Rick Makes Apple Cider Doughnuts

[dramatic music]

[fun mysterious music]

I had been wanting to create

the ultimate cider doughnut recipe

for BA for a while, and this I think is it.

It's packed full of apple flavor,

and I'm gonna show you how to make it.

So, let's go boil some cider.

[Cameraman] Why are we boiling cider down?

Because, one thing I did not understand

about cider doughnuts, 'cause I looked at

a lot of recipes when I was researching this,

and there wasn't a lot of cider in it,

and a lot of the recipes just didn't seem

like they had a lot of apple flavor.

And so, what I really tried to do with this recipe,

is really concentrate a lot of apple flavor into the recipe.

So, I'm gonna start out with three cups of apple cider.

You wanna put this in a large skillet,

along with two cinnamon sticks.

And we're just gonna bring this to a boil.

And we're gonna reduce this down into a syrup.

We're gonna really, really concentrate the flavors,

it's almost gonna become like a really thick syrupy,

honey, jammy situation.

We can't possibly add this much liquid into the batter,

or else it would actually be more like a cake

than a doughnut.

So by concentrating it, by getting rid of all of the water

and the moisture that's in the apple cider,

we're just gonna concentrate all of the sweetness,

we're gonna caramelize some of the sugar,

we're adding the cinnamon sticks to really bring out

those like warm fall spices that I love.

And it's just gonna make a really great doughnut.

I think probably the easiest way to shop for apple cider,

I mean you know, you can go into the juice section

of your grocery store and you'll see the apple juice,

and like all of the clear apple beverages.

If it's clear than that means it's been processed,

and all of the flavor has been taken out of it.

What you want to do is shop for apple cider

that's refrigerated, if it's refrigerated

that means it's perishable and it probably looks

like this kind of cloudy.

But that just means that there's a lot of apple flavor

in there, and it also probably means

that it was fairly recently pressed.

So they're just taking all the apples

and they're like you know pressing them down,

they're extracting all of that juices.

And all of this stuff that's making it cloudy

is going to add more flavor,

and that's what you really want.

So this is gonna take about 30 minutes to reduce,

but we have a swap.

Well good, so we don't need to swap a pan now, right?

[Cameraman] Nope, let's just move to this one.

Yeah great, so.

Okay so, what's gonna end up happening is,

you know as the apple cider reduces,

it's gonna get some shmuggy stuff

around the edges of the pan.

But it's going to get into this very thick jelly like

substance, it's really really super delicious.

Actually, if you made this and like put this on pancakes

or french toast, or swirled it into some soft butter

and put it on a biscuit or muffin, it's amazing!

This is basically like a form of apple butter,

which we are actually going to use in this doughnut

as well because I need even more apple flavor.

So, might as well just take this over and.

Alright, so we're just gonna get rid of the cinnamon sticks.

They've released all their flavor.

I wish you could smell this because it's like,

it's got a really, really strong cinnamon and apple flavor,

it's super delicious.

It's really hard to get apple flavor in baked goods,

like if you've ever had applesauce cake, or muffins.

It's a lot of times, you know you compensate

for the lack of apple flavor with a lot of the spices,

so they tend to be very spice forward.

And if you take it away,

it just reads as a really moist cake,

you don't really perceive a lot of the apple flavor.

So now, we are going to whisk all dry together.

I hear Brad.

Brad!

I just saw your--

Superman Martinez!

Yes, making doughnuts.

It's not all [beep] hard. Yeah.

What kind of doughnuts you making, bud?

Cider doughnuts.

What's that red bean paste?

[laughing]

Yeah, red bean doughnuts.

Mhm.

No that's apple butter, and reduced apple cider.

Yum.

Yeah yeah, you gonna be around for a bit?

Uh, what's a bit?

Like half an hour?

Negative. Alright.

[laughing]

It's Friday afternoon bud, I'm cutting it late as it is.

I know, yeah I'm surprised you're still here.

I'm glad you were making donuts Rick,

if there was anyone I'd want to make a doughnut,

It'd be Sugarman Martinez.

Yeah, well I'm sad you're not gonna be here.

So is this old fashion?

Yeah, yeah, this is old fashion.

Cake doughnut.

Yeah, I love cake doughnuts.

When they're good and they're fresh they're the best.

Oh yeah, yeah.

If I had to pick, I love a yeasted doughnut

but like when a cake is optimal,

it's something special.

Yeah, it's really awesome.

Well, carry on the good work Rick!

Thank you sir. You're welcome.

All right, so that's mixed, what am I doing now?

Alright now, I'm gonna mix all of the wet ingredients,

so I've got the reduced cider, this is the apple butter.

So good.

If you've never had apple butter,

you should definitely try it.

If you like applesauce, this is like applesauce on steroids.

Got some vanilla, alright.

And you just wanna combine this,

the reduced cider is pretty thick and syrupy

so you just wanna make sure that you get it in there,

get everything combined

before it goes into the stand mixer.

And when it cools off, it's gonna have like little clumps,

and that's totally fine.

Those are actually just gonna melt into the batter.

Alright, now we're ready for the stand mixer.

So, we're going to,

we are going to beat up

our butter.

I love Brad's laugh.

This is brown sugar, and granulated sugar,

and so we're gonna basically going to treat this

as if were making a cake.

This is a cake doughnut.

So let's just start on low just to get

everything incorporated.

And so, like with any good cake,

you want to incorporate some air into the butter.

You wanna combine the butter and the sugar.

It'll start to melt a little bit.

I'm using brown sugar because I like the flavor

it also helps with the moisture level.

For cake donuts in particular,

the reason why cake donuts are so good

when you get them at a good bakery

is because they have an extruder that they can actually

create a very wet dough, and then just

drop it down into the hot fat.

When you're making them at home,

it's harder because obviously most people don't have that.

And what makes a good cake donut is a really,

really wet batter.

And so anytime that you can add more moisture,

so in this case were using the two forms of apple.

We're using the brown sugar,

which also has a lot more moisture.

That just helps with the texture and also the flavor.

Alright, I'm going to

add the eggs one at a time.

It's gonna look a little bit broken

then it's gonna come back together.

I'm gonna scrape the sides,

this is really important when you're baking cookies,

or cake, or doughnuts.

You wanna scrape the sides of the bowl.

Make sure that all the butter gets incorporated.

Alright.

You can see that it's coming back together now.

I'm going to add the second egg.

So this looks pretty good.

I'm gonna turn it off, then I'm gonna add the dry

and the wet in three additions.

So, we are gonna do about a third of this,

I'm just going to kind of eyeball it.

And then, I like to pulse whenever I'm using a stand mixer.

When I add the dry just kind of pulse it like that,

just to make sure no flour comes and flies out at you.

[Cameraman] Rick, it's two additions.

All right, gonna add the liquid.

And then, when that looks like it's almost

completely incorporated, I'll add the dry again.

All right, we'll just go ahead

and put all of the flour in there now.

Alright.

[mixer buzzing]

All right, and then the last of the wet.

All right, that looks like it's mixed.

Great.

Alright so.

Now,

we're gonna transfer this to a parchment lined baking sheet.

You can see it's like super, super wet.

And that's exactly what you want.

Now, the trick is whenever you're making a wet doughnut

batter like this, you absolutely.

Shit I hate this.

[Cameraman] Should we get some butter?

[laughing]

What to lube up our mixer?

I like the way you think.

[laughing]

[Cameraman] I guess that's why they pay me the big bucks.

Yeah.

[Cameraman] I'm just kidding.

Alright, just make sure that everything is completely

incorporated in here and there are no streaks

of butter or sugar at the bottom.

So the thing that you want to do

because this dough is so wet,

you wanna use a lot of flour on this parchment paper.

So I usually put about a third of a cup down.

Just sprinkle it down.

It's gonna wanna stick, if you don't put

this amount of flour in.

I know it seems like an obscene amount of flour but,

this is a very wet dough.

Alright.

And then, just turn it out make sure you get

all this delicious appley goodness.

Ugh, yum so good.

Alright.

And now we're going to pat this out.

We're gonna need a little bit more flour

to make sure that the dough doesn't stick to our hands.

And then just pat it down.

You wanna go about 3/4 of an inch thick.

And when it fries, it's going to puff up so,

make sure that you get it pretty close to 3/4 of an inch.

If you're going to error, error on the side

of making it a little bit thinner.

All right, that looks pretty good.

All right, and so now what we're gonna do is

we're gonna let this rest.

It's going to be a lot easier to cut and fry

if it's chilled.

The other thing that's gonna happen is,

the flavors are gonna come together.

And a really nice rest time of about three hours

or up to overnight in the refrigerator

is gonna allow the flour to hydrate.

And what that's gonna do, it's just gonna

hold onto that moisture.

If you dropped this into hot oil right now,

they'd basically just steam out,

and so the doughnuts would seem

a little bit dry and crumbly.

Giving it a nice rest time of three hours to overnight,

it's gonna just keep all the moisture in there.

It's gonna give you some really beautiful craggy, edges

that are gonna ahold onto a lot of that cinnamon sugar.

So, we're gonna wrap this up and put it in the fridge.

Now, we're gonna mix the cinnamon and sugar together.

So I've just got some ground cinnamon

and some granulated sugar.

You want 'em in a fairly, you know like a medium

to large size bowl because we're gonna

toss the hot doughnuts in here.

You want 'em to have room to mix in

and get in all those little craggy bits.

And now, we're going to cut the doughnuts.

So this though has been in the fridge overnight.

I actually think overnight is best,

so like whenever I make this recipe I make the dough

the night before I'm gonna use it,

and then just let it sit, and then cut and fry to order.

And I've got a 3 1/4 inch cutter.

It's important whenever you're cutting,

like whether it's a cookie, or a doughnut,

you wanna dip the cutter in flour,

just to make sure that it' not gonna stick.

And then, what I usually like to do is just go around,

give it a little twist, make sure it's not sticking.

The dough is still pretty wet and sticky.

That's why it's important to make sure

that you flour after each cut.

And then just go around.

I usually just go all the way around,

make the cuts for the big guys.

And then go back and

punch out the holes.

And then definitely, we will save those scraps

and then re-roll and punch out those.

And then just take a smaller cutter

and then just go in and punch out the holes.

Do I keep them?

Oh my god Tommy, yes they're delicious!

Those are actually chef snacks, like

when I'm frying these up, like,

I'll fry up the doughnut holes first

to make sure that you know they're good,

and I'm not gonna feed my guest subpar doughnuts.

So my oil is heated up, I've punched out some holes

and some doughnuts, and now I think it's time to fry.

Alright.

You want a decent amount of oil

because otherwise if you don't have at least three inches

of oil in your pot, the doughnuts could sink to the bottom

and potentially get burned.

So we're just going to go ahead and carefully drop these in.

We're running a little over 360 and that's fine

because we're dropping these in and I'll throw in a couple

of doughnut holes just for funzies.

Adjust your temp as necessary.

But whenever you drop anything cold into hot oil

you're gonna lose some heat.

They're gonna sink to the bottom

and they're gonna come back up and you can see.

What's really fun about these doughnuts is,

they get this really beautiful craggy edge.

So what's happening is as the batter heats up on the inside,

all that moisture starts getting released,

and the steam will open up cracks

on the top of each of the doughnuts.

And that's a classic old fashion style cake doughnut.

If you glaze them, they're gonna hold onto the glaze,

in this case we're gonna dip them in cinnamon sugar.

So all these cinnamon sugar is gonna

get into those little craggy bits,

and it's gonna be really, really delicious.

They are going to start to puff.

So, you know the dough itself is only

about 3/4 of an inch thick,

but we're probably running

about like an inch and a half now.

The hole is gonna kinda close up,

so they're gonna get this really nice brown color.

And that's really what we're looking for.

I'll get a couple more ready.

And if your dough starts to get a little too soft

you can always throw it back in the refrigerator.

All right, these are looking good.

You can see how puffy they are now.

And see, those are those beautiful craggy bits

that I was telling you about.

So that's the steam that's like escaping from the doughnut.

It's super hot.

Look how beautiful those look, yeah.

Alright.

I'm gonna drop in the next batch.

Alright.

I love making doughnuts, ah.

Well really, I love eating doughnuts let's be honest.

It's the best thing in the world.

And make sure you have a thermometer in your oil,

this really needs to be around the 350, 360 degree range.

And anytime I fry I have a thermometer,

and a lot of times I'll actually use

a digital thermometer with an alarm,

so it just cues me in when it's dropping too high

or too low, and then you just adjust the temp.

And don't be alarmed, like you can see

this one's opening up on the sides and the bottom.

So these donuts were a little bit wetter.

I think there wasn't a lot of flour

where they were sitting on the parchment paper,

and so they're kind of opening up and that's totally fine,

'cause that's just more area that's going to get sugared.

It needs a few more minutes.

But I think these doughnut holes are ready.

Alright, that guy's done.

They're gonna be pretty soft

when you pull 'em out of the oil,

but they'll firm up a little bit as they sit.

I love that look, this look right here

with all these little craggy bits,

I think it just beautiful.

Okay, time to sugar the doughnuts.

When I first made these Brad was actually like

I want you to leave me some plain without sugar.

I was like dude, who eats an un-sugared doughnut?

Morocco's the same way, he's like

I don't really like the glaze.

I'm like no, doughnuts need to have

something on the outside, or something on the inside,

glaze or cinnamon sugar.

Ah, look at that!

That is what it needs to look like.

It needs to be puffy, it needs to be craggy, it's light.

Ah.

And fun little doughnut holes.

Alright.

Like who wouldn't want that?

Like if I walked into somebody's house for brunch

and they were making these,

and that's what they were serving me,

I would be so incredibly happy.

I'm like so confused, I just want sugar.

Ah, this one is so beautiful to me.

I love those craggy bits, and it's still warm.

Oh yes, look a that, oh my god.

That's gonna be so good!

Mm, it's so light and so moist.

Ah, I just love this.

Really good.

I know Ben wants some, I can see him.

[Ben] I'll take one.

Thanks, you're the best.

I think that the holes might actually

be the best way to go 'cause like,

there's more sugar surface area.

[Ben] Mm, it's so crispy.

It's really crispy.

Here Tommy, have some.

[laughing]

[Cameraman] Tommy.

[Woman] How can you not--

You need to pass me like three of them.

[Rick] I know, thank you.