by Carrie Sellman
Jump to Recipe·★★★★★4.6 from 15 reviews
I absolutely love this time of year! The crisp chill in the air and leaves turning every shade of golden. Apples and pumpkins are at their prime and ready for picking. Now that we live in Florida…. most days are sunny, bright and about 85 degrees. Warm skies and palm trees do not make for a typical fall. Don’t get me wrong. I am not complaining about beautiful weather. After spending several years in Illinois, I certainly do not miss the zero degree, grey-skied winters. But I do miss sweaters and tall boots… the smell of leaves burning in the distance and the feeling of Autumn.
Last fall, we took advantage of our northern locale and hit the local orchard for some apple picking fun. We came home with a bushel of fresh-from-the-tree apples and a box of freshly fried apple donuts. Oh my goodness! I’m not sure what was gone first. Okay, truth be told…. we enjoyed apples for weeks but the donuts were gone fast! This year, we can’t just gaunt over to the nearest apple orchard. So I was thrilled to see the large displays of Honeycrisp Apples at the market. Into my basket went many large, gorgeous apples with the intent of recreating those delicious apple donuts at home. So that’s what I have for you today! Baked and delicious. Soft and tender on the inside with a serious cinnamon crunch on the outside. Filled with cups of grated apple, cinnamon and nutmeg. My recipe for Fresh Apple Donuts!
After several variations of less apple, more apple, apple juice, applesauce, apple chunks… frying verses baking… I finally narrowed it down to this. A batter packed full of grated apple goodness with a serious cinnamon kick. I see it this way. If you’re going to the effort of making donuts at home, they should be noticeably different than something you can easily pick up at Dunkin.
My original plan for these donuts included a salted caramel glaze. Which I still think would be absolutely incredible. But somewhere along the way, I decided less was more. I wanted this to be a recipe that you could easily make for breakfast. Without waking up at 5am to get started. So the end result is a recipe simple enough for your kids to help. My two year old daughter assisted me from beginning to {almost} end. Once the first batch came out of the oven, she was more interested in sampling than baking up the remaining batches. But hey, can you blame her?
Funny thing about these apple donuts. I’m not about to call them healthy because the words donut and healthy just aren’t meant to be together. But, they are filled with a cup and a half of fresh apple (fiber and all) and unsweetened, natural apple sauce. And they’re baked not fried. So I guess if you stretch it… you might be able to say these are a little better than something you pick up at the store. Can I call them healthy? Probably not. Can I call them delicious? Absolutely!!
Baked Apple Donuts
Homemade apple donuts, packed with fresh apple and apple sauce. Coated with a crunchy cinnamon sugar. Baked and perfectly delicious!
- Author: Carrie Sellman
- Yield: 22 - 24 donuts
- Category: ✽ ✽
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce, from jar
- 1 ½ cup fresh apple, peeled and grated
For the Coating:
- unsweetened applesauce OR melted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- dash of ground nutmeg, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- In another large bowl, stir together melted butter, eggs, sugar, buttermilk and applesauce. Stir in fresh apple.
- Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Stir with wooden spoon. Add another 1/3 of flour mixture and stir. Add remaining flour and stir just until combined.
- Spoon batter into a large ziplock bag. Seal and snip the corner off one end. Squeeze batter into the cavities of adonut pansprayed with non-stick baking spray. Fill each cavity 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full. To help donuts keep their pretty shape when baking, use a clean finger to gently even out the batter in each cavity and clean off the center knob of the pan. Bake at 375 for 12 to 14 minutes, until the tops of donuts spring back slightly when touched. Let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.
- For the outside coating, combine sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Using apastry brush, cover each donut with a light coating of applesauce, or alternatively, dip quickly into melted butter. Then dip into cinnamon sugar and toss to coat. Let cool completely before eating, if possible. A second dip into the cinnamon sugar creates an extra crunchy coating. Best enjoyed the same day!
Package donuts in individual brown paper bags for a special treat at your next picnic or football tailgate. They’d be equally delicious served with a cup of hot coffee or a cold beer. Surprise the kids with apple donuts this Halloween! Or simply celebrate an ordinary Autumn morning at home with this fresh taste of fall. Perhaps I’ll try a salted caramel version in the future. But for now, I hope you enjoy these simply delicious Fresh Apple Donuts!
YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:
Apple Crumb Cake
Apple Butter Cupcakes
Apple Pie Cupcakes
Apple Toffee Crunch Cake
Apple Pie Cake
