I know I’m taking a risk here with an unpopular stance, but CAN WE ALL JUST CALM DOWN ABOUT PUMPKIN ALREADY?? I mean seriously, I love pumpkin as much as the next blogger, but I’ve been seeing pumpkin recipes since early August and I find it a little alarming.
Think of the long haul people – pumpkins will be here through the end of NOVEMBER. That’s three whole months from now!!! Even I don’t want to eat pumpkin flavored everything for three months!
More importantly, can we just take a moment to appreciate APPLES for crying out loud? When did they become so insignificant to fall themed recipes?? I’m confused as to how this happened, because apple season was a big deal when I was living in Connecticut.
We picked apples as kids every year, we ate them fresh, in apple pie, apple fritters, and of course apple cider donuts were sold in Every. Single. Grocery Store. for at least a month before we moved on to pumpkins in mid October.
I feel like apples are the red-headed stepchild this year – it’s like they DON’T EVEN EXIST! It’s just not right, and I for one am going to protest this travesty and shout from the rooftops: THINK OF THE POOR APPLES!
So many varieties with so many subtle differences – juicy, sweet, tart, and crisp, just waiting to be enjoyed in a multitude of ways.
In my defense of apples, I plan to post at least one apple themed recipe a week for the rest of September – even if I AM the only one on the interwebs posting low carb apple recipes this month. I implore my fellow bloggers to take a break from the pumpkin and join me in embracing keto apple recipes.
First on the list are these fantastic keto apple cider donuts. I’m pretty excited to have produced a low carb donut that can be fried instead of baked. Because let’s be honest, baked donuts are really just muffins in disguise – which is fine, but they simply can’t compare to the crispy outside and soft, cakey inside of a real fried donut.
In order for these keto apple cider doughnuts to hold together in the oil, the xanthan gum and protein powder are important, so I don’t recommend leaving them out. I used this brand of protein powder which has 0 carbs – but you can use any brand, just be sure to add whatever carbs are in your brand to the total and divide by number of donuts.
You can garnish these keto donuts in a number of ways – I loved them best with butter, cinnamon and granulated sweetener because they reminded me of the cider donuts we’d buy from the farm stands when I was younger. But you can also try them drizzled with some sugar free caramel sauce – then throw some chopped nuts on there too if you want.
To make these keto apple cider donuts even more festive, you can get a candy apple color by adding a few drops of red food coloring to some store bought sugar free caramel sauce before drizzling it on.
No matter how you eat these, you won’t believe they are low carb – and you definitely won’t be wishing they were pumpkin flavored!
Apple Cider Donuts – Low Carb and Gluten Free Recipe
- Yield: 6 donuts 1x
Description
A low carb and gluten free apple cider donut recipe that is as close to the real thing as you can get! Keto, Paleo, LCHF, and Atkins Diet friendly recipe.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar substitute (Splenda, Swerve, etc.)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 Tbsp vanilla protein powder see example
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum see example
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
Wet Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup sparkling cider (non-alcoholic)
- 1 Tbsp butter, melted
Oil for frying
Cinnamon Coating:
- 4 Tbsp butter, melted
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar substitute (Swerve, Splenda, etc.)
- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Combine all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine all of the wet ingredients in a small bowl. Mix the two together thoroughly and wait 2 minutes. Form the dough into 5 balls of equal size. Press each one into a disc about 1 inch thick and 4 inches in diameter. Use a spoon to scoop out a one inch piece from the center of each disc – then use your fingers to smooth into an even circle/classic donut shape. Combine the small pieces to form a 6th donut shape with your hands.
- Pour your choice of oil in a heavy bottomed pot to a thickness of about 1/2 inch. Heat oil until about 350 degrees (or until a small drop of water sizzles when it hits the oil.) Cook your donuts in batches of 2 each for about 2 minutes per side, or until dark golden brown. Be sure to flip away from you so you don’t splatter yourself with hot oil when turning them. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate until all of the donuts are cooked.
For the Coating:
- Combine the cinnamon and sweetener in a small bowl. Brush the donuts with melted butter, and sprinkle generously with the cinnamon mixture until well coated. Best eaten within one day of frying, but these will keep in the fridge for several days.
Notes
To see a list of my favorite low carb products and brands that I recommend for sweeteners, flours, etc. you can check out the [url:3]IBIH Pantry Ingredients Page!
Approx nutrition info per donut: 207 calories, 17g fat, 5.5g net carbs, 9g protein
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tweetsie says
I wonder if the carbonation is key to the texture. If I have regular apple cider and mix it with some club soda, that should work, right?
Nikki says
Well, the dough smelled really good as I mixed all the ingredients up. But it was extremely sticky and difficult to get into the oil. Even after successfully getting them frying in the peanut oil and onto paper towels without breaking apart, the results were disastrous. After cooling and pressing them with paper towels I found them to be completely unpalatable. Just picking them up caused oil to ooze out of them; even after pressing them with paper towels several times. I followed the recipe exactly, but was left feeling nauseated after trying to eat one. Normally I’d be tenacious enough to make a second attempt, but I’m far too poor to gamble with so many expensive ingredients again. It’s a shame. They look so lovely in the photos. :(
Mellissa Sevigny says
Sorry these didn’t work for you Nikki – not sure why your dough was sticky and difficult to get into the oil – or why it absorbed so much of it during cooking, something must have gone wrong but I’m not sure what!
Kayla says
Oh my gosh I just finished making these and they are delicious!!! Mine held together fine but I molded them into a donut shape pretty tightly before frying. I will definitely make these again! Thanks Melissa I love your blog.
Vicki says
Well, mine were an utter failure. They fell apart in the oil, burned quickly on the outside and barely cooked inside. I used avocado oil, but it heated up too fast I think, and the pot I used was cast iron and way too deep. On the “up” side, my family says the house smells like burned donuts, so I’m on the right track ;-). Even though I was able to form them ok, they seemed quite fragile and started falling apart as soon as I flipped them. Is this just a matter of practice or the fact that they weren’t cooked enough? Thank you for your blog – I’ve had great results with the other recipes I’ve tried!
Mellissa Sevigny says
I’m not sure Vicki, but I’m going to have to make these again myself to see why everyone seems to have trouble with them holding together lately! Maybe wait a little longer than 2 minutes for the dough to stiffen. I’ll report back! Definitely sounds like your oil was too hot though – try them in donut hole format for now to help with the fragility!
Vicki says
Thank you for responding so quickly Mellissa! I did try the donut holes and fried them in an electric wok, which helped with the oil temp. They did hold together better, and didn’t burn, but didn’t cook through. I probably made them too big. Still, very tasty and worth trying again!
Rachael says
I hd this same problem, and I’d love to hear if there were any solutions. We actually tried TWICE, since the first time I realized I’d accidentally ommitted the protein powder, but they behaved pretty much the same each time. On the second attempt I tried donut holes, in hopes they would hang together better, but both times they were very soft and fragile as dough, puffed up and fell apart in the oil, nearly like they simply melted.
I used peanut oil the first time, grapeseed on the second attempt (I had used up all my peanut).
I’m considering trying once more and baking instead of frying before I remove these from my recipe book, but I’m hoping someone might have a “Here’s why that happened” for me.
Sheri says
I can NOT WAIT to try these!! I’m not a pumpkin fan so I was overly excited to see this!! Thank you! I have a question … I fully intend to make these as written but I was thinking as well, the only apple seems to be from the cider … what do you think of trying a zero everything carbonated water? I was just drinking some raspberry and thought hey I wonder if that would work?! Could make a raspberry glaze (probably leave out the nutmeg & cinnamon)… there is no actual apple in them so to enterchange the carbonated drink … what do you think?? Thanks again!!
Kayla says
Did anyone else have really sticky dough? I ended up making donut holes which were awesome but I just couldn’t get my dough firm enough to shape into anything even remotely resembling a donut. I’m wondering if it was my coconut flour.
Sara says
Yes I just made these and they were super sticky! I added more of the coconut flour which helped but now they taste more like coconut then apple! And I’mnot a fan of coconut . Any tips?
Julie says
Well, I just tried these and they fell apart, although the batter tasted good,so I am going to add some chopped apple to the batter and make muffins out of it. Sigh….
Greg says
Ahhh I can’t wait to get a donut pan so I can start to make these as well as bagels!!!!
Marjie @ Home Again Jiggety-jig! says
This looks amazing. Saw it on Judy Baker on FB and now I’ll be sharing it tomorrow on my FB page. Hope I can gather all the ingredients to try it soon!
Rise Ruhl says
I made these today and had a heckuva time getting them to flip without breaking. So I gave up after two, broke the rest of the dough into small balls (think DD Munchkins) and made them like that! Perfect!