Long Grove Apple Haus

Long Grove is home to the Midwest’s largest apple festival, and while these fried apple cider doughnuts are a fest favorite, you can sample them year-round. They are made in the front window, so you can watch. $1.50

Eméché Cakery & Café

This shop in Douglas might be best known for its alcohol-infused sweets, but the bakers make a mean apple cider doughnut, too. It’s freshly baked and loaded with cinnamon sugar and nutmeg. $2.75

Dip and Sip Donuts

The perfectly spiced version at this family-owned shop in Roscoe Village is available mid-September to mid-November. You can deck it out with an array of glazes, drizzles, and toppings. Our recommendation: the maple glaze. $3.25

Tom’s Farm Market

This family-owned operation in Huntley started out supplying bedding plants in 1959 and morphed into a full-fledged farm and market. It sells a supremely tender apple cider doughnut that’s also available at its roadside stand in Bartlett. $1.50

Keller’s Farmstand

At its three suburban locations (Naperville, Oswego, and Plainfield), plants are sold in the spring, homegrown sweet corn and veggies in the summer, and apple everything in the fall — notably, a caramel apple doughnut. But it’s the sugar-crusted cider one that has our number this season. $7.99/six-pack