Healthy Apple Cider Donuts

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Healthy Apple Cider Donuts

So if you’ve been following along for a while you may remember last year’s apple picking adventure…and if you don’t know, apple picking is a tradition in my family and we usually head up to the same little orchard in Vermont every single year. Well, I’m sad to report I was not part of ANY apple picking this year.

With Nik and I living in Minneapolis this year, flying to Connecticut to visit my family is actually really expensive (WHY is is so expensive to fly out of MN?!), so unfortunately I missed the big apple picking trip this past weekend…

I also missed out on apple picking in MN as well. Nik is part of the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program here, and took his “little” on the outing…and I was stuck at home fighting off a sore throat that Nik actually gave me. Boooo! (I refuse to get sick this year, so I rested all day…and it worked, I was better by Monday!)

So, Nik took his “little” to the orchard and I made him promise to bring back an apple cider donut for me — you know my love of donuts 😉 — So, I waited all day in bed for that donut, only to find out that the orchard didn’t have any…WHAT?! What kind of orchard is that?!

So what did I do?

Made my own of course…and they literally taste like fresh made orchard ones!!

Healthy Apple Cider Donuts

This was my first time making my own Apple Cider Donuts, and I can’t tell you how surprised I was at how good they turned out…like they are AH-mazing…seriously.

Of course I made them healthier with a few of my favorite ingredient swaps, just so I could eat two and not feel guilty! 😉

I replaced regular flour with oat flour, and even added in a bit of Manitoba Harvest’s Hemp Pro 70 Vanilla protein powder to help bring the glycemic index down a bit. I also used coconut sugar, for some extra vitamins and to lower the GI even more. 

This was actually the first time I baked with a protein powder, and let’s just say…everything will now have protein powder in it! Haha! You can’t even taste it, and I love how it can help make anything just a little bit healthier.

If you don’t have a protein powder you like, I use Manitoba Harvest, and it took me YEARS to find one that I believed in, and felt comfortable adding into my diet. It’s only made with FOUR ingredients, is non-GMO and vegan, and tastes amazing.

Healthy Apple Cider Donuts

These donuts are really simple to make and are actually really quick. From start to finish they take less than 20 minutes and you can have a tasty, and warm breakfast, snack or dessert almost instantly!

All you do is sift together the dry ingredients first, whisk together the wet ingredients, add them together, and pipe them into the donut pan (or you could make these into muffins too! 😉 ). Bake them up, then brush ’em with some melted coconut oil, sprinkle on a bit of organic sugar and cinnamon…and then eat all the goodness!!

I promise these will become one of your favorite go-to fall treats year, after year…the six donuts I made were gone in less than 6 hours between Nik and I, and some friends! SO GOOD!

Healthy Apple Cider Donuts

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Healthy Apple Cider Donuts

  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 10
  • Total Time: 15
  • Yield: 6 1x
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale
  • 3/4 cup oat flour (or whole wheat)
  • 1/4 cup good-quality vanilla protein powder (I use Vital Proteins Vanilla Collagen Peptides), or sub with more flour
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup all-natural apple cider
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoons milk of choice
  • 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Sugar Topping

  • 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
  • 2 tablespoons organic sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a donut pan generously with coconut oil, and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, sift together oat flour, protein powder, coconut sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon, until well combined.
  3. In another medium bowl, whisk together the apple cider, egg, milk of choice, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract, until smooth.
  4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix to create a smooth dough.
  5. Transfer the dough into a medium ziplock bag, and cut a 3/4 inch hole in one corner to create a piping bag.
  6. Pipe the dough into the donut pan, filling each cavity 2/3 of the way.
  7. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Allow the donuts to cool slightly while you prepare the sugar topping. Sift together the sugar and cinnamon until well mixed.
  9. Using a basting brush, brush the donuts with the melted coconut oil, and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.
  10. Enjoy, while they are nice and warm! 😉

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Healthy Apple Cider Donuts

Do you have a family tradition every fall?  What do you do to celebrate the changing of the season?

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17 Comments

  2. Oooh these sound so yummy! Would you believe that I’ve NEVER made homemade donuts? I actually put making donuts as something on my ‘before 30 bucket list’ because I’ve been wanting to try it. Bookmarking your recipe!

    I’m with you on apple picking, I absolutely love it! Unfortunately we didn’t apple pick this fall either…. Sadly enough, all of the U-Pick places in Southern Cali by me were closed for picking this season. With the crazy drought we’re having, the orchards didn’t produce enough apples 🙁

    1. OMG you HAVE to make some donuts soon! Life. Changing….especially these. I wouldn’t be surprised if I make these 6 more times this fall lol.
      I know the drought there is so crazy! I hope El Nino gives you guys some relief this winter!

    1. Wow, first timers! 😉 lol…I’m pretty sure we got a bushel last year…which is 40 pounds!! We made some apple pie filling and froze it and I juiced a lot of them, made some apple butter, apple chips, and some other things…I would say maybe all but 8 apples where used…kind of crazy!

  5. SO excited to try these!! Any excuse to whip out my donut pan makes me the happiest girl. I think I might have to stop at the store on the way home to get the ingredients I don’t have.. I can’t wait for the weekend.. gotta try them NOW!

  7. I used your recipe for Apple cider donuts today and they were so good! Thank you!
    I’m counting calories and I’m wondering how many calories in each donut?

    1. Thanks Heidi!! I’m glad you enjoyed them! I’m still obsessing over them! haha…So I did some calculating, and they come to about 150-160 calories each…Not too bad compared to most donute! 😉 And in case you ever need it try using this website for recipe calculations, it’s the one I always use when I need to find the calories myself! 🙂 Hope that helps!

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