Today, I’m going to share with you how to make yeast-raised apple fritters. With a cinnamon-scented yeast dough packed with a metric ton of sauteed, diced apples along with an intense apple glaze, these fritters taste just like fall.
You may also want to give my glazed donuts and jelly donuts a look, especially if you are a fan of fried dough.
For ease of browsing you can find all my sweet yeast dough recipes in one place. Now let’s get on with the apple fritters!
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Apple Fritters, At a Glance
✅Skill Level: Intermediate/Advance (for safety reasons)
✅Skills: Dicing and sauteeing apples, making yeast dough, shallow or deep frying, glazing
✅Type: Yeasted Fritter
✅Number of Ingredients: For the sauteed apples: 9, for the dough: 11, for the glaze: 7
✅Prep Time: 45 minutes
✅Cook Time: 4 minutes, per fritter
✅Yield: 8-16, depending on the size
Jump Straight to the Recipe
Types of Apple Fritters
Fruit fritters of any type can range from rings of apple dipped in batter and deep fried to chunks dipped and fried to be served as a side dish to a baking powder-raised dough with bits of fruit.
Personally, since I am not a huge fan of cakey fried items, I decided to go with yeast-raised apple fritters. Yeasted dough tends to fry up really light, and I knew with the metric ton of apples I was adding to the dough, that I’d need a light dough to keep the fritters from seeming too heavy.
There are 3 components to my fritters:
- Lightly spiced and sauteed diced apples
- Lightly spiced, slack (loose) yeast dough, almost like a very thick batter
- Intense apple cider glaze
When taken together, my apple fritters look like the huge, shiny ones you can get at some donut bakeries.
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How to Make Spiced Apple Fritters
If you are ready to make some dough and fry, you can head straight to the recipe if you’d like.
Otherwise, here are the ingredients and a discussion of the procedere. I’ll give ingredient substitutions when appropriate.
Note that many of these ingredients make an appearance in more than one component of the recipe.
- apples: You’ll use 3 apples for maximum apple flavor. You can cut it down to 2 apples if you want more dough than apple. With 3 apples, you’ll probably have about 1:1 dough to apples. Fritters might keep longer than a day if you use fewer apples. The tradeoff is less apple flavor.
- butter: Used in all 3 components of the fritters. Butter carries flavor and tenderizes
- sugar: Most of the sweetness in fritters comes from the fruit and glaze, but I use a little sugar in the apples for light caramelization and in the dough for tenderness
- cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger: I used all three in the apples and only cinnamon and nutmeg in the dough and glaze. You can absolutely substitute your favorite spices or spice blends. Apple pie spice would obviously be a good choice, as would pumpkin spice
- salt: Salt brings all the flavors into focus and also inhibits yeast formation so your dough doesn’t rise too quickly and become “flabby.” Salt is in all 3 components
- apple cider vinegar: Just a splash to help cook the apples. You can substitute lemon juice if you prefer
- apple cider: Apple cider makes an appearance in all 3 components, too. For the glaze, the cider is reduced into a thin syrup for a very intense apple flavor without diluting the glaze too much
- yeast: You can use instant yeast or active dry yeast. If using active dry and you are not sure if it’s still viable, proof in the milk until foamy before adding the rest of the dough ingredients
- whole milk: Provides most of the liquid in the dough, lending some milk solids and milk sugars for browning and a gentle, milky sweetness
- egg yolks: Two yolks enrich the dough, help carry flavor, and give us some emulsifiers to keep the dough smooth and supple (thanks, lecithin!)
- all-purpose flour: provides structure to the dough and gives us gluten so the dough can rise nicely. You can substitute bread flour if you add an extra tablespoon of milk. Your fritters will be a bit more chewy
- vanilla extract: Adds some mellow, creamy, woody notes to the dough. You can add a little to the glaze as well, although I did not
- powdered sugar: Allows the glaze to set up and provides sweetness and texture
- boiling water: Thins the glaze to a nice, dipping consistency. Using apple cider reduction ensures that, even after adding 2-2.5 oz of water, the glaze will have wonderful apple flavor
- oil for frying: You can “shallow fry” in about 1 1/2″ oil in a 12″ skillet or deep fry in about 2-3″ oil in a large Dutch oven. For safety, do not fill any pan you’re going to fry in more than halfway. The moisture in the apples will cause a lot of splattering and bubbling
How To Make the Fritters
As I mentioned earlier, there are three components to the apple fritters. Here’s a little walkthrough of each one.
Making the Apples
- Wash, peel, and dice the apples into roughly 1/2″ dice
- Melt butter, spices, and salt in a large skillet
- Add apples and cook for a couple of minutes to release juices
- Add in a little apple cider and apple cider vinegar, and cook until the pan is dry and the apples are somewhat softened, about 5 minutes
- Set aside to cool.
Making the Dough
The dough is very easy to make. It is a straight dough, which means you can put all the ingredients in the mixer bowl at the same time.
Do make sure the butter is melted but not hot, and warm up the milk for just a few seconds in the microwave so it’s warm but not hot to the touch.
Otherwise, the dough takes about 1 minute to come together using the dough hook, and then you’ll need to knead it for about 5 minutes until it is smooth and shiny.
The dough will be very loose and will look much more like a very thick batter than a dough. That’s what we want. It will be much easier to incorporate the apples into a looser dough.
Resist the urge to add flour to the dough. Just spray your hands with pan spray or use some vegetable oil on them to keep the dough from sticking while you’re shaping it.
Here’s a collage showing the straight dough method. NOTE that in between images 1&2 and 3&4, the dough gets a 2-hour rise in a warm place.
Add the cooled apples to the dough in three additions like this:
- With oiled hands, punch the gases out of the dough right in the bowl.
- Press the dough up the sides of the bowl, add 1/3 of the apples, and then…
- …fold the edges of the dough over the apples. Press down to flatten, then repeat steps 2 and 3 twice more.
As you can see, the resulting dough is positively chock-full of sauteed apples.
This is not an exact science–just do the best you can.
Portioning and Frying
I scaled my dough into 8 large fritters. You can make any number you want, but I wouldn’t make fewer than 8 or they will just be too large.
For larger fritters, I shaped them into ovals and let them rest on pieces of parchment for about 30-45 minutes before frying them at 365-370F.
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For smaller ones, you can either shape them by hand or just use an ice cream scoop to scoop portions of batter directly into your hot oil.
Either way, fry for about 2 minutes on the first side and 1 1/2 minutes on the second. Let each side fry until they are a deep golden-amber color–you want to make sure the dough cooks all the way through before removing them from the oil.
Apple Cider Reduction for the Glaze
You can make the reduction in advance by up to 4 days.
Weigh out 12 oz (340 grams or 1 1/2 cups) of apple cider, then boil it on the stove until it reduces down to 3 ounces of thin syrup. This will take about 15 minutes.
Check periodically by pouring it into a measuring cup or bowl on your scale. Stop cooking once you have 3 oz (85 grams or a bit more than 1/3 cup). Let it cool, and refrigerate if making it ahead.
Making the Glaze
Start by melting the butter, then adding spices and salt. Whisk in the powdered sugar as well as you can, then pour in the apple cider reduction.
Whisk well until you have a stiff frosting. Then add boiling water a little at a time until you have a nice, loose glaze.
Dip each fritter in the glaze, turning to coat, and then let the majority of the glaze drip back into the bowl, leaving each fritter with a nice, thin, almost transparent layer of glaze.
Once you’ve glazed your fritters, let them cool completely on a cooling rack set over a half-sheet pan to catch any drips of glaze.
This is what you’ll end up. They are worth the work and then some!
Videos
You can get a good overview of making the fritters, start to finish, from the video in the recipe card.
I made other videos for scaling and shaping the fritters and frying and glazing in the Facebook group.
Yeast-Raised Apple Fritters Q & A
They do not keep well at all. They are best the day they are made. After a day, they tend to get soggy as additional moisture weeps out of the apples. If you do have leftovers the next day, reheat them, uncovered, in your oven or toaster oven until warm.
Yes. You can make a simple powdered sugar/milk/cinnamon glaze, or add a pinch of salt and some cinnamon to a zip-top bag of powdered sugar. Toss the warm fritters in the powdered sugar and let them cool on a rack.
More Apple Recipes on PCO
For a simple apple preparation, try my Granny Smith applesauce. Just four ingredients, not including any spices you may want to add, this is a thick and intensely apple-y applesauce and has much more body that the kind available at the grocery store.
You may also love my spiced apple cake, which is loaded with both fresh and dried apples as well as pecans and warm spices.
To feed a crowd, you can’t go wrong with my apple custard pie which is made as a slab pie to be cut into squares.
And for another hand-held apple treat, spiced apple turnovers contain a thickened apple compote baked into homemade or store-bought puff pastry.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.
Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.
If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.
A Note About Measurements
My recipes are almost all written by weight, including liquids, unless otherwise specified.
For accuracy and consistency of results, I encourage you to buy–and use–a kitchen scale.
I promise that baking and cleanup will be so much quicker and easier.
This is the scale that I recommend for home use. I have owned and used one for years.
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
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Yeast Raised Apple Fritter Recipe
Video
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Ingredients
For the Apples
- 3 apples Washed, peeled and chopped into about 1/2" dice. (I used 1 Granny Smith and 2 Honey Crisp)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter
- pinch salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon (or use apple pie spice in place of cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger)
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (several gratings)
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 Tablespoons apple cider
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar , sub lemon juice if you prefer
For the Dough
- 1 ¼ teaspoons yeast
- 2.67 oz whole milk 76 grams or 1/3 cup
- 1 oz apple cider 28 grams or 2 Tablespoons
- 7.5 oz all purpose flour 213 grams or 1 3/4 cups, sifted, spooned, and leveled
- 2 egg yolks
- 1.5 oz sugar 43 grams or 3 Tablespoons
- 1 oz butter 28 grams or 2 Tablespoons
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt if using fine salt, use 1/4 teaspoon
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (several gratings)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Apple Cider Glaze
- 12 oz apple cider 340 grams or 1 1/2 cups
- 1.5 oz butter
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (several gratings)
- heavy pinch salt
- 12 oz confectioners sugar 340 grams or 3 cups
- boiling water as needed
For Deep Frying
- vegetable oil enough to fill a large skillet by about 1", or fill a Dutch oven by 2 1/2-3" for true deep frying
Instructions
For the Apples
- In a large saute pan, heat butter, sugar, spices and salt until butter melts.
- Add the apples and cook for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the apple cider and apple cider vinegar, and cook until pan is dry and apples are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and spread on a tray to cool to room temperature.
For the Dough
- This dough uses the straight dough method, so just put all the ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook and turn it on medium-low speed.
- Once the dough has come together, turn the speed up just a bit and let the mixer knead the dough for about 5 minutes. The dough will be extremely soft–sort of on the edge of being a batter.
- Spray the top of the dough very well with pan spray and then cover and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours. It does not need to double, and it might not because of all the yolks and butter.
- Once the dough has risen, spray your hands well with pan spray (or rub them with oil) and press the gases out of the dough.
- Press the dough up the sides of the mixing bowl a bit and then put about 1/3 of the apple mixture in the center.
- Fold all the sides in and press down again. Pan spray as necessary to keep things from sticking.
- Press the dough down again and up the sides of the bowl, and add another third of the apples.
- Fold in and then add the last third of the apple in the same way. Press down and fold over a couple of more times.
- There will be a lot of apples, so if some poke out, don’t worry. Just keep going.
- Once the apples are incorporated, portion into 8 or 16 fritters (see next step).
- Cut a piece of parchment into 16 squares for small fritters or into 8 pieces for large ones. Place them on a half-sheet tray. Divide dough into equal portions and with oiled hands, shape each into an oval shape and put on a square of parchment. Let rise in a warm place for about 30-45 minutes.
- Alternative: After incorporating the apples into the dough, allow it to rise in bulk for 30-45 minutes. To fry, use a disher, ice cream scoop or cookie scoop to scoop up portions of dough to fry. You will probably end up with about 20-24 fritters depending on the size of your scoop.
For the Apple Cider Glaze
- In a small pan, reduce the 12 oz apple cider to 3 oz. Check by periodically pouring the cider into a measuring cup on your scale. If you're working with volume and not using a scale, you want a little over 1/3 cup of cider. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, melt butter in the microwave.
- Add salt and spices, and then dump in the powdered sugar all at once. Whisk together as well as you can. There will still be a lot of loose powdered sugar. Worry not.
- Whisk in the reduced apple cider. You will end up with a spread the consistency of stiff frosting.
- Whisk in boiling water, a bit at a time, until you have a loose, thin glaze. (See video) For an alternative to glaze, see Notes, below.
To Shape, Fry, and Finish
- Have a cooling rack set over several layers of paper towels ready.
- Heat the oil to 365-370F.
- When the oil has reached temperature, carefully lower each fritter on its parchment square into the oil. Use tongs to pull the parchment out from under each one.
- Fry for about 2 minutes on the first side and about 90 seconds on the second until fritters are deep amber in color.
- As the fritters are done, scoop them out of the oil with a skimmer or spider, let some oil drain off, and then remove to the paper-covered pan to cool.
- Once the fritters have cooled to warm, immerse each one in the loose glaze to coat the entire thing. Remove from glaze with a fork or spatula and allow most of the glaze to drip back into the bowl so you have a very thin coating of glaze on the fritters. Let them to cool to room temperature to allow the glaze to set up. Eat right away, or at least on the same day you make them.
- They are lovely with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, too.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
Make-Ahead:
You can make the apple cider reduction for the glaze up to four days in advance. Just keep it in a container in the fridge until you need it. Before OR after you add the apples to the dough, you can cover it well and refrigerate it overnight. Then allow the dough to temper on the counter for about 30 minutes before proceeding with the recipe.Alternative to Apple Cider Glaze
If you don’t want to glaze your fritters, place 2-3 cups of powdered sugar in a large zip-top bag along with a pinch of salt and a little cinnamon and nutmeg. Shake warm fritters to completely coat in powdered sugar, then set aside on a rack to cool completely.Storing
Fritters, with the crazy amount of apples in them, are best eaten the day you make them. Invite your friends or make a half-recipe, but not to have leftovers. If you do need to save some over, wrap them tightly and keep them at room temperature for a night. Reheat in the oven or toaster oven. Do not reheat in the microwave or they will just get soggy.Nutrition Information
Nutrionals are calculated for 8 large fritters.Nutrition
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And there you have it: warmly-spiced and positively packed with apples yeast-raised apple fritters for you to enjoy this fall.
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Ha! I also just this week decided I couldn’t stomach another donut shop fitter and wanted one like Mom used to make, back in the day before microwaves and toaster ovens. Hers were yeasty, puffy and gnarly. We could see the dough stretch as we pulled off a piece. After poking around a bit I came upon your blog. Yours look just like Mom’s, except she filled hers with raisins. I think I’ll make some both ways, because tender spicy apples, right?
Thanks for the recipe!
Tender Spicy indeed, Duffy! These were wonderful, and I hope these bring back great memories of your mom’s fritters. So glad you stopped in!
Love these, I lost my recipe and this is the closest one I could find. I dip mine in glaze, can’t wait to try the powder topping!
I’m so glad, Kristi! And I imagine that dipping them in a glaze of apple cider and powdered sugar would be an excellent plan! Enjoy!
I have made apple fritters for Hanukkah – the kind with apple slices but I’m thinking I like yours much better! I like that you can have them bigger or smaller, all with even amounts of apple. And the batter can’t slip off the apple! Perfect for Mardi Gras!
I really loved these guys a lot, Jamie! It didn’t even occur to me that they’d make great Mardi Gras snacks, but I guess they are sort of beignet-ish! =)
Loves me some fritters – especially the apple variety! So good to know you’ve got a recipe in your repertoire Jenni. Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad Modern Mrs. Cleaver happened to want some on that particular day or I would never have made them. And I’d have been missing out!
I’ve noticed more doughnut shops are moving away from the type of apple fritter that seems pulled like a cinnamon roll to the type that seems bubbly like cake. What do you call these two types of consistency? Is that what dough vs. batter is?
That’s a really good question, and I’d have to say the short answer is yes–a batter would give you a more bubbly type of finished product. It could also potentially be because of how long people let them rise–the longer the rise, the more the bubbles.
This is what I’d always pick on those midnight runs to the donut shop in college….I’m certain they weren’t high quality but they hit the spot. I’m thinking yours are 100x better!
I don’t have the ones you used to eat to compare them too, but if they had tasted as good as these, you wouldn’t be That Skinny Chick. 😉 LOL Very yummy, Liz!
You had me at fried dough. Even though I don’t usually eat sweet things, I have a weakness for all things fried. Hey, I didn’t get my well-rounded physique eating lettuce. And fritters and doughnuts hot out of the oil are bosom buddies with bliss.
Ha! Looking at me, you’d never know I’d ever eaten lettuce. Ever! lol These things are seriously good, and you can adjust the amount of sweet by leaving the powdered sugar off–there’s very little sugar in the actual Puffy Dough Balls. 🙂
Thanks for sending MMC the recipe! I will have to try this recipe. 🙂
And thanks to MMC for even suggesting it! If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have made them at all. I hope you enjoy them, @facebook-799454007:disqus !
I had no idea there were other versions of fritters. These look lovely! Nice use of the baking spice, too!
You know I can’t get enough of that baking spice, Elle! lol
Oh, these look fantabulous! But we JUST got the deep fryer off the counter after two months of it taking up space… dilemma.
Uh oh, Camille! I’d hate to be you… 😉 I def come down on the side of getting that bad boy back out again! 🙂
We had some apple fritters at a fair where they were cut into rounds and batter dipped and dusted in powder sugar like yours. Gosh So awesome!
They are perfect fair food, now that you mention it! Will have to keep my eyes peeled at the next state fair!