If you haven’t had an apple cider donut, I strongly urge you to seek out the closest place that makes them and try one for yourself. They are nothing short of amazing, but definitely not something you want to be eating all the time. I decided to take a classic apple cider donut recipe and make it a little healthier by adapting it into apple cider donut muffins. These apple cider donut muffins are packed with the same flavors of apple cider donuts, but have a healthy twist with a combination of whole wheat pastry flour and oat flour. Plus, they’re baked, which eliminates the excess oil used for frying donuts.
Apple Cider Donut Muffins
- 1 3-inch cinnamon stick
- 1 ½ cups apple cider
- ¼ cup apple butter
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature
- ¼ cup (packed) light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- ¾ cup oat flour
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the topping:
- 1 tablespoon of melted salted butter
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Start by reducing the apple cider. It takes a bit of time but this is what gives the apple cider donut muffins (and traditional apple cider donuts) their flavor. Add 1 ½ cups of apple cider and 1 cinnamon stick to a small saucepan over medium to medium high heat. Simmer for about 30 minutes until the apple cider gets syrupy. You should end up with about half a cup of apple cider concentrate.
Once you’ve reduced the apple cider, add the apple cider concentrate to the apple butter, and mix to combine. Next stir in the buttermilk and vanilla extract. Set the wet ingredients aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together the butter, brown sugar, and salt together until light and fluffy. Next add in the egg and mix to combine.
In a separate bowl, combine the whole wheat pastry flour, oat flour, (I just grind mine at home. To do this, grind rolled oats into flour using a blender) baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
Next, add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the wet ingredients. (Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, mix to combine, then add 1/3 of the wet ingredients and mix to combine.) Repeat this process until you’ve used up all the ingredients.
Line a muffin tin with liners of your choice. This recipe makes 11 muffins. I know it’s weird, but that happens sometimes when you adapt recipes. Oh well!
Bake the apple cider donut muffins at 350 for 17 minutes until they have puffed up and spring back when lightly touched.
Remove the apple cider donut muffins from the oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack. Let them cool slightly and prepare the topping. This is what makes them like donuts!
Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Working with one muffin at a time, brush the top lightly with melted butter then dunk it in the cinnamon sugar to give the muffin a donut-like coating. Repeat for all of the muffins, then enjoy! These can be eaten immediately or can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.