Milwaukee, WIApple Cider Donuts

Milwaukee Magazine sends doughnut seekers to the trailer parked at this family owned New Berlin orchard, where the apple cider doughnuts come off the fryer as you order. The magazine prices a single at $1.50 and a half dozen at $7, and puts the trailer's hours at 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. That weekend window is the whole operation here, so time the trip around it. Order a half dozen straight from the fryer and eat the first one before it cools.

Milwaukee Magazine points visitors to the bakery food truck on the grounds of this Mequon fruit farm, open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with warm homemade apple cider doughnuts and other fall baking. The same magazine reported in 2024 that Barthel begins picking in early September, so the fryer starts about when the fruit does. Daily hours make this one of the few stops here that does not depend on a weekend. Order the cider doughnuts warm and carry apples out with them.

Peck & Bushel grows organic fruit in Colgate, and Milwaukee Magazine describes its apple cider doughnuts as fresh and topped with cinnamon sugar. The magazine also relays that USA Today placed the orchard eighth in the country. Doughnuts are sold Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the same magazine reported in 2024 that picking here begins in mid August, which makes for a long season. Order the cinnamon sugar doughnuts, then walk the rows for apples.

Honey Creek presses its own apple cider in Cedarburg and, as Milwaukee Magazine reports, makes the doughnuts fresh every day from that cider. They are sold at the orchard's concession stand with other fall treats, and the stand is open every day except Tuesday, which makes this a rare weekday option. The magazine frames it as the stop after a day of apple and pumpkin picking on the same property. Order a bag at the stand and a cup of the cider they were made from.

Awe's keeps a bakery on the orchard grounds in Franklin, and Milwaukee Magazine sends readers there for homemade apple cider doughnuts and the rest of the fresh pastry case. The orchard is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which covers six days a week through the apple season. Order the apple cider doughnuts at the bakery counter and look over the other pastries while you wait.