Cider Doughnuts -- The Apple-Scented Afternoon Amber and I Needed

Thanksgiving prep week. The list is written. The turkey is ordered from Hy-Vee — twenty-two pounds because we are six people plus Gayle and I cook for twelve because leftovers are the second Thanksgiving, and the second Thanksgiving — cold turkey sandwiches on Friday, reheated stuffing on Saturday, turkey soup on Sunday — is better than the first. This is controversial. I do not care. I am right.

The grocery run took two hours. Four hundred dollars. I do not think about the number because the number is irrelevant — Thanksgiving is not about cost, it is about the table, and the table is about the people, and the people are worth four hundred dollars and more. I bought a twenty-two-pound turkey, five pounds of potatoes, two bags of stuffing mix (I make one batch from scratch and one from a box because Dave likes the box kind and I am not going to die on the hill of homemade stuffing when there are bigger hills to die on), cranberries, green beans, cream of mushroom soup, French-fried onions, butter, flour, sugar, eggs, two pie crusts (store-bought for the pumpkin, homemade for the apple), and the twelve other things you need when you are feeding seven people a meal that says: we are alive, we are together, the table is set, and the empty chairs are occupied by memory.

I made a batch of rolls to freeze for Thanksgiving — yeast rolls, Gayle's recipe, the kind that rise twice and are soft and warm and disappear before the turkey is carved because the rolls are the first thing the kids reach for and the last thing left on the plate. I bake them and freeze them and will reheat them on Thursday, and they will taste like they were made that morning, and the illusion is the point, because Thanksgiving is a performance, and the performance is love.

Amber helped me prep the pie fillings. We stood at the kitchen counter, side by side, peeling apples and measuring sugar, and she asked me about Darla. Not about the death — never about the death — but about the life. She asked what Darla's favorite Thanksgiving food was. I said the rolls. She said mine too. I said I know. The apple peels curled on the counter between us like punctuation in a sentence we did not need to finish.

After Amber and I finished the pie fillings and the apple peels were swept off the counter, I realized the kitchen still smelled like warm cider and cinnamon — and neither of us wanted to leave it. That’s the thing about a good prep day: the cooking is the point, not just the meal at the end. These cider doughnuts use that same reduced apple cider we had open on the stove, and they fry up fast enough that we had them dusted in cinnamon sugar before the afternoon light changed. Darla would have eaten four.

Cider Doughnuts

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 12 doughnuts

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups fresh apple cider
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Vegetable oil, for frying (about 2 quarts)
• For the coating: 1 cup granulated sugar + 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Reduce the cider. Pour the apple cider into a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until cider is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar. In a separate large bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract.
4. Combine wet ingredients. Stir the reduced cider and the buttermilk into the butter-egg mixture until blended.
5. Form the dough. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms. Do not overmix. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat to about 1/2-inch thickness. Cut out rounds with a 3-inch cutter and use a 1-inch cutter (or bottle cap) for the holes. Re-roll scraps once.
6. Heat the oil. Pour about 3 inches of vegetable oil into a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven. Heat over medium to 375°F, checking with a thermometer.
7. Fry the doughnuts. Working in batches of 3–4, fry doughnuts 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side until deep golden brown. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined baking sheet to drain briefly. Fry the doughnut holes separately; they take about 1 minute total.
8. Coat in cinnamon sugar. Whisk together the coating sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. While the doughnuts are still warm, toss each one in the cinnamon sugar until evenly coated. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 51g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 210mg