Since I could talk, (although before I could pronounce the word “doughnut”), one of my favorite treats (or meals) has been doughnuts – fried, with sprinkles, cake or raised, powdered or granulated – I love them all (except Boston creme). Every fall I long for fresh apple cider doughnuts, and while I haven’t yet grabbed this year’s first jug of cider, I did get a 3 pound bag of local McIntosh apples. For whatever reason, when I got them, I immediately thought “doughnuts.” I figured if I transformed the apples into applesauce, (I’m not set up for the canning process to make apple cider. Plus who does that?) I thought it would be an easy leap to make some applesauce doughnuts.

It wouldn’t be a real recipe for me if something didn’t go terribly wrong in the process. Wanting something a bit healthy, I originally set out to make gluten-free applesauce doughnuts. I had some brown rice flour and proceeded to mix it with the applesauce, spices, and other (soon-to-be-thrown-away) ingredients to hopefully create a delicious fall treat. What emerged from the oven were anemic, sour blobs that even I, a doughnut devotee couldn’t stomach.

Some cooks or bakers tweak and refine recipes several or even dozens of times until they get it right. I’m not one of them. At this point, I would have typically thrown the dirty dishes in the sink and eaten some chips, abandoning the effort. But I decided to at least try a gluten-full version using whole wheat flour and a modification of ingredients. These, I’m glad to report, came out more respectably.

My applesauce doughnuts are baked, and while I respect baked doughnuts, they won’t substitute for the bag of freshly fried farmer’s market apple cider doughnuts that, now that I think about it, I really need to get this weekend. But, my little-used doughnut pan needed to be rinsed off, so why not take it for a ride?

These whole wheat applesauce doughnuts had a nice (if muffin-like) consistency and were not too sweet. (The only sweetener is homemade applesauce, and that doesn’t have added sugar either). So, I made a quick glaze that helped to cover up some of the doughnuts’ unsightly blemishes, (uneven cooking?) and give a glossier, more appetizing appearance. I think a more richly spiced or flavored glaze, and maybe some crumbly coffeecake topping would have worked really well too. (Sorry to conflate my favorite breakfast breads). But the glaze helped take these from “doughnut shaped muffin” to a slightly more legitimate doughnut treat.

Frankly, this recipe would have been sufficient if it were just for applesauce, because the applesauce I made to create the doughnuts turned out to be way more sweet and satisfying. But using both the food mill and the doughnut pan in one recipe seemed like a noteworthy accomplishment worth sharing. I would have no less respect for you should you decide to make this delicious applesauce and can (so to speak) the doughnuts altogether.

As I mentioned, these recipes call for some specialized equipment. The first is a food mill, which is a hand-cranking mechanism that is mounted on top of a mixing bowl. It comes with several inserts that will puree foods coarsely or finely, depending on which one you choose. In my mind, this is the only way to make applesauce, and the only way I’ve ever made it.  However, I’m sure others have pureed it using various contraptions with some success. The other piece of equipment I used in these recipes is a doughnut pan. It’s basically a non-stick baking pan with six doughnut-shaped wells where you pour the dough. After 12-15 minutes in a hot oven, the dough bowls transform into cake-like entities that usually only look ugly on one side.

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This vegan banana bread recipe makes me happy for a number of reasons. First, I feel it strikes the right balance of dry to liquid, meaning that the interior was nicely cooked through, with the exterior a crispy golden brown. Secondly, I like the consistency.  Since I never use white flour, I’m always trying to balance whole wheat flour with something (in this case whole wheat pastry flour) that isn’t so dense. This banana bread is neither too cake-like, nor too dense and load-y. Finally, I’m happy with the sweetness. This recipe calls for just 1/4 cup of maple syrup, and combined with the ripe bananas, is really all it needs in terms of sugar. Since I made mini-loaves instead of one big loaf, I’m bringing one with me on a trip and freezing another.

If you haven’t dabbled in the world of egg replacers, this recipe calls for Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer, a powder that you combine with a few tablespoons of water. It makes your baked goods light and fluffy without the use of eggs.  In the past, I’ve used flaxseed meal, a powder that is also combined with water to substitute for eggs, but I’m finding I’m liking the former much better.

(This recipe uses two 5 1/2″ x 3″ x 2 1/4″ mini loaf pans. If you’d like to use a full-size bread pan, increase the proportions of each ingredient by at least half and increase the cooking time by 10-15 minutes).

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