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    Home » SOURDOUGH » ACTIVE STARTER

    Sourdough Apple Fritters

    Published: May 6, 2022 · Updated: October 3, 2022 by Ieva · This post may contain affiliate links · 8 Comments

    Jump to Recipe

    A cross between a doughnut and an apple turnover, these Sourdough Apple Fritters are a delicious treat that will be appreciated by both children and adults alike! With heaps of chunky apples encased in a fluffy doughnut exterior, these fried pillows are going to be gone before the icing sets!

    Take Me To:
    • Ingredients
    • Method
      • Step 1: Sourdough Apple Fritter Dough
      • Step 2: How to Prepare Apples for Sourodugh Fritters?
      • Step 3: Assembling & Frying
      • Step 4: Icing
    • Deep-Fried vs. Shallow-Fried
    • Fritter Icing Variations
    • Recipe FAQs
    • Other Sweet Sourdough Bakes
    • Recipe Card

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    Ingredients

    Don’t be disheartened by a long ingredients list in the recipe card for these apple fritters – you are likely to have most of them in your fridge and cupboards already. Here’s what you will need:

    • milk: use dairy milk for best results.
    • butter: salted or unsalted, but make sure to reduce the amount of salt in this recipe if using salted butter.
    • caster sugar: also known as superfine sugar. It can be substituted by white granulated sugar, but make sure you knead the dough long enough for the sugar granules to dissolve completely.
    • egg: medium in the UK, large in the US.
    • plain flour: also known as all-purpose flour. Strong white bread flour will work as well.
    • spices: we used cinnamon and nutmeg, but you can substitute the two with some mixed spice or pumpkin spice.
    • salt
    • sourdough starter: 100% hydration, active and bubbly (not discard).
    • vegetable oil: for frying.
    • apples: cored and chopped into 1.5cm cubes. You may choose your favourite variety, but we prefer tart apples, like Granny Smith, as the glaze provides lots of sweetness.
    • light brown sugar: can be substituted with caster sugar or dark brown sugar.
    • lemon: juice only.
    • icing sugar: also known as confectioners sugar or powdered sugar.

    Method

    There are four main steps in making these Sourdough Apple Fritters: making the dough, preparing the apple filling, cooking the fritters and glazing them.

    Step 1: Sourdough Apple Fritter Dough

    In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter and sugar until sugar dissolves and butter melts. Take off the heat and let it cool down to just warm.

    In a bowl of your stand mixer (we use and love Kenwood), mix flour, cinnamon and salt. Then add the milk mixture, sourdough starter and an egg. Knead in the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment for 10 minutes until you have a smooth and elastic dough. Shape it into a ball, place it into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave in a warm spot for 4 hours to prove.

    After 4 hours, place the dough into the fridge and leave to continue proving overnight.

    Sourdough Fritter is cut in half showing the apples inside.

    Step 2: How to Prepare Apples for Sourodugh Fritters?

    The next morning, cut the apples into small chunks (peel them if the skin is tough, but I tend to leave the skin on). Place the apples, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg and flour in a pan. Mix and stir occasionally, and cook over medium heat until apples are tender (about 10 minutes). Remove from the heat, cover and let the apples cool down completely.

    Ingredients for the cinnamon apple filling on a chopping board.

    Step 3: Assembling & Frying

    Dust the worktop with flour. Roll the dough out into a rectangle of approximately 10cmx32cm. Using a stainless steel rolling pin really helps when rolling a stickier dough. Cut the rectangle into 8 pieces (5cmx8cm). Spread the apple filling on one half of each dough rectangle. Fold the other side over and pinch the edges together.

    Rolled out dough cut into 8 rectangles with apple filling on each of the rectangle.
    3 fritters are shaped, the rest in the background.
    dough pinched together to encase the apple filling.
    Fully assembled sourdough apple fritter doughnut on a work surface.

    Place the shaped fritters on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and generously dusted with flour. Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave in a warm spot for an hour.

    Heat up oil in a small pan to around 180 C. You should have about 5 cm of oil. Fry fritters for approx 3 min on each side. Then place on a paper towel-lined plate to remove excess oil.

    Step 4: Icing

    Combine water and icing sugar in a small bowl. Transfer apple fritters to a wired rack whilst they’re still warm, and spoon the icing over them. Leave the icing to set and enjoy! The fritters are best served on the day that they are fried!

    Icing poured onto the sourdough apple doughnuts.

    Deep-Fried vs. Shallow-Fried

    Frittes, like doughnuts, are typically deep-fried. These particular Sourdough Apple Fritters are quite thick, due to a generous amount of apple chunks inside them, so shallow frying may not be an option. However, there is no need to add more oil than to cover the fritter doughnuts halfway up. First, you fry them on one side, then flip them and fry them on the other side, so both sides are cooked in oil.

    We use a small pan to fry them – this ensures the minimal amount of oil used, but also means that fritters will be cooked in batches, taking a little more time.

    Fritter Icing Variations

    Every time we make the icing, my mum criticises it for being too thin. But that’s how we like our icing! Thin, and set quickly, so we can eat the fritters quicker! So we suggest making a runny mixture of icing sugar and water and dipping these Sourdough Apple doughnuts into it or simply spooning the icing on top and letting it drip down the sides.

    You can always add more flavour to your icing by adding a pinch of cinnamon! Or try adding a couple of drops of lavender, orange blossom or almond essence! Absolutely delicious!

    Icing dripping don the sides of apple fritters on a wire rack.

    Recipe FAQs

    How To Store Sourdough Apple Fritters?

    The fritters are best served on the day that they are cooked. They are moist, soft and fluffy and the icing is nice and crisp! However, if you cannot go through all the doughnuts in one day, keep them in an airtight container after the fritters cooled down. They will taste great the next day, but the icing will likely become a lot wetter and they may be a little sticky to handle.

    What is the Best Flour to Use for Sourodugh Fritters?

    We used plain (all-purpose) flour to make these Sourdough Apple Fritters, however strong bread flour with higher gluten content will work well (and will make the dough easier to handle).

    What Apples Are Best To Use In This Recipe?

    It depends! The dough for the fritters isn’t overly sweet (we only use 25g of caster sugar for the batch of 8 fritters), so you can use sweeter apples for the filling if you have a sweet tooth. However, with the sugar glaze and cinnamon sugar that goes into the filling, we recommend apple varieties that are slightly more sour, such as Granny Smith or Braeburn (we used the latter in this recipe).

    Why Are My Apple Fritters Not Crispy?

    This recipe is not designed to be extremely crispy. Since you’re adding the glaze on top of these Sourdough Fritters, you will end up with a doughnut-like (although different shape) treat that will have a thin layer of glaze which will soften the exterior of the fritter.
    Having said that, your apple fritters should not be soggy. If they are, it may be due to a couple of things. First, you may have added the fritters to the oil too early, so they absorbed too much oil and, therefore, did not crisp up. Secondly, you should spread them out when cooling (ideally on a wire rack) so that they do not stew in their own residual heat. It’s important to note that these fritters are at their crispiest on the day that they are made.


    Other Sweet Sourdough Bakes

    If you keep a sourdough starter and are constantly on the lookout for great ideas to put it to good use, have a look at our recipes below:

    • Sourdough Apple & Cinnamon Buns
    • Sourdough Brioche Loaf
    • Sourdough Coffee & Date Bread

    Recipe Card

    Sourdough Apple Fritters on a white square plate. One of the is cut in half exposing the chunky apple filling.

    Sourdough Apple Fritter Doughnuts

    A cross between a doughnut and an apple turnover, these Sourdough Apple Fritters are a delicious treat that will be appreciated by both the children and adults alike! With heaps of chunky apples encased in a fluffy doughnuty exterior, these fried pillows are going to be gone before the icing sets!
    5 from 5 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 20 mins
    Cook Time 10 mins
    Fermenting & Proving: 16 hrs
    Total Time 16 hrs 30 mins
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine American, British
    Servings 8 large fritters
    Calories 316 kcal

    Ingredients
     
     

    For the Dough:

    • 35 ml milk
    • 35 g butter
    • 25 g caster sugar
    • 1 egg medium
    • 170 g plain flour
    • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
    • ⅛ teaspoon salt
    • 100 g active sourdough starter 100% hydration
    • 300 ml vegetable oil for frying

    For the Apple Filling:

    • 2 small apples cored and chopped into 1.5cm cubes
    • 25 g light brown sugar
    • 1 tablespoon plain flour
    • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
    • ½ lemon juice only
    • 1 tablespoon water
    • a pinch of nutmeg optional

    Glaze:

    • 90 g icing sugar
    • 2 tablespoon water

    Instructions
     

    • In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter and sugar until sugar dissolves and butter melts. Take off the heat and let it cool down to just warm.
    • In a bowl of your stand mixer, mix flour, cinnamon and salt. Then add the milk mixture, sourdough starter and an egg. Knead in the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment for 10 minutes until you have a smooth and elastic dough. Shape it into a ball, place it into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave in a warm spot for 4 hours to prove.
    • After 4 hours, place the dough into the fridge and leave to continue proving overnight.
    • The next morning, cut the apples into small chunks (peel them if the skin is tough, but I tend to leave the skin on). Place the apples, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg and flour in a pan. Mix and stirring occasionally, cook over medium heat until apples are tender (about 10 minutes). Remove from the heat, cover and let the apples cool down completely.
    • Dust the worktop with flour. Roll the dough out into a rectangle, approximately 10cmx32cm. Cut the rectangle into 8 pieces (5cmx8cm). Spread the apple filling on one half of each dough rectangle. Fold the other side over and pinch the edges together.
    • Place the shaped fritters on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and generously dusted with flour. Cover with lightly oiled cling film and and leave in a warmspot for an hour.
    • Heat up oil in a small pan to around 180 C. You should have about 5 cm of oil. Fry fritters for approx 3 min on each side. Then place on a paper towel-lined plate to remove excess oil.
    • Combine water and icing sugar in a small bowl. Transfer apple fritters to a wired rack whilst they're still warm, and spoon the icing over them. Leave the icing to set and enjoy! The firtters are best served on the day that they are fried!

    Notes

    These Sourdough Apple Fritters are best eaten on the day that they are made but can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days. 

    Nutrition

    Calories: 316kcalCarbohydrates: 39gProtein: 4gFat: 17gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 8gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 30mgSodium: 77mgPotassium: 101mgFiber: 2gSugar: 17gVitamin A: 170IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 22mgIron: 1mg
    Keyword Apple Fritters, Sourdough Apple Fritters, Sourdough Doughnuts, Sourdough Fritters
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Amanda Wren-Grimwood

      May 14, 2022 at 4:23 pm

      5 stars
      These doughnuts are such a treat and the apple filling is delicious. Thanks for the recipe.

      Reply
      • Ieva

        May 15, 2022 at 12:29 pm

        You are most welcome! Thanks for the lovely feedback! 🙂

        Reply
    2. Beth

      June 16, 2022 at 10:38 am

      5 stars
      Just the dough and glaze would have been enough to sell me, but then you added all the apple to the center. YUM!

      Reply
      • Ieva

        June 16, 2022 at 10:52 am

        Just the mention of the word ‘doughnut’ is normally enough for me! 😀 😀 😀 Hope you like them if you decide to make them 🙂

        Reply
    3. Farah Maizar

      July 16, 2022 at 3:35 pm

      5 stars
      These are so beautiful! Love that they are stuffed with apples, I can’t wait to try these out thanks for the recipe!

      Reply
      • Ieva

        July 17, 2022 at 10:13 am

        Really hope you do try it! These doughnuts are delicious 🙂

        Reply
    4. Katherine

      September 02, 2022 at 7:25 pm

      5 stars
      Oh wow! These are better than any donut shop!

      Reply
      • Ieva

        September 03, 2022 at 5:14 am

        Thanks, Katherine 💗

        Reply

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    Hi, I am Ieva – the face behind this blog. I live in North Wales with my husband Seb and our golden retriever Sawyer. It’s safe to say that I live and breathe food: from researching and reading about food to creating new recipes and growing vegetables to use in my cooking.  The great thing is, Seb appreciates all the good meals that are also essential at his worst ‘hangry’ moments! Somebody HAS to feed Seb…

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