Hello friends 
I hope you all had a lovely weekend and are ready for the new week. I know I’ve been gone for a few days, this is because we were away this weekend for an engagement party. It was a lovely party that really got us excited for the wedding in Aruba in April! Getting back nice and early this morning gave us a chance to go food shopping, and run the usual weekly errands that needed to get done. It was 65 and sunny here and I loved being able to enjoy it, even if it was just driving around with my windows open. One of our stops was Williams Sonoma because I have been looking for a donut pan to no avail for a while now and I know I have seen it on their website. Of course they didn’t have it (I’m beginning to think I should take this as a sign), but they did have a donut cutter, so I bought that. I knew all week that I wanted to make apple cider donuts this weekend, and I spent the week researching recipes and health-ifying them. I knew it would be more of a batter than a dough, because I wasn’t using any yeast in my recipe, but I figured I would try to scoop the batter into the donut cutter and get it onto my baking sheet. After all, they didn’t need to be perfect, just have a somewhat donut shape. Then this happened:
DONUT FAIL
Ok, so this obviously wasn’t going to do – I have my pride! So, I grabbed my muffin pan and made donut muffins.
Apple Cider Donut Muffins with Pumpkin-Cider Glaze
Yield: 12 muffins
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1 egg (I used regular but a flax egg would work too)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup apple cider
1/3 cup plain non-fat greek yogurt (I use chobani)
3 tbsp canola oil
Muffins:
Preheat oven to 325F. In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients and set aside. In a different bowl, mix together remaining ingredients until well incorporated. Slowly add dry mixture to wet until blended. Bake for 20 minutes.
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp apple cider
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
pinch of cinnamon/nutmeg
Whisk all ingredients until you get a glaze-like consistency. Dip cooled muffins in the glaze, one at a time and set on a cooling rack.
*Note – If glaze isn’t your thing, you can sprinkle them lightly with cinnamon/sugar mixture, or you can just leave them plain.
These came out perfect! They brought my right back to the farms we go to for apple/pumpkin picking without leaving my house. And the best part is that they are so easy and take no time at all to make!
I just want to note that using whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular whole wheat flour will make a huge difference in your baking. Regular whole wheat flour is very coarse, and therefore causes baked goods to become heavier and more dense. Whole wheat pastry flour gives you all of the nutritional benefits of regular whole wheat flour, but it is ground so fine that it has the same light, powerdery consistency as all purpose flour. This will result in a much lighter, fluffier outcome. I use Bob’s Red Mill Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour:
I would like to meet Bob and shake his hand. This product will change your baking in a serious way. Anyway, hope you all have a good Sunday evening and Monday!
