Providence, RIApple Cider Donuts

A Cranston orchard on Pippin Orchard Road that Rhode Island Monthly says was the first in the state to make cider doughnuts, still fried in house on a Donut Robot machine customers can watch work. The magazine writes that they stand alone just fine without the extra sugar, so ask for them plain if you want the cider to come through. The stand runs daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closes for the year in November, with pick your own apples on weekends from mid September. Order a half dozen plain.

A Smithfield farm on Swan Road with more than 120 seasons behind it, whose store keeps the fryer going long past apple season. Rhode Island Monthly has fresh doughnuts on the counter until late December, and an apple cider doughnut ice cream sandwich built from them. The farm opens 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Sunday and closes Tuesdays. Order a bag of cider doughnuts warm, then the ice cream sandwich if the weather still allows it.

An orchard on Smith Avenue in Greenville whose doughnut carries a name of its own, Mary Lou's Old Fashion Apple Cider doughnut. Rhode Island Monthly says it is fried in house with the orchard's own fresh pressed cider and coated heavily in cinnamon and sugar, on a counter that also carries apple pies, turnovers, dumplings and apple wine. The stand runs 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, opens at 8 a.m. on weekends and closes at 5 p.m. Sundays. Order Mary Lou's by the half dozen.

A cider maker that moved to its own farm on Hopkins Hill Road in West Greenwich, where it presses every week in a food trailer and fries the doughnuts on site. Rhode Island Monthly describes them served warm and toasty under what it calls a healthy coating of cinnamon and sugar. The season runs 4 September to 22 November, Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Order the doughnuts hot with a cup of the sweet cider, and go early because the half gallons sell out.