Apple Cider Dunkers

It's fall. Well, almost. But it FEELS like it. Sign? Our favorite local cider mill opened last week. They have everything from mums to cider, of course, to cheddar cheese to doughnuts. I cannot get enough.

Behold! The cider doughnut in all its glory.

Thing is, it's not reasonable for me to eat three doughnuts a day (yeah -- that happened), every day. Not for the wallet. Not for the waistline. So, I spend some time looking through my various muffin/cake recipes, attempting to craft a similar, but baked-versus-fried treat.

And then the Cider Dunker was born.



As you'll see, the ingredients -- including sparkling water again! -- in this little guy are hardly sinful. In fact, I made them for breakfast (sans the sugar-topping, which I'll get to in a minute), and can't wait to have more tomorrow morning.

But enough about me. Let's get to it.


What you'll need . . .

• 3 tablespoons Earth Balance 
• 1 tablespoon olive oil 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar 
• 2 tablespoons apple cider 
• 1 tablespoon flax meal + 2 tablespoons almond milk 
• 1/2 cup sparkling water 
• 1 cup whole wheat flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 
• pinch salt

Method . . .

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spritz a mini muffin pan and set aside. 
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (I got this awesome one that scrapes the bowl as it mixes for X-mas!), beat together the Earth Balance, olive oil, sugar, apple cider, flax meal + almond milk, and sparkling water. 
3. In another bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients and then add them into the wet. Mix until just combined. 
4. Scoop heaping tablespoonfuls of the batter into the mini muffin pan. (This recipe yields approx. 16 dunkers, so you won't use the entire pan.) 
5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
6. Let rest in pan for 5 minutes or so before removing.

This next part is entirely optional, but highly recommended. Well, and it's where the "dunker" part comes from. If you dip the top of the dunker into a bit of cider and roll it into some cinnamon/sugar mixture, it's divine.

Too bad we ate them all already.


And SPEAKING of eating lots of stuff, we have literally tons of squash to use up from our CSA share this week. Can't wait to share some fun recipes with you!

By the way, have you ever heard of ground cherries?


We hadn't, but they're very interesting. Sort of like cherries. Sort of like tomatoes. We didn't get enough to make much of anything, so we just ate them raw. But I'd love to make something more elaborate in the future. Suggestions?


Today on Writing Chapter Three, we posted some photos from our new evening routine. It rained too much today, so looking back at these photos is nice. I love the whole descent into fall!

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