Recipe: Vegan Apple Cider Harvest Doughnuts

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and living in the North East was always full of pumpkin picking, apple picking and of course lots of Trick or Treating. One of the best parts of heading out to the apple orchards was getting a bag of hot apple cider doughnuts, which were made fresh right at the orchard shop. Not only do I no longer live anywhere near an apple orchard, but even if I did, those doughnuts are out of the vegan’s reach. But like any other food full of animal products, we make due and make it ourselves!! This recipe makes about 9 doughnuts and holes. Here’s what you’ll need!

• 1 cup organic apple cider
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 3/4 cups unbleached flour, make sure to have some extra flour for rolling out dough
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/16 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons your favorite vegan butter substitute (at room temp, I use earth balance original)
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar.
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon for coating the doughnuts

Start with boiling the apple cider down to 1/4 of a cup. This should take about 30 minutes on medium low. Put aside in the fridge to cool down. In the mean time, stir the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together. I like to sift my flour first to get out the lumps.

Make a buttermilk mixture by adding the soy milk and apple cider vinegar together, mix, and set aside to curdle.

Beat the butter for a second, then add the sugar to cream together. Then add the pumpkin and mix. Add the curdled milk and the concentrated apple cider to this as well and mix. Once combined, slowly add in the flour. Mix but do not over mix, it will seem very tacky and sticky. I sprinkled more flour over it and worked it into a ball in the bowl, then laying it out on the counter, with more flour. Roll out the dough until it is about 1/8 of an inch thick. Stick on a parchment lined cookie sheet and pop into the freezer for about 20 minutes to set.

Heat up a pot with about 3 inches of vegetable oil to about 350 degrees. Take the dough out of the freezer when ready, and using a 3 inch round cutter, make the doughnut shapes, and 1 inch hole for the doughnut holes. If your oil is not ready yet, put the cut doughnuts into the fridge.

When the oil is ready, fry each doughnut one at a time, for about 1 minute on each side. Stick on cooling racks to cool and let the oil drip off.

Mix the cinnamon and sugar together and coat the doughnuts while they are still warm. the traditional way would be to shake these up in a brown paper bag, carefully not to break the doughnuts. Serve with a glass of hot apple cider!