air fryer apple fritters w/ maple glaze
We were recently gifted an air fryer and I cannot stop making things in it. Roasted broccoli. Roasted garlic. Home fries. 6” cakes. Mini cheesecakes. French fries. Fried chicken. Coconut shrimp. Reheating pastries. This thing is a real godsend. We don’t have central air, so turning the oven on for even the shortest amount of time really heats the place up. (Our window unit is truly on the struggle bus.)
I often have trouble falling asleep, and while I lie awake at night, I think about all of the things I want to make (aka bake). Air fried donuts came to mind a while ago but I hadn’t attempted them. I figured I would go full stop and make fritters! Not sure why, but I’ve been craving apple fritters something fierce lately. The ones that come to mind when I think about apple fritters are the ones from Lakeside Farm, a place back home in upstate New York. I have been going there since I was little. They are as big as your face, very light, more bread-like than donut texture, with swirls of cinnamon and chunks of apple, and not very sweet. I wanted to recreate something like that, so I searched for a low-sugar recipe that I could start with.
I have only attempted fried donuts once in the past, so I had no idea how air fried donuts would come out. After reading every apple fritter recipe on the Internet (I’m mostly serious) and doing some major tweaking, I have for you a lovely apple fritter recipe for two: they come together in a snap (perfect for a morning treat), you likely have everything in your pantry, and they aren’t as bad for you!
Notes: Not all air fryers are created equal, so you may need to adjust your bake times/temps as needed. I found that baking these in my air fryer at 400F made them too dry but they didn’t cook through.
I used regular parchment paper, not the perforated kind made just for air fryers- whichever you have, be sure to use it or else the dough will leak through the holes! (No, those are not donut holes, they’re just crispy bits of dough.)
air fryer apple fritters w/ maple glaze
yield: 2 fritters
apple filling
½ medium apple, peeled, cored and diced small
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 Tb. (15 g) sugar
In a small bowl, add the apple, cinnamon and sugar and toss well. Set aside to let the apples macerate for at least 15 minutes.
dough
¾ cup (90 g) flour
1 Tb. (15 g) sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. kosher salt
2 Tb. (30 g) milk (I used oat)
1 Tb. (15 g) oil (I used coconut)
1 egg
neutral oil for spraying
Get a small strip of parchment paper that will fit inside the fryer basket. Spray lightly with oil. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the milk, oil and egg and mix together with a spatula until no more egg white can be seen. The mixture will be very thick. Add the apple mixture to the dough and mix well, being sure the apples are evenly incorporated. With your spatula, draw a line through the center of the batter. Scoop up half of the batter and place it onto one half of the greased parchment. Repeat with the remaining batter. The fritters should be oval/round and hold their shape. Bring the basket over to you, pick up the sides of the parchment and place the fritters into the basket, parchment side down. Spray the tops of the fritters with oil. This gives them a nice golden color. Insert the basket into the fryer, turn on to 380F, and set the timer for 14 minutes. When there are 7 minutes remaining, remove the basket, flip the fritters with a spatula, spray the uncooked sides, and bake for the remaining 7 minutes. When the timer is up, the fritters should measure 180F in the middle. Remove the basket and take the fritters out with the spatula. Place them on a cooling rack while you make the glaze.
maple glaze
¼ cup (28 g) powdered sugar
1 Tb. (20 g) maple syrup
pinch of salt
In a small bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, maple syrup and salt until no lumps remain. Spoon the glaze over the warm fritters with a plate underneath to catch the drips. Eat the fritters while they are warm.
