Our neighborhood had a block party for Halloween. Since I was dressed as a donut, I made these donut holes to share. Peyton still refused to wear her costume! I put her in a cute Halloween shirt and she had fun playing with the neighborhood kids (who all wore their costumes!). The toddlers loved eating these, and were soon covered in cinnamon and sugar..perfect Halloween evening.
This recipe is easy, easy. Fresh from the oven and dipped in cinnamon and sugar, they are a real treat. All you need is a mini muffin pan. Really the recipe takes no time at all. I am sure kids would have a lot of fun dunking them in the cinnamon and sugar...and then eating them. Perfect for a weekend breakfast or after school snack.
Baked Apple Cider Donut Holes
from Serious Eats
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup apple cider
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
7 Tablespoons melted butter, divided and cooled
1/2 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 400. Generously spray mini muffin pan, set aside.
In a large mixing whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and nutmeg. Using hands work in brown sugar until clumps are broken up.
In a small bowl whisk cider, egg, vanilla, and 3 Tablespoons butter. Add wet ingredients to dry and fold together until you can no longer see any flour streaks, don't overmix. Fill mini muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
While donuts are baking, set up your dunking station. I used a large shallow bowl for the melted butter and combined sugar with remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in a small paper sack. You can also just place your cinnamon sugar combo in another shallow bowl, but the paper sack was very easy.
As soon as muffins come out of the oven dump them on a cookie sheet. First roll them in the melted butter and then coat with cinnamon sugar. I coated the whole donut, but you could also just dip the tops in. Allow to cool on rack, if you can resist!
These little sweeties are no substitute for a wonderful deep fried donut, but you may feel a little less guilty about eating the entire batch.
