When I was growing up, my grandmother was friendly with another farming family who had orchards full of apples, pears, and stone fruits. It was a rite of fall for my mother and I to go to Schenks’ to buy apples, cider, and Italian plums for plum dumplings. We would walk past their farm stand to the apple cooler; its giant, maple-fronted steel door opened slowly, like a bank vault. Inside, the metallic fragrance of cold apples enveloped us, as we chose from the best of their produce – a professional courtesy among the local farmers. The cider was strong and sweet, and my grandmother always fried a batch of doughnuts made with apple cider and sprinkled them with powdered sugar.

As much as I love fried doughnuts, I’ve adapted her old recipe to be baked (after more failed attempts than I care to recall). It’s healthier, less messy, faster – and I added crushed walnuts on top of the cider glaze, because the apple flavor in a cider doughnut is subtle. The ingredient that made the dough work was honey (with thanks to thefauxmartha.com for the idea). This is an apple-ish, cinnamon-y, honeyed doughnut with a walnut crunch. Yum!

Baked Walnut Apple Cider Doughnuts

Serves: Makes a dozen baked doughnuts

Prep time: 25 minutes