The History of Apple Cider Doughnuts & Recipe

Nothing gets me out of bed into the cooler fall weather than some apple picking and apple cider donut eating. Those warm donuts and apple cider are a perfect hot/cold combination when trekking through the apple orchard. We are super fans of this in the Midwest and I know this love exists across much of the US from October through December.

If you are unfamiliar with these delicious apple cider doughnuts, they are usually fried cake donuts made with buttermilk. They can be covered in a sugar/cider drizzle or a dry cinnamon sugar mixture (adhered with melted butter). For those that don’t want to die when they are forty, you can bake your donuts to be slightly healthier. We even have a recipe below for everyone! These apple cider donuts are moist delights with a surprising history in our country. Let’s explore the chronicles of apple cider doughnuts to give you a deeper appreciation for this fall necessity.

Warning: we are going to use the proper spelling of doughnut, not donut. Viewer discretion is advised.

The History of Apple Cider Doughnuts

Like many treats, apple cider donuts have a deep history in the US. While not as well documented, or something that would require us to do some serious digging, we have knowledge of a version of apple cider doughnuts as early as the early colonial days. Colonists would often kill animals for meat and were not looking to waste any part of the animal. They would store animal fats for preservation and frying foods. After a bountiful fall harvest, there would be leftover apples with no purpose. They would utilize these apples and combine them with fried dough. This is probably the rawest form of apple cider donuts known and not the smooth, coated, or delicious current iteration that we think of in today’s world.

For the more modern telling, we jump to the early 1900s with Adolf Levitt, an immigrant looking for a business to start. In 1916, while in New York, he invested in a chain of bakery shops. Taking inspiration from a fried dough snack that soldiers fell in love with, Adolf created a doughnut machine to quell the sweet desires of military troops and common folks alike. As time progressed, Mr. Levitt was showcasing his doughnut-making device and people took notice. So, as an entrepreneur, he started selling these machines and a flour mixture to other local bakeries.

This successful project led to the creation of the Doughnut Corporation of America. They not only sold doughnut-making equipment, but they also created a franchise of doughnuts shops known as Downyflake Shops. As an organization, like most other food-based industries (think dairy), they were coming up with marketing strategies to continue their growth. This came in the form of marketing campaigns aplenty from radio to print to television. With the marketing strategies, shops, and all the dough-making machines spreading across the US, doughnuts would become a very popular morning and midday treat for decades to come.

Side note, they even had a campaign in the 1940s where they advocated for their vitamin-enriched doughnut diet — a health fad! These doughnuts were made with an enriched flour mix to provide added protein and nutrients. This strategy, ultimately, failed. Funny, isn’t it? No one, even then, fell for that marketing ploy of a healthy doughnut.

Anyways… over the decades, they plotted, schemed, marketed, and pushed new flavors and ways to consume the doughnut. By the 1950s, The Doughnut Corporation of America wanted to find a winning campaign and had an idea to push a new fall treat that would encompass everything people loved about fall in sweet dough form. Published in the New York Times, they boasted a new item – a spicy round cake expected to have natural fall appeal. The apple cider doughnut!

This was a classic buttermilk doughnut, but they had added apple cider into the batter for a more moist and elevated experience while coating the exterior with a blend of cinnamon and nutmeg. From this campaign, the Downyflake stores and many local orchards began making these doughnuts. Across the country, local orchards could tinker and create their own family recipe for making the doughnut, add in the cider from their fields, and pair this with a fresh glass of apple cider on the side. The apple cider drink could be hot or cold, same with the doughnut, and bring the consumer a delightful hot/cold experience bursting with sweet, spiced, and tart flavor. Some doughnut makers even used a sugar and cider drizzle on the outside of the dessert. Some even left apple pieces in the dough, just like in the colonial days. However, we know that most people prefer the smooth experience of the true 1950’s creation and that one was the big winner.

From then on, just like the campaign suggested, apple cider doughnuts became a fall staple. From doughnut shops to orchards, family homes to cornfield mazes, apple cider doughnuts became a tradition in the Midwest and East Coast – even finding their way into other stretches of the country and larger current chains like Dunkin Donuts. And this doughnut is still as popular as ever in 2021.

Let’s not forget, we really have to thank the DCA and Adolf Levitt for the growth of doughnuts in the US and the creation of this fall classic! Cold weather would be much less inviting and family orchards less visited. This product still lives on and we hope that will never change!

 And whatever happened to the Donut Corporation of America? They created a franchise of Doughnuts shops from the 1930s through the 1970s but were losing market share to a rising franchise, Dunkin Donuts. The company still sold doughnut-making equipment and changed its name to the DCA Food Industries. The majority of the business was purchased by Lyons in the 1970s. By the 1980’s Lyon owned over 80% of the business. From my research, anything associated with the original company was dead in the water by 1994 when the business was dissolved. Patents and products remain from DCA.

Hungry for an apple cider doughnut now? We have a recipe that we often turn to below.

Apple Cider Doughnut Recipe

Total Time to Doughnut Eating Time: 40 Minutes

Ingredients

Doughnuts:

• 1 1/2 cups apple cider
• 2 cups cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp melted butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon Topping:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 5 tsp melted butter

Instructions

• Bring apple cider up to a boil over high heat in a small pan and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Allow the cider to reduce to 1/2 cup. Allow this to cool.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Coat a donut pan, or, if in a pinch, a large pan with a nonstick cooking spray.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
• Mix together the milk, brown sugar, vanilla, butter, granulated sugar, egg, and cooled apple cider in a medium bowl. Pour the wet mixture into the flour and stir just until combined. Like most desserts, don’t overmix!
• Transfer the batter to a piping device, a plastic bag with a 1/2 inch of a corner will do. Pipe the batter onto the donut pan. If using just a large pan, attempt to shape the dough into a general donut shape ????. If using a donut pan, make sure these the mold is half full.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes until they are cooked through and a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool those donuts!
• In a mixing bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Brush the donuts with butter and coat both sides. Dip the donut into the cinnamon-sugar mixture and shake the donut until covered.

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