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Welcoming the weekend with Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts with Cinnamon Maple Glaze. Made with boiled-down spiced cider, apple butter, and cinnamon. Then baked and dipped in a sweet brown butter glaze flavored with coffee and cinnamon. There’s really nothing not to love about these cute (and sweet) autumn spiced doughnuts. The true secret? Boiling the apple cider down to really concentrate its flavor. The perfect way to celebrate the autumn apple season!
The first apple recipe of the season and I could not be more excited. Every fall I’m so excited, but this year even more so than ever before. I think it’s because the world is in what feels like a very unsettled place, turning on any news source usually leaves you feeling frustrated.
Because of this, I am really embracing the things I love the most. I’m focusing on all the good that the world does have to offer. My goal this fall is to really go all out. I’m 100% grabbing more pumpkins than I need, making pumpkin spice lattes, and come October 1 – decorating for Halloween. I’m already plotting out my “spooky” desserts and cocktails for October.
Embracing all the good things and leaving the rest behind, you know?
And today that means we’re focusing on September apples and making some of the best baked apple cider donuts.
The Inspiration
Do any of you remember last year’s cinnamon spiced apple fritters? Well, those were the initial inspo for this recipe. I just loved those so much, especially the vanilla coffee glaze. I planned to remake them at least once this month, but the frying part really gets me. It’s just messy and not my favorite task.
That got me thinking about new recipes I could make that highlighted the same flavors but didn’t involve any frying.
And that’s where these baked doughnuts come in. They’re a cross between a really delicious apple cider doughnut and a sweet apple fritter. Totally delicious in every way possible.
On to the details – start with the doughnuts
If you love a classic apple cider doughnut, these are for you. If you can make a basic cupcake or muffin, you can certainly make these. There’s nothing fancy about them.
The key to these doughnuts? It’s all in the cider. I recommend finding the best spiced cider with no added sugars. If you can, pick up some fresh apple cider from your local farmers’ market. Or even better, go apple picking at an apple orchard and pick some up! Nothing quite beats a really good apple cider. It’s always so flavorful this time of year.
To help intensify the apple cider flavor throughout the doughnuts, I decided to boil down the cider on the stove until reduced. Boiling the cider will concentrate the flavors and make the cider that much more flavorful. It’s an extra step, but one that I think is worth it.
Once you have the reduced apple cider, the rest is quick. Just mix the cider with apple butter, eggs, melted butter, vanilla, plus dark brown sugar. Then add in all the dry ingredients and stir in a chopped Honeycrisp apple. Adding the apple makes them kind of like apple fritter doughnuts.
Divide the batter between doughnut pans (or just a cupcake pan). As the doughnuts bake, the kitchen will start to smell like your favorite autumn candle, it’s perfection.
Make the glaze
I took inspiration from my Cinnamon Spiced Sugar Cookies and apple fritters, and decided on a buttery maple glaze with cinnamon and a touch of coffee throughout. It’s just some browned butter, maple, powdered sugar, instant coffee, and cinnamon.
Not too strong, not too sweet, but just right. Especially when spread on top of a warm doughnut.
Delicious!
And with that, here’s my recommendation for the coming weekend…apple picking and doughnut baking – of course!
And if not this weekend, sometime soon. I promise you guys, these doughnuts are so good and such a great fall treat.
Looking for September apple recipes? Here are a few ideas:
Brown Butter Apple Blondies with Cinnamon Maple Glaze
Salted Maple Apple Tarte Tatin with Cinnamon Pumpkin Seeds
Cinnamon Spiced Apple Fritters with Vanilla Coffee Glaze
Lastly, if you make these Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts with Cinnamon Maple Glaze, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts with Cinnamon Maple Glaze
Servings: 14 doughnuts
Calories Per Serving: 251 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider
- 2 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup apple butter
- 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 honeycrisp apple, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar
Brown Butter Cinnamon Maple Glaze
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 3/4-1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 6-cup doughnut pan or 12-cup muffin pan with melted butter2. Bring the apple cider to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer 10-15 minutes or until reduced to about 1/2 cup. Remove from the heat. Let cool.3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together 1/2 cup boiled cider, melted butter, eggs, apple butter, vanilla, and brown sugar until combined. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt, mix until just combined. Toss the apples with the cinnamon sugar mix, then stir the apples into the batter.4. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pan, filling 1/2-2/3 the way full. Bake 12-13 minutes, until just set. Remove and let cool 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges to release and invert the pan. 5. Meanwhile, make the glaze. Add the butter to a small pot set over medium heat. Allow the butter to brown slightly until it smells toasted, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the maple syrup, powdered sugar, instant coffee, and cinnamon. Dip or drizzle the doughnuts into the glaze. Highly recommend eating a few of these warm.
This post was originally published on September 10, 2021
I made these today as muffins, I had made a crock pot full of apple butter a few days ago and was excited to use that in the recipe.
They turned out delicious… I tasted one without glaze and it was wonderful, but the glaze really made the flavors pop and yell “it’s fall y’all!”
Hey Rhonda,
Happy Sunday! I am thrilled to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks a lot for making it! xTieghan
Hi! Can I prepare the batter the night before and pop them in the oven the next morning or with that affect how the doughnuts rise? Thanks!
Hey Monica,
Sure, that would be totally fine to do, I would just bring the batter back to room temp. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you give it a try! xTieghan
Hello from the a Buckeye State. Made these donuts today with my daughter and granddaughters. They look just like picture and got rave reviews from my taste testers. And the glaze…..Devine. Wonderful fall flavors. Defiantly a recipe worth your time.
Hey Nancy,
Awesome! I am so glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks for making it! Have the best weekend! xTieghan
I just made these to celebrate our first real rainy day since mid-June! The frosting is shockingly good. I got a little overzealous with the dough, so my doughnuts look more like muffins. Next time (which there will be) I will divide the batter into two batches to make a full dozen doughnuts. Thank you, and cheers to fall.
Hey Tara,
Awesome! I am so glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks for making it! Have the best weekend! xTieghan
I made these doughnuts today, and they were a huge success! Never have I ever used a recipe like this that turned out exactly as promised, and I doubled the recipe. Even the glaze frosted every single doughnut perfectly with no left overs. This recipe surpassed my expectations!!! I will definitely make these again – Thank you!
Hey Florence,
Happy Sunday! I am thrilled to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks a lot for making it! xTieghan
Hey Tieghan! Any chance you can provide details on how you’d make these vegan? My daughter has a severe allergy to eggs and dairy, but I’d love to make these for her!
Hey Stephanie,
So sorry, I have not tested this recipe without those ingredients so I cannot say for sure how it would turn out. Please let me know if you give the recipe a try! xTieghan
You might try flax eggs and plant based milk as a sub!
Stephanie,
Have you ever tried Just Egg? My son also has a severe egg allergy(& dairy too; he can have baked egg now though), & I’ve had success with using J.E. as a replacement. I just made Polish Apple Pancakes with J.E. & other allergen-safe products, and they turned out good!
hi stephanie! i have veganized a lot of tieghan’s recipes–my suggestions would be swap the butter out for earth balance or your favorite non-dairy substitute (miyoko’s is amazing but expensive) and replace the two eggs with a powdered egg replacer like ener-g or bob’s red mill. i’m going to try it myself in the next week but just need to get some apple butter first. i can update you on if it goes well!
My family and I loved these! They came out great. Thanks for another great recipe.
Hey Amber,
I am so glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for giving it a try! xTieghan
These were so fun to make! I used about 1 cup chopped apples and the tops on my donuts were chunky, rather than smooth. I’m assuming that is due to how much apple I incorporated? Nevertheless, so tasty! I’m going to surprise my parents with some this weekend!
Hey Christina,
I am so glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for giving it a try! Yup, the recipe only calls for 1/2 cup diced apples. xTieghan
Delicious! I doubled the Apple and diced it really small. Next time I will add toasted pecans and maybe sprinkle some on top of the glaze at the end. ?
Hey Dawn,
I am so glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for giving it a try! xTieghan
Any apple cider substitutes if we don’t have that on hand?! Looks delicious… Might run out to get a donut pan ?
Hey Emily,
You could use apple juice in place of the apple cider. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you give it a try! xTieghan
These are AMAZING. Immediately after eating a piece my daughter asked to have this instead of a cake for her birthday ? I don’t have a donut pan so made 4 mini-loaves – the amount of batter was just right. I accidentally used 3/4 tsp ginger and would do the same next time – really upped the flavor without overpowering it. I also added a bit more apple butter to make them a bit moister. The thick glaze is amazing – the coffee flavor turns caramely tasting and we can’t get enough of it! Thanks for another keeper recipe 🙂
Hey Amy,
Awesome! Love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed and truly appreciate you giving it a try! xTieghan
These were just “ok.” The donut is fine. The icing flavor was very toffee-like, which was not what I expected. I would make them again and just make a confectioner’s glaze with cinnamon.
I agree. Made these today. Donuts are good but frosting very sticky and doesn’t look anything like Half Baked Harvest picture of frosting? And I followed recipe exactly ?
Hey Jess,
Thanks for giving the recipe a try, sorry they weren’t to your liking! xTieghan
hi! looks delicious! you say to use a “6-cup doughnut pan” but also that it makes 14 donuts so i think i’m missing something–although i honestly don’t know how to know the volume of my donut pan so maybe those two things mean exactly the same? i have this pan https://www.wilton.com/6-cavity-donut-pan/2105-0565.html and can’t for the life of me find the volume. any guidance is much appreciated. 🙂
Hey Alyssa,
You want to use a doughnut pan that contains 6 spaces for doughnuts. Please let me know if you have any other questions. xTieghan
I’m a huge fan of HBH.
I make your recipes multiple times a month.
The batter on this one was much wetter than what I observed therefore the donuts didn’t rise and set quite like I expected.
They still turned out delicious but I will make again to see if I can get the batter to come out better.
Thanks Tieghan <3
Hey Jessica,
Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try, was there anything you adjusted? Please let me know how I can help! xTieghan
These were so delicious! The instant coffee in the glaze is everything. I used cheap Great Value brand apple cider since that’s all I could find and it was still great. They were even better with more chopped apple. I used a cup or so instead of 1/2 cup. I only needed less than half an apple to make 1 cup chopped with the giant honeycrisp apples we have here!
Hey Sarah,
Thanks a lot for giving this recipe a try, I am delighted to hear that it was enjoyed! xTieghan
U should really put a video On how to do this it’s confusing
Hey Eric,
Sorry, what are you confused about? Please let me know how I can help. It’s really a simple batter poured into a doughnut pan. xTieghan