Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

If you’ve ever gone apple picking, you’ve probably housed a couple of cider doughnuts—they’re a fixture of apple orchards because they’re a great way to use up apple cider. What’s funny about all that is cider doughnuts don’t really taste like apple cider! They are instead more of a celebration of autumnal warm spices—a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/cake-doughnuts">cake doughnut</a> with cinnamon incorporated into the dough, fried and coated with cinnamon sugar. We add almond extract (for nutty, brown-butter notes) and brown sugar to the dough for hints of caramel, as well as a little malic acid to the coating to mimic the tang of a fresh, tart apple.

Apple Cider Doughnuts