It's apple cider doughnut season! We've assembled a road map to three local apple orchards that provide their unique spin on apple cider donuts. Pastry fans can get this seasonal treat in plain, sugared or float form in and around the Twin Cities metro. If you are looking for apple orchards within a half hour from the Brooklyns, we've pulled together this blog for your convenience.

Somewhere around the time that first vibrant yellow leaf falls underfoot, the apple cravings begin. This is Minnesota, home to the Honeycrisp. It’s our duty to make the most of the season and one of the best tastes of fall — other than plucking juicy fruit off the tree — is an apple cider doughnut. Freshly fried, tossed in cinnamon sugar, it’s the sweet flavor of sweater weather.

Here’s where we’re going to order and enjoy them right now.

Pine Tree Apple Orchard

It feels like cheating to stop into the store first thing when you arrive at Pine Tree Apple Orchard, but the scent of cinnamon and sugar radiating from the red barn demands it. Inside, there’s a wonderland of baked goods packed up and ready to go; grab some of their famed apple cider doughnuts ($4.39 for a half-dozen, $7.79 for a dozen, plain or sugared) and head over to a picnic table in the gorgeous field to enjoy them. It’s all the sustenance needed to play on the antique tractor, watch for a train to go by and hike up the hill to select the perfect pumpkin from the patch.

450 Apple Orchard Road, White Bear Lake, 651-429-7202, pinetreeappleorchard.com

The apple cider float at Ferguson's Minnesota Harvest is among the new menu items. 

Ferguson’s Minnesota Harvest

How could an apple cider doughnut get any better? When it’s used to garnish this beast of an apple cider float, one of several new menu items at this sprawling orchard outside of Jordan. The float ($12) is a delightful mix of soft serve, Ferguson’s cider (regular or hard), whipped cream and caramel with a fluffy, apple-cinnamon-sugar doughnut halo. Stir it all up and dip the doughnut for a peak fall-flavor experience. Be sure to grab a half-dozen ($6) doughnuts to go to re-energize after your jam-packed day at the family-owned orchard: pedal tracks, corn pit, farm animals, playgrounds and, of course, apple picking.

8251 Old Hwy. 169 Blvd., Jordan, 952-492-2785 fergusonsorchard.com

Aamodt's Apple Farm apple cider doughnuts in Stillwater

Aamodt’s Apple Farm

This Stillwater orchard gives every reason to visit: an on-site vineyard, goats, hayrides, plenty of space for kids to play and the scent and promise of outdoors grilled brats. Our first stop is always into the barn for a half-dozen apple cider doughnuts ($9.90). Fluffy and coated with a pleasing cinnamon sugar crunch, the batter carries that autumnal tang of apple cider in dough. Heaven by the handful and hard to eat only one!

6428 Manning Av., Stillwater, 651-439-3127, aamodtsapplefarm.com