Apple Cider Doughnuts!

One of my former co-workers just lost her beloved 17-year-old tomcat, Danny Boy. She and I always shared stories about our Superpets, and so this was exceptionally sad news to hear this week. He was a gem in her life, and I figured, she deserved one of fall's little gems to help her through this: apple cider doughnuts!

I obtained the recipe from Coconut & Lime, an excellent baking blog that offers step-by-step photo tutorials for its recipes. You may find the dough sticky, so feel free to add up to 1 cup extra flour during the mixing process. If you're a "lightly-spoon-flour-into-measuring-cups" type like me, a technique I first learned from Cooking Light, you'll definitely find that 3 1/4 cups flour is not enough. But the dough was easy to work with, roll out, cut, and fry, and both it and the frosting have just the right hint of apple cider. I'd maybe go one step further next time and throw in a little apple pie spice, but I think these doughnuts met their challenge, as I received a nice note from my co-worker this morning saying they were just the thing!

Here's to Danny Boy, his amazing cat-mom, and a fall favorite, all rolled up into one rainy Chicago morning!