Apple fritters you say? YES! These are some seriously perfect mounds of dough – stuffed with apples, spice and something nice. These apple fritters are baked, made with spelt flour and sugar free so let’s call ’em healthy, per se.
With it still being fall and all, I figured another apple recipe was much needed. As much as I love pumpkin in the fall, apples are still a favourite all year round. However, the fall is the time for cider mills, and cider donuts. If you’ve never been to one then definitely make it an excursion for the whole family. If you’re ever in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area my favourite is the Dexter Cider Mill. Perfect for a Sunday morning brunch and fun day.
This donut recipe is a baked – not fried – fritter but just as good. They’re super delicious and this ones even sweeter by being sugar free using one of my favourite keto sugar substitutes for the apple pie filling and another powdered sweetener for the glaze. Feel free to just use brown sugar or coconut sugar instead. Note that the coconut sugar that is used to activate the yeast is actually eaten by the yeast so it won’t cause an insulin spike.
In this recipe, most of the sweetness comes from the apples and the glaze. The dough itself is not very sweetened. If you want a thinner glaze add an extra half cup of milk, or double the recipe to do a couple coats of glaze on the apple fritters. Highly recommended!
Go make up a batch of these for brunch. You won’t be sorry you did.
xo, Zarine
Easy Apple Fritters that are So Hot, Sweet and Delicious
Dough
- 1 cup warm milk
- 2¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 eggs (room temperature)
- ⅓ cup salted butter (room temperature)
- 2 teaspoons apple pie spice
- 4½ cups spelt flour
Apple filling
- 1 tbsp salted butter
- 2 medium crisp apples
- 2 teaspoons apple pie spice
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 3 teaspoons brown sugar (or coconut sugar or Lakanto Golden Monkfruit sweetener)
Glaze
- 3 tbsp melted butter
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup icing sugar or substitute
- 1 teaspoon apple pie spice
- 1 teaspoon maple extract (or vanilla)
Start with making the dough.
Warm one cup of milk so that it’s just warm enough where you can still dip your finger in it.
Pour the milk into a mixing bowl and add in the yeast and coconut sugar and let is sit for about 5 minutes. You will know the yeast mixture is ready once it rises and froths a bit.
Add in the room temperature butter, eggs, apple pie spice and give it a quick whisk.
Add in the flour and mix with a dough hook for about 10 minutes on a medium low speed. Or you can knead it by hand.
Once the dough it done, transfer it to a lightly greased bowl and let it rise until it doubles, about 45 minutes. Leave it in a warm draft free area.
While the dough is rising you can make the apple filling and glaze.
Add all the ingredients to a thick bottomed pan and stir until all of the flavours are combined and the apples are still crisp.
I like to keep the filling fairly dry and then laminate it into the dough
Let it cool completely before putting it in the dough.
For the glaze, add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk together.
Set aside.
Once the dough is doubled, knead it by hand for a minute and then start to roll it out to a rectangle shape around 16” by 12”.
Spread two tablespoons of butter across the dough and then add 3/4 of the apple mixture on one half of the rolled dough.
Fold over the dough ontop of the apples.
Spread another tablespoon of butter on top of the dough and then add the remaining apple mixture and fold over.
You can either try and roll out the dough a bit before cutting it, or cut the dough into 16 pieces.
Place the pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a baking mat.
Let rise for another 30 minutes. You can preheat the oven to 170C during this time.
Bake the apple fritters at 170C for 20 minutes.
While the apple fritters are fresh from the oven, cover and coat each one in the glaze.
I like to do a double coating on at least half of the fritters so once you’ve coated each of them once, go back and do them a second time.
Serve and eat warm.
If storing, keep in an airtight container refrigerated for 3-5 days and warm before eating again.
Since you’re almost laminating the apples into the dough remember to let it have that last rise so they’re nice and fluffy inside.
