Vegan Apple Cider Donuts

These Vegan Apple Cider Donuts are surely a festive sweet way to indulge in the Holidays! Made with all vegan, organic ingredients and bursting with apple cider flavor, these donuts will leave you satisfied and grabbing for a second bite of everyone’s favorite sweet treat—the Doughnut (Donut). Each donut is fluffy, moist, and far from the kind of thick that would have you helplessly running for a glass of water. It’s just perfect! Topped with a light brown sugar + cinnamon coating.

Hey, Hey, Hey, ya’ll! 

It’s Monday and a brand new week. I hope that everyone’s weekend was great! It was an insane one for me! 

If you’ve been avid reader of Orchids + Sweet Tea, then you know that I’ve mentioned doing a PopUp Shop for our sweets as a way to introduce all sweets lovers to what we do best! To much of our surprise, we had a ton of fans and people really enjoyed them, even on a gloomy, rainy Sunday! So, of course, we’re seriously thinking about doing this again in 2019 and we’ve already begun planning. 

Can you believe that 2019 is right around the corner, though? I know. It’s so crazy! While 2018 has been a great teacher of lessons, I’m beyond ready to have some awesome things unfold for 2019. Who else is with me?

Ok, so we wanted to share a few highlights from our PopUp Shop at the Sip.Shop.Eat event in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with you! It was a really great experience and I learned a lot about being a vendor! The Sip.Shop.Eat team was awesome and the other vendors, which included Fashion, Clothes, Drinks, Jewelry, Food, and more were just as awesome! We sold some of our reader favorites—Southern Banana Pudding (in Mason Jars), Mini Banana Bread Muffins, Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oversized Crinkled Sugar Cookies, and Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. Then of course, we rolled out a few new + festive sweets to join the mix: Oversize Gingerbread Cookies, Mini Orange Bundt Cakes + Cranberry Glaze, Mini Carrot Cake Bundt Cakes, Orange Donuts + Cranberry Glaze, Carrot Cake Donuts, and Mini Chocolate Cakes + Strawberry Chia Jam.

Now that our PopUp Shop has come into full fruition and is over, we’re beyond ready to dabble back into some awesome, new recipes! 

With the Holidays in full swing, we’re so excited to create some Holidays faves along with our own personal faves! Last year around this time, we happily made these Dairy-Free Blue Velvet Donuts. Our thoughts were: The vanilla butter cream atop each donut adds a nice non-overbearing sweetness and let’s not forget the fluffiness and absolute moistness that baking your donuts bring. Hooray for donut pans!!

However, these Vegan Apple Cider Donuts are something really special. Honestly, I’ve been a late bloomer when it came to testing out Apple Cider. I always assumed that it was something bitter and not so delicious, BUT oh was I wrong! Recently, I purchased organic Apple Cider from AmazonFresh and it was so, so good! I’m hooked, ya’ll! Trust me, once you make these little sweet treats, you’ll be hooked too!

Now, let’s dig right into this recipe, shall we? 

1. Start by adding the apple cider and 1 Tbsp of maple syrup to a small pot and bringing it to a slight boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes (3-4 minutes), stirring occasionally. **NOTE: For extra Apple flavor, you can always add sliced of an apple to the pot as well.**
2. Set heated apple cider aside and let mixture cool for 10 minutes or so.
3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and spray your doughnut baking pan (that has 6-wells or 12-mini ones).
4. In a medium bowl, sift together the organic all-purpose flour, organic whole wheat baking flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground cloves, allspice and sea salt.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, add the Almond milk and apple cider vinegar, whisking together well and letting it sit for 2 minutes. Then add the organic brown sugar, coconut oil, vanilla extract and mix together well again.
6. Finally, stir in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, until just well combined. Do not over-mix.
7. Spoon the batter into a ziploc bag (or piping bag), cutting the tip and pipping it into prepared doughnut (donut) pan, only 3/4 filled into each cavity to avoid over-rising.
8. Bake doughnuts for 16-18 minutes or until golden brown (and fluffy) and then let them cool for 5 minutes. Lastly, turn them out onto a cooling rack so that they continue to cool completely.
9. To Make Sugar Coating: Mix together pure cane sugar and ground cinnamon into a small bowl and set aside.
10. Once donuts are SLIGHTLY cooled, dip each donut into the sugar mixture, rolling them a few times until fully coated and repeat until all are made.
11. Place each donut onto a wire rack to fully cool.
12. Grab one (two or three!) and enjoy!
13. Bon Appetite.

Vegan Apple Cider Donuts.