Vegan Baked Apple Cider Donuts with Cardamom Cinnamon-Sugar

Author Notes

If you live in New England, come fall, you go apple picking. I'm pretty sure it's a law in most states.Like if you don't go a guy in a tricornered hat shows up at your house on horseback and takes you forcefully at musket point. Either that or a hefty "apple-picking non-compliance" fine will be levied against you, probably hand delivered to your house by a guy wearing knickers and ringing a bell. So apple picking we go. Because, and I admit this grudgingly, its actually pretty fun. That is if you can get past the hordes of screaming children, ridiculous shtick-y corn mazes, and annoyingly packed hayrides full of suckers (hayrides are indeed for suckers, unless they're free. that's all I'll say on that subject). Standing in a sun-soaked apple orchard, wearing a seasonally appropriate (!) sweater and picking fruit right from the tree is pretty much the best thing about fall. Throw donuts into the mix and the enjoyment level rockets off the charts. Sadly, for the more plant-based among us farmstand apple cider donuts are not an option. This has been an annual, almost soul-crushing disappointment for me. So this year, instead of giving the side-eye to every overjoyed person around me eagerly shoving apple cider donuts into their facehole, I took action. Apples were picked, donuts were baked,
and the "autumn in New England" circle was completed.

—Slow Club Cookery