Cider doughnuts are sold from a kiosk at the Taste of the Gardens GreenMarket in Palm Beach Gardens. (Brandon Kruse/The Palm Beach Post)

Photos: Green Market Snapshots

In a city of swaying palm fronds and sea-scented air, a morning’s walk through the old West Palm Beach GreenMarket somehow transported chef John Carlino to the apple orchards of his youth.

Incongruous as it was in a land of citrus and ever-verdant leaves, he thought about fall in Connecticut, red leaves and raw cider, bushels of fragrant apples and, most vividly: freshly made cider doughnuts.

Oh, those warm, cinnamon-dusted cider doughnuts would go great with coffee on cool market mornings.

This was no fleeting thought for the enterprising chef and culinary instructor. Luckily for the denizens of Saturday market-goers, it was a plan.

He researched and perfected the recipe, reached out for help in setting up and equipping a small market stand and got to work making doughnuts. That was eight years ago, before the West Palm Beach market spilled out of its parking lot location and onto the street.

John Carlino, co-owner of Cider Doughnuts, Alan Doherty, co-owner of Cider Doughnuts. (Brandon Kruse/The Palm Beach Post)

The stand was so successful, Carlino and his business partner, chef Allan Doherty, opened a Sunday stand at the Taste of the Gardens GreenMarket in Palm Beach Gardens.

Now, as green market season opens across the county, Carlino and Doherty take their place amid the farmers and artisans, bakers and fry chefs and flower vendors, all bringing forth what is fresh, ripe and delectably fleeting.

“The green market is the community. It’s a one-day opportunity to bring all these people together,” says Carlino, 47. “I know Palm Beach County has some great local farmers. At the green market, they’re not just selling their products, but they’re talking about them, educating the community.”

He says he often sees other chefs shopping at the weekend markets.

“When I see them shopping at the market, headed to their jobs or buying for their home use, I know that’s the true gauge that the market really keeps high quality local products,” he says.

For Carlino and Doherty, high quality means freshness — and that means making his doughnuts from scratch, start to finish, on site at the market.

“We don’t show up there with everything done. Everything is made to order. We prepare 10 to 15-pound batches at a time, and we’re doing that constantly throughout the course of the day,” says Doherty, 51, a Boston native who met Carlino at the Florida Culinary Institute (now the Lincoln Culinary Institute), where they both worked as instructors.

Together they founded ChefCorp, which conducts training programs for food industry certifications, and ChefStart, a cooking school for children ages 8 to 14. They also prepare healthy school lunches for local private schools. The cider doughnuts enterprise is just a sliver of their business.

But it’s a delicious sliver. The recipe is rooted in one Carlino’s mother used to make.

“There’s really no big secret. It uses real traditional apple cider in the liquid base to give it that apple flavor. So, it’s a cake doughnut recipe with some apple cider in it,” says Carlino.

The dough is run through a doughnut dispenser and fried at 375 degrees in vegetable shortening.

“It takes under 60 seconds to cook them. They’re tossed in a little cinnamon sugar and served immediately, nice and airy,” says Carlino, who sells the doughnuts in paper cones of two sizes, 10 doughnuts for $5 and a 15-piece “baker’s dozen” for $7.

At the Gardens market, which is smaller and less hectic than West Palm GreenMarket, Carlino and Doherty sometimes offer a caramel dipping sauce for the doughnuts. But, they say, the apple-cinnamon confections are just as good dipped in warm cider, tea or coffee.
With the steam that rises from the doughnut cones, memories rise. And questions, too.

“The most common question is, ‘Where is your store?’” says Carlino. “We say, ‘You’re standing in it.’”

APPLE CIDER DOUGHNUTS

The following recipe originally appeared in The Washington Post.

It is adapted from a recipe by Hearth restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village. Hearth serves these spiced, buttermilk-laced doughnuts with apple compote and whipped cream.

(Makes 18 doughnuts and doughnut holes)

FOR THE DOUGHNUTS:
1 cup apple cider
3 1/2 cups flour, plus additional for the work surface
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (low-fat or nonfat work fine)
Vegetable oil for frying

FOR THE GLAZE:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider

Make the doughnuts:

In a saucepan over medium or medium-low heat, gently reduce the apple cider to about 1/4 cup, 20 to 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer on medium speed (with the paddle attachment, if using a standing mixer) beat the butter and granulated sugar until the mixture is smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat until the eggs are completely incorporated. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the reduced apple cider and the buttermilk, mixing just until combined. Add the flour mixture and continue to mix just until the dough comes together.

Line two baking sheets with parchment or wax paper and sprinkle them generously with flour. Turn the dough onto one of the sheets and sprinkle the top with flour. Flatten the dough with your hands until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Use more flour if the dough is still wet. Transfer the dough to the freezer until it is slightly hardened, about 20 minutes. Pull the dough out of the freezer. Using a 3-inch doughnut cutter, cut out doughnut shapes. Place the cut doughnuts and doughnut holes onto the second sheet pan.

Refrigerate the doughnuts for 20 to 30 minutes. (You may re-roll the scraps of dough, refrigerate them briefly and cut additional doughnuts from the dough.)

Add enough oil to a deep-sided pan to measure a depth of about 3 inches. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and heat over medium heat until the oil reaches 350 degrees. Have ready a plate lined with several thicknesses of paper towels.

Make the glaze:

While the cut doughnut shapes are in the refrigerator, make the glaze by whisking together the confectioners’ sugar and the cider until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.

Fry and assemble:

Carefully add a few doughnuts to the oil, being careful not to crowd the pan, and fry until golden brown, about 60 seconds. Turn the doughnuts over and fry until the other side is golden, 30 to 60 seconds. Drain on paper towels after the doughnuts are fried. Dip the top of the warm doughnuts into the glaze and serve immediately.

CARAMEL DIPPING SAUCE

Chef John Carlino often serves this dipping sauce with his green market cider doughnuts.

1 raw apple, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup caramel (use a good caramel topping or prepared dulce de leche)
1 cup good-quality apple cider
Dash of cinnamon
Dash of vanilla

In a saucepan over low heat, add the chopped apple to the caramel. Whisk in the apple cider, vanilla and cinnamon. Serve as a dipping sauce with cider doughnuts.