Apple Cider Donuts Made With Dash Donut Maker

These apple cider donuts are so good and easy to make in your dash donut maker! Featuring amazing fresh ingredients, the whole family will love these treats!

Fall in Brooklyn means one thing on repeat: apple cider donuts. Every farmers market, every school fair, every time you walk past a cider stand in Prospect Park — they’re there and they are always worth stopping for.

The problem is that making them at home traditionally means either frying (messy, hot, and more effort than I want to put in on a weekday) or using a donut baking pan (fine, but they come out more cakey than donut-like). The Dash mini donut maker solves both problems. It’s about the size of a waffle iron, it’s ready in minutes, and the donuts that come out have a slightly crisp exterior and a soft, tender inside that actually holds up to the cinnamon sugar coating.

This recipe uses reduced apple cider — you boil 1 cup down to ½ cup before adding it to the batter — which is what makes these taste like a real apple cider donut rather than just a cinnamon muffin with apple flavoring. That step matters. Don’t skip it.

You can keep them classic with cinnamon sugar or glaze and decorate with Halloween sprinkles for a fall party. Either way, one batch makes 28 mini donuts and they disappear faster than you’d expect.

What ingredients do I need for these Apple Cider Donuts?

Donut Ingredients:
• 1 cup apple cider
• 1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 1⁄2 cup brown sugar
• 1⁄4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 1⁄2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
• 1⁄4 tsp nutmeg
• 1⁄4 tsp salt

Topping Ingredients:
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1⁄4 cup confectioners sugar
• 2 tsp apple cider
• variety of orange, yellow, black, candy sprinkles and round non-pariels
• candy corns *optional

INGREDIENT NOTES

Apple cider (1 cup, reduced to ½ cup for batter + 2 tsp unreduced for glaze). Use fresh-pressed apple cider, not apple juice. The cider has more body and complexity than juice, and the reduction intensifies that. For the glaze, you’ll use 2 teaspoons of plain unreduced cider — don’t use the concentrated stuff here or the glaze will be too thick.

All-purpose flour (1½ cups). Standard AP flour only. No substitutions needed.

Brown sugar (½ cup). Light or dark brown sugar both work. Dark brown adds a slightly more molasses-forward sweetness that pairs nicely with the apple and cinnamon.

Greek yogurt (¼ cup, plain). Use full-fat plain Greek yogurt. This is the secret to the tender crumb. Sour cream works as a 1:1 substitute if you don’t have yogurt.

Butter (4 tbsp, melted and cooled slightly). Melt it and let it cool for a few minutes before adding to the batter — adding hot butter to eggs can start to cook them.

Baking powder (1½ tsp). Makes sure the batter rises and puffs properly in the donut maker. Don’t substitute baking soda.

Cinnamon (½ tsp batter + ½ tsp topping) + nutmeg (¼ tsp batter). The warm spice combination is essential. Don’t skip the nutmeg — it’s subtle but it’s part of what makes apple cider donuts taste like apple cider donuts.

For cinnamon sugar topping: 2 tbsp granulated sugar + ½ tsp cinnamon + 1 tbsp unsalted butter (for dipping before the sugar mixture).

For glaze + sprinkle topping: ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar + 2 tsp unreduced apple cider, whisked together until smooth. Orange, yellow, and black nonpareils and round sprinkles for Halloween. Candy corn optional (I’m not a candy corn person, but the Halloween vibes are undeniable).

How Do you Make these donuts?

Step 1: Reduce the cider. Pour 1 cup of apple cider into a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat slightly and simmer until reduced by half — you want exactly ½ cup remaining. This takes about 8–10 minutes. Watch it toward the end so it doesn’t over-reduce. Pour into a bowl and let cool completely before adding to the batter. Don’t rush this — adding hot liquid to the eggs will scramble them.

Step 2: Melt the butter. Melt 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a small saucepan or microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.

Step 3: Make the batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add the brown sugar, egg, Greek yogurt, and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the melted butter and mix. Add the cooled reduced cider and mix until the batter is smooth. It will be thicker than pancake batter — that’s correct.

Step 4: Prep your topping station. Before you start making donuts, set up your dipping station using shallow dishes (this is the move — shallow dishes make dipping fast and clean). For cinnamon sugar: one shallow dish with 1 tbsp melted butter, one shallow dish with the sugar-cinnamon mixture combined. For glaze: one shallow dish with the confectioners’ sugar and cider whisked together, plus a small bowl of sprinkles nearby. Have a wire rack ready.

Step 5: Heat the Dash. Spray the Dash donut maker lightly with cooking spray or brush with a little oil. Plug it in and let it heat for about 2 minutes. You only need to oil it once — not between batches.

Step 6: Cook the donuts. Spoon batter into each donut well, filling to the top — the batter will start to puff up as you fill the last wells, which is normal. Close the lid and set a timer for 1 minute. After 1 minute, use a cake tester, long toothpick, or chopstick to flip each donut. They’ll be hot. Set the timer for 2 more minutes. When done, the donuts should be golden and spring back lightly when pressed. Lift them out onto the wire rack. Repeat for about 4 batches total.

Step 7: Decorate immediately. For cinnamon sugar: while the donuts are still warm, dip each one briefly in the melted butter dish, then immediately press into the cinnamon sugar mixture and set on the rack. The warmth helps the sugar adhere. For glaze and sprinkles: dip the top of each cooled donut into the glaze, place glaze-side up on the rack, and quickly add sprinkles before the glaze sets — it hardens fast, so have your sprinkles right next to you. Kids are excellent at this step.

*Kids would love decorating these donuts and personalizing their own.

Serve with milk, apple cider, coffee, or tea. Enjoy!

These apple cider donuts are so good! Nothing says hello to the fall season like Apple Cider Donuts! You can finally see them in your local supermarkets and farmer’s markets–but why do all of that when you can easily make them at home with your dash donut maker?

Speaking of amazing appliances, this one is a game changer! I love love love new kitchen appliances and this one was an easy purchase. It’s only $20 for the basic one and if you want one with a bit of design it’s a little bit more. I still have my donut baking pan but this makes things way more easier!

Plus with this recipe I am showing you how you can decorate these fun donuts for Halloween too!

TIPS

Let the reduced cider cool all the way. If it’s still warm when it hits the egg, you’ll curdle the batter. Five minutes in the fridge speeds this up if you’re impatient.

Don’t follow the Dash recipe book timing. Their recommended cook time is 5½ minutes total, which dries out this batter. One minute first side, two minutes after flipping is the correct timing for this recipe. Your first batch is the test batch — adjust by 30 seconds if needed.

Shallow dishes are non-negotiable for dipping. Deep bowls make it impossible to get a clean, even dip on a mini donut. Two-inch-deep dishes work perfectly.

Decorate cinnamon sugar donuts warm, glaze donuts cool. The cinnamon sugar needs warmth to adhere; the glaze needs the donut to be at room temperature or it will slide right off. Doing both in the same batch means staggering your decorating.

This batter works in a regular donut pan too. If you don’t have the Dash maker, bake in a greased mini donut pan at 350°F for 8–10 minutes. The texture will be slightly more cakey but the flavor is identical.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. These are best the day they’re made. The cinnamon sugar coating softens overnight but the flavor is still great.

VARIATIONS

Maple glaze. Replace the confectioners’ sugar + apple cider glaze with: ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar + 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup + ½ teaspoon vanilla, whisked until smooth. The maple flavor plays beautifully with the cinnamon-spiced batter.

Apple cider donut holes. The Dash makes mini donuts, but if you want true donut holes, use a cake pop maker instead of a donut maker — same batter, same timing, round result.

Pumpkin spice version. Replace the ½ tsp cinnamon + ¼ tsp nutmeg in the batter with 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. Use the same apple cider reduction. It shifts the flavor from apple-forward to pumpkin-spice-forward while keeping the cider depth.

Caramel dip. Skip the glaze entirely and serve with a small dish of warm caramel sauce for dipping. Apple + caramel + cinnamon is a great combination and it’s easier than glazing 28 individual donuts.

Thanksgiving version. Use cinnamon sugar coating, add a drizzle of warm honey over the top, and serve in a pile on a wooden board. These work beautifully as a Thanksgiving morning treat or a party dessert display.

Decorating for Halloween

You can have these plain or you can decorate these with orange, yellow, black candy sprinkles to make things festive for Halloween. If you are a fan of candy corns you can add those too! I am not, but I can’t deny the strong Halloween vibes.

FAQs

Every fall I end up making multiple batches of these because one round disappears before it even makes it to the cooling rack. The kids decorate the Halloween ones and honestly it’s one of the better fall activities we’ve landed on — actual donuts at the end of it, which beats a lot of crafts.

Here are some more amazing donut recipes to try: