Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe & Zumba Fun

I bought a doughnut pan about a year ago with good intentions. But good intentions don’t yield fresh-baked doughnuts. Some QT in the kitchen does, though! I experimented with a sour cream doughnut recipe several months ago but didn’t quite love the finished result. After taking another break, I finally returned to doughnut baking this month, inspired by those amazing apple cider doughnuts from the apple orchard. While those doughnuts were delicious, they were also fried, which besides being not-so-healthy take a lot more work. As much as I love coming up with recipes and cooking yummy eats in my kitchen, I generally have a lazy side to me.

So, I give you a…

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

It took me roughly 3 (4 if you count those sour cream doughnuts) batches before I settled on this recipe. In researching baked doughnuts, I found most recipes started with 1 cup of flour. But, I found this to yield way too much batter for my doughnut pan, resulting in something that looked less than doughnut-like (click). In wanting to keep measurements simple, I jumped straight down to 3/4 cup flour and adjusted other ingredients till I liked the finished result. Hope you like it, too!

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

AppleCiderDoughnuts-7494.jpg

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Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts {Recipe} & Zumba Fun

  • Author: Diana of thechiclife.com
  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 8 mins
  • Total Time: 18 mins
  • Yield: 6 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: American

Description

Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts are surprisingly easy to make and yield a healthier option to the traditional fried version. Made with sweet apple cider and spiced cinnamon, these will make your house small like fall and make your heart feel happy. These doughnuts are light and fluffy, though you can skip the vinegar for a more cake-like texture (pictured below). Did I mention they are pretty fast, too? Wouldn’t you like from-scratch doughnuts in only 20 minutes? I know I do! *Vegetarian, Vegan options listed below*


Ingredients

Scale
  • butter, oil, or non-stick spray (to prep baking pan)
  • 3/4 cup Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (I’ve also used spelt flour with great results)
  • 1/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons (preferably raw sugar)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon, plus 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup apple cider
  • 1 large egg (or sub flaxseed egg)
  • 2 tablespoons milk (or sub vegan milk substitute)
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon white vinegar

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Rub a 6-count doughnut pan with butter (or brush with oil or use non-stick spray).
  2. In a medium-large bowl, add flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to combine.
  3. In another medium-large bowl, whisk together apple cider and egg. Add milk, canola oil, vanilla extract, and white vinegar and whisk to combine.
  4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and gently mix until just combined (careful to not over-mix).
  5. Evenly distribute in doughnut pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until doughnuts are cooked through (when a toothpick inserted into the doughnut comes out clean). (Mine were perfect at 9 minutes, but oven temperatures can vary, so check at 8 minutes)
  6. In a small bowl, whisk together (or stir with fork) 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon until cinnamon is evenly mixed in. When doughnuts are safe to tough, but while they’re still warm, dip each side into the cinnamon-sugar mixture, pressing and twisting to get good coverage.
  7. Serve and enjoy!

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More Healthier Donut Recipes

Try these other delicious donut recipes:

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

Delicious doughnuts!

Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe

By the way, here’s what they’ll look like if you skip the vinegar (photo just above this line)  in this Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe. The result is still delicious, but more dense and cake-like. We preferred the fluffier version, but now you have both options so you can decide for yourselves.

Zumba stage

In other news, one of my Zumba classes got moved to a new location with a stage. A STAGE! I’m so excited. I’ve never taught a class with a stage before, so I think this will be great…mostly for my class participants so they can more easily see what I’m doing! I remember when I first started doing Zumba, the hardest part was just seeing what the instructor was doing (since I was hiding in the back and all). Not gonna lie…the cool lights and better room acoustics are a nice perk.

We did our kick-off class this week, and my 3 favorite songs were:

  1. Booty Shake
  2. Mueve la Colita
  3. El Alacran (we do a dance-off to this song!)

***

I’ll be sharing some Facebook-exclusive photos soon, so be sure to like The Chic Life on Facebook so you can see that and more FB-exclusive content.

Thanks for reading and for your patience this past week! Hope you enjoy this Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe.

Click here for more fabulous recipes and here for dessert ones, specifically

***

Reader questions: What’s your favorite kind of doughnut? I’ve always loved straight-up glazed. How do you like your doughnuts? Fluffy? Dense?

You can be healthy and still enjoy dessert! Try this super Easy Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe. This clean eating dessert recipe is ready in 20 minutes or less! #recipe #healthy #healthyrecipes #cleaneating #vegan #vegetarian #desserts #dessertfoodrecipes

22 thoughts on “Healthier Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts Recipe & Zumba Fun”

    • Glad to hear you liked them, Sonia! 🙂 I just worked on a new flavor last night!

      Anywho, that’s cool you used this recipe for a mini donut pan. Were you able to use all the batter? How long did you bake them? Thanks!

      Reply
  1. Great recipe! These were really good. Like you, I recently bought a doughnut pan and have been trying out recipes looking for the perfect one. Most have way too much flour/sugar. This was perfect and no so unhealthy. I made a double batch and added a small diced peeled apple. Came out great, my family gobbled them up in hours!

    Reply
  2. Great recipe, thank you so much! I also had a hankering to try out my donut pan AND find something that wasn’t terribly unhealthy. These are delicious! I might up the spices a little the next time, but they taste great and were incredibly easy to make. I blogged them too.

    Reply
    • Hi Laurie! Great post! I loved reading about your experience with the recipe. Thank you so much for picking my recipe for your first doughnut pan experiment. I’m so glad to hear you guys liked them! 🙂

      Reply
  3. I just made these again and they got even better! I used whole wheat white flour and my spices were a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, and about a half teaspoon of apple pie spice. So delicious! The texture is still perfect, I love your recipe.

    Reply
    • Hmm, I think the donut pan really keeps them in shape while they bake. If you made them without a pan, they may not look as good, but they should still taste great! HTH 🙂

      Reply
    • Veronica, Just a quick update. Katie just posted a comment saying she made these with a cupcake tin and foil liners and said they came out great. She said to fill the cups just under halfway. They won’t be doughnut shaped, but they’ll be round and evenly shaped, which could be pretty still. 🙂 Katie suggested possibly cutting the center out for doughnut holes. HTH

      Reply
  4. I just made these today using a cupcake tin and foil liners and they turned out fantastic! Great recipe, thanks. If you use the cupcake pan, only fill to just under halfway – makes perfect mini donuts. You can even cut out the center for doughnut holes.

    Reply
  5. These look amazing. When you used the spelt flour did you use the same amount as the regular all-purpose flour? I know that sometimes baking with spelt flour the recipe needs to be adjusted a bit.

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Hi Meg! Great question! I subbed the spelt flour for all purpose 1 to 1, so the same amount should work just fine. Your comment inspired me to get more spelt flour. I was out! I have doughnuts in the oven now! Mmm… 😉 Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply
      • Thank you! I just recently started using spelt flour because I gave up wheat (not gluten!!)… come to find out wheat really bothered my stomach and spelt doesn’t! Love spelt! Happy baking =)

        Reply

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