I Made Ballerina Farm's Apple Cider Donuts
Fall is made for this sticky, messy insanity
I had already given up on ever making apple cider donuts ever again, after the first and one and only time back in 2021 when we were still living in a rental in a new town, waiting for our new home build to be finished.
It was a soggy mess. More mess than it was worth. Besides, I had no one to share it with other than my husband and our son.
But a few weeks ago, I happened to spot Ballerina Farm’s Instagram post of Hannah Neeleman making her own apple cider donuts with sourdough discard and freshly cooked apple sauce — and I was tempted to try again.
She made it look like a breeze.
The only question was when. I have too much going on a week before we leave for our Vegas trip. As usual, everything started dropping in our laps to do, including work. Of course, I decide to load more baking and cooking on my plate, the momo dumplings, my birthday cake, dark rye chocolate chip cookies, soft tofu jjigae, and my weekly sourdough.
Originally, I scheduled myself to make the donuts yesterday, when I’d also be steaming momo for bible study before I realized the stupidity of that move. There’s no room on the stove for steamers and pots to bubble down and fry up.
Then, I moved the donuts to today, sourdough prep day. It’s also the day I go to the stylist to get my hair cut. Am I crazy?!
Somehow I managed to walk the dog all the way to the canyon and back, despite my aching back, shower, and get my hair cut (power went out though), pick up some food at Coram Deo nearby, prep the many ingredients for the donuts, as well as boil down 2 1/2 cups of apple cider down to 1/4 — I mean, 1/2 cup — and stretch and fold the sourdough before sending it off for an overnight fridge ferment.
I’m tired, my right foot cramps from standing too long, I haven’t eaten dinner, and I could drink a pitcher of iced tea right about now.
Oh, the apple cider donuts? They’re perfect, delicately crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, with a light, sticky aftertaste. My husband helped me fry them up.
I hate it when he’s in the kitchen usually. But not when I have to fry donuts and spring rolls and lumpia. Weird, huh?
Hannah’s recipe isn’t perfect.
There are five tablespoons of melted butter that shouldn’t be under the cinnamon-maple sugar coating ingredients. You have to substitute a fair amount of ingredients, like her high-protein flour and French salt. It doesn’t say how high or medium or low to heat the apple cider, or the frying oil. You have to know a little about frying donuts and baking in general before even starting this recipe.
But it doesn’t have any granulated or brown sugar. The sweet comes naturally from the apple sauce, apple cider, and maple sugar.
Also, I took a tip from the bomboloni ladies and squeezed rings on parchment, then cut around them in squares, placing them gently — rings and parchment squares together — into the hot oil with a slotted metal spatula, pulling the parchment out with tongs after they went in.
This dough is just too soft to bare-hand it or even use a metal scraper.
For the final bit, my husband squeezed the piping bag into the oil and cut them with a sharp knife like churros. One looked like dog poop, but that’s alright.
