Welcome to the Bon Appétit Bake Club, a vibrant and growing community of curious bakers designed to bring culinary enthusiasts together over seasonal favorites and technical baking insights. Each month, senior Test Kitchen editors Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic curate a must-make recipe, diving deep into the culinary mechanics of why it works so home cooks can learn right alongside the professionals. Members are encouraged to bake, ask questions, share photographs, listen to the accompanying podcast, and connect with fellow enthusiasts through the Bake Club Group chat hosted on Substack.
As the autumn season settles in, minds naturally turn to one of fall’s most cherished traditions: apple picking. For millions of people, the ritual of spending a crisp afternoon navigating rows of fruit-laden trees is intrinsically linked to the reward that waits at the end of the day. There is an unmistakable magic in standing in line at the orchard market for a paper bag filled with piping hot, cinnamon-sugar-dusted cider doughnuts. That specific sensory experience—the faint hint of frying oil, the heavy jolt of aromatic spices, and the sweet, dense crumb—serves as the cultural touchstone for the latest recipe release from the Bake Club editors.
Szewczyk and Uskokovic have designed their newest creation to capture that exact nostalgic roadside-stand experience directly in home kitchens, entirely eliminating the need for a weekend trip to a crowded orchard or the long, tedious hours typically required to wait for a yeast-based dough to rise. Traditional raised doughnuts demand patience, warm environments, and precise fermentation timelines, which can often deter bakers who are looking for a satisfying weekend treat without a half-day commitment. To bypass this barrier, the Test Kitchen editors turned to alternative leavening methods borrowed from Central and Eastern European pastry traditions.
By combining ricotta cheese and baking powder within the dough, the recipe achieves a remarkable level of internal tenderness and an impressive structural lift without a single gram of commercial yeast. Ricotta introduces a rich moisture and delicate crumb that elevates the pastry far above a standard quick-bread batter, yielding a texture that feels decadent and thoughtfully crafted. The editors intentionally borrowed the best structural attributes from two distinct styles of fried sweets: the crumbly, fluffy interior characteristic of a classic cake doughnut, and the generous, juicy chunks of fruit found in a traditional state-fair fritter. The resulting pastry tastes remarkably like a freshly fried apple pie, delivering all the complex flavors of autumn fruit encased in a compact, satisfyingly chubby little sweet that can be mixed, fried, and consumed in a fraction of the time it takes to drive out to the countryside and wait in an orchard line.
A central secret to achieving this rich, complex flavor profile lies in the preliminary treatment of the fruit itself. Rather than folding raw apples directly into the batter—which can release excess moisture and leave pockets of undercooked fruit—the recipe calls for cooking the apples beforehand in a generous amount of butter and sugar. This preliminary cooking step serves a powerful twofold effect in the pan. First, it ensures that the fruit becomes luxuriously tender, melting seamlessly into the surrounding crumb rather than offering an unpleasantly crisp contrast. Second, the sugar undergoes a natural caramelization process as the moisture reduces, introducing a deep, full-bodied, authentic apple-pie-like flavor that permeates every single bite of the finished pastry.
This meticulous approach to ingredient preparation reflects the overarching philosophy of the Bon Appétit Bake Club, where home bakers are invited to understand not just the steps of a recipe, but the scientific and culinary reasons behind them. By breaking down how butter, sugar, dairy, and leavening agents interact to create the ultimate seasonal treat, Szewczyk and Uskokovic empower their community to approach baking with both confidence and curiosity.
For home cooks eager to lean even further into the flavors of the autumn harvest, the editors have curated a selection of complementary apple recipes from the publication’s archives. Those looking for casual, comforting bakes can explore the Caramel Apple Snacking Cake, while bakers interested in European-inspired textures might appreciate the Buttery German Apple Cake or the rustic elegance of the Apple-Walnut Upside-Down Cake. Each of these recipes offers a different perspective on cooking with autumn apples, providing endless inspiration for the kitchen as the weather continues to cool and the baking season kicks into high gear.
