Baked Apple Cider Doughnut Holes

Baked Apple Cider Doughnut Holes

makes 24-48 mini muffins or "donut holes" **

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup apple butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup apple cider
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt (I used plain nonfat Greek yogurt)
• 2 Tbsp canola oil
• canola cooking spray
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a mini muffin pan with cooking spray. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. 
3. In another large bowl, whisk together the egg, brown sugar, apple butter, vanilla extract, honey, apple cider, yogurt, and canola oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient mixture and whisk until just incorporated. Don't over-mix - a few lumps are okay. 
4. Using a tablespoon or cookie scoop, fill a 24-hole mini muffin pan with the batter; fill each hole only 3/4 of the way, or you'll end up with huge mini muffins (maxi muffins?). Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes and cool on a wire rack. 
5. While donut holes are still warm, melt butter in a microwave safe dish. Combine cinnamon and sugar in another dish. Using a pastry brush, very lightly brush a tiny bit of melted butter onto the top of each donut hole, then dip the top of the muffin in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the donut hole in the cinnamon sugar to coat the sides and top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Alternatively, you can dust the cooled donut holes with powdered sugar; I prefer the texture of the cinnamon sugar, so I went in that direction. You can also omit the butter - the cinnamon sugar sticks nicely to the donut holes. 

**Depending on the size of the holes in your mini muffin pan, you may get many more donut holes than I did - the mini muffins from my pan appear to be a bit larger than the average mini muffin pan..