Time to Make Doughnuts - Apple Cider Donuts

Tartelette and Peabody are hosting a blogging event called Time to Make Doughnuts. To participate, it's simple - make any type of sweet donuts and post about it on or before February 12.

I decided to enter this at the last minute, and raced up to Kitch'n'Stuff in my lunch hour to buy one of the mini donut pans that had been there forever. But egads! There had been a recent rush on mini donut pans (maybe fellow Melburnians also entering this event?), so I had to use my mini bundt pan instead.

My next challenge was that I had chosen to make a yummy sounding apple cider donut recipe that I found at Milk and Cookies. (Jen-Jen believes that they rival Krispy Kremes - so how could I resist!) The recipe called for apple puree. There is no supermarket on my way home, but I thought that I could pick up either apple sauce, pie apple or an apple (or even tinned pears!) from one of the three corner shops that I pass to make my own puree/puree substitute. But no - foiled once again! If I had wanted tinned jackfruit, there were unbelievably three different brands in one shop, but no apple products of any variety. However, necessity being the mother of invention, and being determined not to go all the way to the supermarket, I decided to substitute the apple puree for some stewed rhubarb from the freezer, thawed and blended to make a puree. Hey, rhubarb and apple go together, yeah?

I am kind of scared of deep frying (I have a fear of being attacked by hot oil), so these donuts, being baked, were just what the doctor ordered.

The recipe for these apple cider donuts can be found here. The substitutions that I made were: 1/2 cup rhubarb puree substituted for the apple puree, canola oil substituted for the hazelnut oil and 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon in place of cinnamon and nutmeg.

These donuts are cakier in texture than your standard fried donut, but they still had that bready donut flavour. They also appealed to me because they are considerably lower in fat than your standard fried donut. The rhubarb substitution didn't seem to affect either the appeance or taste of the finished product. Overall, this recipe was a winner (even though I am not a big donut fan).

Thanks to Tartelette and Peabody for hosting this event! If you want ideas for some really delicious and very different types of donuts, be inspired by checking out the roundup here, here and here.