Baked Apple Donuts with Cinnamon Sugar

Get excited about these donuts.  They are amazing.  My mom and sisters went apple picking last month and gave me all of their leftover apples after they got a bit too soft for eating.  Yes, that means you should expect lots of apple recipes real soon.  But I can tell you right now, these are the best.

They're soft, sweet, and taste like apples, thanks to a generous serving of grated apples.  Cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg help the donuts taste like the most perfect fall treat.  They'd be great just the way they are.... but there's more.

And here's the best part: when they come out of the oven, they get brushed with apple sauce and rolled in a cinnamon-sugar mixture.  When the applesauce hardens, the cinnamon sugar coating hardens too, and you'd be shocked to hear that these donuts aren't fried, dunked in butter, and then coated with cinnamon and sugar!  Do not skip this part!  My mom was shocked when she heard the applesauce trick; she swore it tasted buttery!  The recipe actually gives an alternative apple cider glaze, which I haven't tried, but I cannot imagine anything being better than the crunchy coating, so just go with it.

If you have a few apples left over from your apple picking extravaganza in October, this is just the recipe to try out.  I will definitely be making these again.  And if you still don't own a donut pan, you can come borrow mine.  It's kind of a must-have, people.

Recipe:

baked apple donuts with cinnamon sugar
from One Hungry Mama
yield 12 - 15 donuts

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (or 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cloves
3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup grated apple
for cinnamon sugar coating:
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
apple sauce for coating

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a nonstick donut pan with cooking spray and set aside.  In am medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cloves.  Set aside.

2) In a small separate bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs until smooth.  Slowly whisk in oil until well combined.

3) Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined.  Add apple, along with any juice that's accumulated, to the batter and mix until thoroughly incorporated.  Spoon batter into prepped donut pan, filling each well 3/4 full.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Remove form oven and allow to cool in pan for 2 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Repeat process until all the batter is gone.

4) Combine cinnamon and sugar in a wide shallow bowl.  Using a pastry brush, coat cooled donuts with a thin layer of apple sauce.  Dip both sides of the donut in cinnamon sugar until completely covered.  Allow to dry on wire rack before serving.