts (deep-fried) dipped in sugar and a cup of warm apple cider. It’s funny as those were the only donuts I liked.  Any other donuts that either the stores sell or even bakeries I just never cared for.  But theirs. there was always something special about them.

Now as I got older and trying to live a healthier life deep-fried donuts are a no-no.  Plus like I said I’m not a huge fan of them.  I will partake occasionally in a cake donut but again it’s so hard to find one that I like I don’t make it. Yeah I know, I’m a snob.

Now Mr. Fantabulous is a donut SNOB!  I can remember where we used to live there was a Krispy Kreme place near it and I swear he had Spider-sense as to when that red light was on. We’d have to get in the car, drive to Krispy Kreme, get his free donut (and my free one which he ate), and then get him another dozen…for the trip home.  When we moved, that store closed down (I’m thinking because we no longer funded them!), he went without those donuts for the longest time. Sure they sell them in the grocery store but they aren’t the fresh from the oven ones that he likes.

But… when we went to our first All-Clad factory sale I spied a Krispy Kreme WITH the light on.  OMG if you had seen his face you would have thought God came down from heaven and hugged him!  That day I bought a dozen for him ( plus the 2 free ones).  That dozen lasted 2 days.  Now I’ve been going to this sale twice a year for years now and I’m easily buying him 2 dozen every trip and they last MAYBE 4 days.  MAYBE!

So how does this story all tie to this recipe I’m sure you’re wondering?  Mr. Fantabulous had picked up some homemade apple cider and by some I mean 4 gallons.  He LOVES this stuff. I mean LOVES!  For me I tried it and yeah, it kills my stomach. It’s just too sweet. As I poured him a glass of this stuff the amazing smells hit me.  It immediately reminded me of those days when I was a kid with our day trips, that home-made cider and then them making donuts.  Then that’s when it hit me… Why not make apple cider donuts?  I mean I love the smell of it, it fits perfectly with the season and weather and I was bound and determined to make a donut that we both loved.

Now I made a couple of batches of these and while they were good, they didn’t have enough of the apple cider flavor.  It just tasted like a spiced donut with a hint of apple. The trick I found was cooking down the apple cider to more of a concentrate.  By reducing it you’re left with such an intense apple cider flavor. 

For the glaze, I went to the TKW facebook family and asked for suggestions.  A good portion said maple and cinnamon which made sense.  But while I was making up the glaze and tasted it, it tasted too sweet.  It needed a kick.  By adding some bourbon to it, it totally balanced out the sweetness and left you with a sweet warm taste.

Here’s a trick to making glazes.  I almost never use water or milk. I use heavy cream every time.  The cream keeps the glaze thicker and helps form a great ‘crust’.

When Mr. Fantabulous came out for breakfast I had his standard 3 dippy eggs, 3 pieces of buttered toast, 3 pieces of crispy bacon, a cup of hot coffee, apple cider, AND a fresh-from-the-oven donut.  He inhaled his real breakfast and looked at the donut.  I got the ‘Hmph’ because it’s not the glazed krispy kreme.  I’m the cake donut person, not him. BUT one bite of this donut and he was HOOKED!

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