Elizabeth Ann's Recipe Box: Guest Post from HENNING LOVE!

Meg and I are swapping blogs today! :-) Go check out henning love for my recipe! Enjoy! :-)

Hi all of Elizabeth Ann's Recipe Box followers! I am Meg from henning love and very pleased to be blog swapping with her today. Her recipes caught me first, I was instantly hooked on her blog even before I started blogging. And now I am so glad to call her a blogger friend and apparently great mind think alike because I kid you not, both of us picked a donut recipe for our recipe swap. Seriously, we didn't discuss it prior or anything, the only requirement was to do a recipe and what do you know. Anyways Elizabeth is very sweet and I always look forward to her great recipes and cheery comments :-)
I mentioned last week I won a few Williams Sonoma goodies and I intent to post every recipe I make using any of the ingredients and for this recipe I used the apple cider concentrate I received.

On to the recipe for apple cider donuts!

First, gather together the ingredients: 1 cup apple cider, 3 1/2 cups flour, and more for work place, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, 4 tablespoons of butter, softened, 1 cup white sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup buttermilk, vegetable oil or shortening for frying.

Toppings for donuts: I used three different toppings, just plain confectioners sugar that I rolled the donuts in, a cinnamon sugar mix, which is 1 cup white sugar, 1 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon, then an apple cider glaze, which is 1 cup confectioners sugar, 2 tablespoons of apple cider.

Before you make the dough, you need to reduce the 1 cup apple cider down to 1/4 cup, so in a sauce pan, put the 1 cup cider and let it reduce for 20-30 minutes.

Add the dry ingredients together in one bowl, and set aside.

In your mixer bowl, cream the white sugar and butter together, until it is smooth. Then add the eggs, one at a time with a beating between the two eggs.

Add the reduced apple cider, then mix and finally add the buttermilk and mix the wet ingredients together well.

Pour all the contents of the dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and mix them together very well.

Take two baking sheets, line both with wax or parchment paper then flour the paper.

On one baking sheet, take all of the dough and flatten it with your hands until it is about 1/2 inch think. Use lots of flour because the dough is sticky!

Then plop that baking sheet in the freezer for 20 minutes or until hardened. After 20 minutes take the dough out and use cookie cutters to cut out your doughnuts and transfer the cut doughnuts and doughnut holes onto the other parchment lined floured baking sheet. Stick that baking sheet in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

While the dough is hardening up in the refrigerator, get your frying oil prepared. If you have a candy thermometer, the temperature should be 350 degrees and the oil should be about 3 inches deep.

Have a plate off to the side lined with paper towels for the donuts to rest right after you take them out of the fryer.

Additionally, while the dough is rehardening, prepare your topping ingredients either the cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar or apple cider glaze. I went bold and did all three!

When your oil has heated up to the correct temperature, drop a few of your doughnuts into the hot oil, but not to many to crowd the pan. Cook the donuts on one side for 60 seconds or until golden brown, then flip the doughnut over and cook it on that side for about 30 seconds.

Seriously this is a fast process if you don't watch the doughnuts closely, they can become too dark and brown. When the doughnuts have cooked on both sides, pull out the doughnut and set it on the paper towels to absorb any oil. Then put the doughnuts in one of the topping, then eat and enjoy! Amanda's Cookin