Baked Apple Cinnamon Doughnuts

Directions

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   1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 doughnut pans with shortening, or spray with baking spray.
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   2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg until combined. Set aside.
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   3. In a small bowl, whisk together the unsweetened applesauce, 2% milk, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla extract, and canola oil until well blended. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry and gently mix to combine.
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   4. Transfer the batter into a gallon sized zippered storage bag. Squeeze the batter to the bottom of the bag, and cut 1/4-inch off of one of the bottom corners of the bag. Gently squeeze the batter to fill the doughnut pan cavities 2/3 of the way full. Be careful not to overfill or the doughnuts will puff up over the top of the molds while baking, and become muffins.
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   5. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the doughnuts are set. Doughnuts will be very light in color.
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   6. When done, remove them from the oven and allow the doughnuts to cool in the pans for 3 minutes before removing them from the pans and cooling on a wire rack.
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   7. Once doughnuts have completely cooled, melt the butter in a small bowl. In another small bowl, stir together granulated sugar and ground cinnamon until well combined.
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   8. Dip a cooled doughnut in butter, quickly flipping it to coat both sides. Lift doughnut out of butter and shake off excess butter. Take the butter dipped doughnut and dip it in the cinnamon sugar, flipping the doughnut over to coat completely. Shake off any loose cinnamon sugar, and set the coated doughnut on a serving platter. Repeat with the remaining doughnuts. Serve immediately.