This post may contain affiliate links, please see our privacy policy for details.
Welcoming the weekend with Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts with Cinnamon Maple Glaze. Made with boiled-down spiced cider, apple butter, and cinnamon. Then baked and dipped in a sweet brown butter glaze flavored with coffee and cinnamon. There’s really nothing not to love about these cute (and sweet) autumn spiced doughnuts. The true secret? Boiling the apple cider down to really concentrate its flavor. The perfect way to celebrate the autumn apple season!
Half Baked Harvest At Home
20+ new recipes for wholesome comfort food made with everyday ingredients. Pre-order today! HBH At Home will be released on Tuesday, February 23rd!
The first apple recipe of the season and I could not be more excited. Every fall I’m so excited, but this year even more so than ever before. I think it’s because the world is in what feels like a very unsettled place, turning on any news source usually leaves you feeling frustrated.
Because of this, I am really embracing the things I love the most. I’m focusing on all the good that the world does have to offer. My goal this fall is to really go all out. I’m 100% grabbing more pumpkins than I need, making pumpkin spice lattes, and come October 1 – decorating for Halloween. I’m already plotting out my “spooky” desserts and cocktails for October.
Embracing all the good things and leaving the rest behind, you know?
And today that means we’re focusing on September apples and making some of the best baked apple cider donuts.
The Inspiration
Do any of you remember last year’s cinnamon spiced apple fritters? Well, those were the initial inspo for this recipe. I just loved those so much, especially the vanilla coffee glaze. I planned to remake them at least once this month, but the frying part really gets me. It’s just messy and not my favorite task.
That got me thinking about new recipes I could make that highlighted the same flavors but didn’t involve any frying.
And that’s where these baked doughnuts come in. They’re a cross between a really delicious apple cider doughnut and a sweet apple fritter. Totally delicious in every way possible.
On to the details – start with the doughnuts
If you love a classic apple cider doughnut, these are for you. If you can make a basic cupcake or muffin, you can certainly make these. There’s nothing fancy about them.
The key to these doughnuts? It’s all in the cider. I recommend finding the best spiced cider with no added sugars. If you can, pick up some fresh apple cider from your local farmers’ market. Or even better, go apple picking at an apple orchard and pick some up! Nothing quite beats a really good apple cider. It’s always so flavorful this time of year.
To help intensify the apple cider flavor throughout the doughnuts, I decided to boil down the cider on the stove until reduced. Boiling the cider will concentrate the flavors and make the cider that much more flavorful. It’s an extra step, but one that I think is worth it.
Once you have the reduced apple cider, the rest is quick. Just mix the cider with apple butter, eggs, melted butter, vanilla, plus dark brown sugar. Then add in all the dry ingredients and stir in a chopped Honeycrisp apple. Adding the apple makes them kind of like apple fritter doughnuts.
Divide the batter between doughnut pans (or just a cupcake pan). As the doughnuts bake, the kitchen will start to smell like your favorite autumn candle, it’s perfection.
Make the glaze
I took inspiration from my Cinnamon Spiced Sugar Cookies and apple fritters, and decided on a buttery maple glaze with cinnamon and a touch of coffee throughout. It’s just some browned butter, maple, powdered sugar, instant coffee, and cinnamon.
Not too strong, not too sweet, but just right. Especially when spread on top of a warm doughnut.
Delicious!
And with that, here’s my recommendation for the coming weekend…apple picking and doughnut baking – of course!
And if not this weekend, sometime soon. I promise you guys, these doughnuts are so good and such a great fall treat.
Looking for September apple recipes? Here are a few ideas:
Brown Butter Apple Blondies with Cinnamon Maple Glaze
Salted Maple Apple Tarte Tatin with Cinnamon Pumpkin Seeds
Cinnamon Spiced Apple Fritters with Vanilla Coffee Glaze
Lastly, if you make these Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts with Cinnamon Maple Glaze, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts with Cinnamon Maple Glaze
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider
- 2 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup apple butter
- 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 honeycrisp apple, chopped, (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar
Brown Butter Cinnamon Maple Glaze
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 3/4-1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 6-cup doughnut pan or 12-cup muffin pan with melted butter2. Bring the apple cider to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer 10-15 minutes or until reduced to about 1/2 cup. Remove from the heat. Let cool.3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together 1/2 cup boiled cider, melted butter, eggs, apple butter, vanilla, and brown sugar until combined. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt, mix until just combined. Toss the apples with the cinnamon sugar mix, then stir the apples into the batter.4. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pan, filling 1/2-2/3 the way full. Bake 12-13 minutes, until just set. Remove and let cool 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges to release and invert the pan. 5. Meanwhile, make the glaze. Add the butter to a small pot set over medium heat. Allow the butter to brown slightly until it smells toasted, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the maple syrup, powdered sugar, instant coffee, and cinnamon. Dip or drizzle the doughnuts into the glaze. Highly recommend eating a few of these warm.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Did you make this recipe? Please rate & comment below.
I have a 9 count doughnut pan. How long should I bake them?
Hey Rochelle,
You can follow the recipe as is:) Please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
My husband and I had homemade apple butter left from making some homemade cider so what better way to use it than this donut! Make these for the glaze alone – probably the best donut glaze that I have ever tasted! We imagine that swapping out the apples for some brown sugar bacon and possibly adding some applewood smoked salt to the glaze would be a fun experiment with this batter! Thank you for making our morning bright!
Hey Jenna,
Awesome! I love to hear this recipe was enjoyed, thanks for giving it a go! Happy New Year!? xTieghan
I made these this morning, substituting only the flour with King Arthur measure for measure gluten free flour. They are amazing!!
The GF flour worked well, but made the donuts a little fragile. It worked best to let them cool completely before attempting to remove them from the pan (I have Wilton silicone donut pans) and spooning the glaze on instead of dipping the donuts.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Hey Allison,
Awesome! It’s so great to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks for giving it a try! xTieghan
WOW..these were a hit with my friends at Friendsgiving! They turned out perfect!!! I dipped them in the glaze 2-3 hours before serving and they were perfect, (also skipped the instant coffe).
Hey Karla,
I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for giving it a try! Have a great week! xTieghan
What if i dont have instant coffee for the glaze, can i skip that or a good substitute? Thanks!
Hey there,
You can just skip the instant coffee. I hope you love this recipe, please let me know if you give it a try! xTieghan
Thank you!
Turned out amazing! And quite easy. Hoping they keep for a few days.
Hey! Thanks so much for trying out this recipe, I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂 xxTieghan
Holy cow- I made these and they are so delicious. I can’t rate them high enough. I didn’t have apple butter so I used applesauce. Yum!
Hey there! Thank you for trying out this recipe, I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it! 🙂 xTieghan
Hi! Do you think a flax egg would work instead of the reg egg? Also curious about swapping cane sugar for brown sugar (since it’s all I have in the house!)
Hi there! Yes, that should work just fine! xTieghan
These were really good. I made them as cupcakes / muffins instead of donuts. It’s a little difficult to get the timing right as we don’t normally think of “set” for non-liquids like a cheesecake or something. Trust the timing though and they turn out great.
Hey! Thanks so much for trying out this recipe, I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Happy Halloween ? xTieghan
These were amazing. I had to bring them into work to avoid eating them all!
Hey! Thanks so much for trying out this recipe, I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Happy Halloween 🙂 xTieghan
These turned out great!
Hey! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for trying it out and Happy Halloween! xTieghan
Do these keep well? I’d like to make them a couple of days in advance but not sure if/how they keep.
It’s reallyyyy easy for them to get overly dry. I’ve been adding a large scoop of Greek yogurt to the batter to help with that. You basically can’t overbake them or they’re dry and then I think they keep pretty poorly. I’m making the night before so I’m feeling good about them staying good for tomorrow but I’d be nervous about making them 2 days out.
Hi there, I would say that they are best in the first day or two! xTieghan
If you don’t have the cinnamon sugar product on hand, what’s the ratio of sugar to cinnamon to make your own? Thanks!
1/2 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon! xTieghan
Finally made these yesterday and they are AMAZING! I subbed applesauce because I didn’t have apple butter and it seemed to work great. I would say if you are like me and only have one doughnut pan (6), to wait to make the frosting until after all have been baked so the frosting doesn’t start to harden in the bowl. I also found that I was a little too zealous to dunk them and the frosting then melted (but still tasted great).
Hey Simone! This is awesome, I’m so happy to hear this recipe turned out the way you’d hoped! 🙂 xTieghan
Ooh this is a keeper for sure! Probably the closest thing to an apple fritter without having to deep fry. I made these in a muffin pan and they took about 17-18 minutes for me. I subbed apple sauce for the apple butter since that’s what I had. Will definitely make again!
Awesome! Thanks a bunch for trying out the recipe, love to hear that it was enjoyed!! xTieghan