Whole Wheat Apple Fritters – Fall Fantastic
Try these and it will forever ruin your experience with donut shop fritters, they are awesome. Now, they aren’t quite as easy as just tossing the ingredients for bread into the bread machine and walking away, but if you have a handle on the processing steps they don’t take that much more time and the result at the end of the process is well worth it.
Start by making the whole wheat dough. This is a rich sweet dough that is oh so sticky. As such it’s best mixed in a stand mixer or in the bread machine on the dough cycle.
Apple fritter filing
While the dough is going through the cycle – which takes about an hour and a half – prepare your apple filling. If you can choose apples with a crisp firm flesh – those hold together best – but I find I’m often grabbing bags of softer fleshed apples we’ve gleaned and put down. Irrespective of the type of apple don’t cook them into a mush – you just want to soften them and get them to absorb some of the cinnamon caramel greatness.
When rolling out the dough make sure your work surface is well floured to keep the dough from sticking. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 1/2″ thick, and then put the apple mixture on one half and fold the other segment over the filling.
Cut up dough and filling ready for forming
Now, in order to get that structure of dough and apple that fritters are known for you need to chop the material up cut on the diagonal about 3/4″ apart, and then cut the opposite diagonal in the other direction. Then take a scoop of the cut up dough and apple mix and firm it into a solid ball about 1″ thick.
Allow the fritters to double in bulk and then fry them up. When they are still warm dip one side in the glaze you can make up while the fritters are rising.
My favorite glaze is made using my homemade apple cider syrup which really punches up the apple flavor, but maple syrup or vanilla are also great options.
- 4 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
- 5 tbsp granulated sugar
- 3/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups warm milk
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 4 large eggs
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 3+ cups diced apples
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup icing sugar
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1/4 cup apple syrup or maple syrup
- water to thin to texture
- Put the liquid ingredients in the bread machine bowl, add the salt, sugar and then flour and yeast. Put the machine on the dough cycle.
- For the apple filling, heat the butter in a frying pan. Add the diced apples. Heat until they soften and remove a bit more moisture - but don't overcook them! Add the cinnamon and sugar and combine and simmer for another couple of minutes. Then turn off the heat.
- When the dough is done, roll out to 1/2" thickness. Put filling on half of the rolled out dough and fold the other half of the dough over the filling.
- Cut the dough section on the diagonal first one way and then the other. Then combine bits of the chopped dough and apple mix into 1" thick disks about 3" to 4" around. Allow to double in bulk
- While the fritters are rising make the glaze. Combine the icing sugar with either cider syrup or maple syrup and then thin with water until the glaze is thin enough to be easily applied.
- Fry the fritters, flitting halfway through until done. This will be when the volume of bubbling drops - but don't wait until it ceases.
- Drain the fritter and when cooled enough to handle dip the top into the glaze and then cool on a baking rack.