Apple Cider Doughnuts

It's finally autumn! While I'm sad to be leaving behind those hazy summer days, there's something about autumn weather that makes me think of apples, warm colors and new beginnings. What celebrates that more than apple cider doughnuts?

The doughnuts before they were fried. 

Making the actual dough was seriously simple. It was the repetitive rolling and chilling and cutting that took so long. I bought a circular cookie cutter instead of a doughnut cutter and cut the holes out by hand.  

The doughnuts after they were fried. They rose a lot while they cooked.

I'm usually terrified of frying foods, but this was surprisingly easy. Once the oil or shortening is heated up, everything cooks relatively quickly. In fact I burned a few because I didn't turn them in time.

The delicious glaze!

The recipe gives you two options for topping; an apple cider glaze and cinnamon sugar. I opted to try both. I've never tried a glaze for this kind of doughnut, but I prefered it. I usually have them with the cinnamon sugar.

Cinnamon sugar--the usual. 

All in all, the doughnuts didn't turn out quite as light and fluffy as I expected, but I still had a lot of fun trying! Thanks again to smitten kitchen for the recipe.