Should this read baked apple donuts or baked apple doughnuts? As one of my favorite Tweeters, @shitfoodbloggerssay, informed me via his or her tweet line doughnut is the artisan way. Well I am no artisan, so my donuts usually read as such – donut. But these baked doughnuts are from one my favorite blogs Artisan Bread in Five Minutes, so artisan it is for this post.
Baked Apple Doughnuts
Here’s what you will probably love most about this recipe: it’s baked. But let me tell you calorie counters, the best part about this recipe is the texture. Yes, the flavor is definitely there, but texture is a big thing for me with food and going from fried to bake doesn’t always translate well, but this one is spot on.
The first thing you will notice with the recipe is its “rustic” look. I say that because the doughnuts do not come out perfectly even, but you shouldn’t expect it to with all the chopped apples. That brings me to another thing—I made the first batch of these doughnuts with some golden delicious apples. For the second batch, I switched it up and used red bartlett pears.
Both are very good, but my personal preference was for the pear variation of this recipe. And to my surprise the pears also kept the doughnuts more moist, so that a day later while the apples doughnuts were edible but not as good as the day they were baked, the pear doughnuts were still as equally good as the first day with no toughening or hardening to the texture.
Baked Apple Doughnuts
Ingredients
Doughnut
- 3/4 cup lukewarm water
- 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 small apples, skins on or off depending on your preference, diced
- 3 3/4 cups Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
Glaze
- 3/4 cups confectioner sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
- Caramel Drizzle (Click here for recipe)
Instructions
Preparation
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line bake sheet with parchment.
To make apple dougnuts
-
Place water, yeast, salt, eggs, sugar, apples, flour, and butter in a bowl, using a spoon or a sturdy spatula fold batter until evenly mixed.
- Let the dough rest at room temperature covered, for two hours. Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill for at least 3 hours.
- Remove dough from refrigerator. Transfer dough to a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe 3-inch circles on to a parchment lined bake sheet (or alternately pipe into wells of a donut pan).
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer doughnuts to cooling rack.
To make glaze:
- Place confectioner sugar in bowl and add one tablespoon of milk at a time and stir after each addition. Add more mik as needed to achieve a glazing pour
Assembly
- Place finished glaze in a bowl and dip tops of doughnuts into mixture. Return dip doughnuts to cooling rack.
- Transfer caramel to plastic ziplock bag and cut off one corner. Drizzle caramel on top of glazed doughnut.
Notes
A few notes:
- For ease of preparation I placed the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip and piped round circles straight onto a parchment lined bake sheet. The second batch, the pear doughnuts, I piped into the wells of doughnut pan. Both turned out great - the pear doughnuts that were piped into the doughnut pan, of course came out more uniform. But I actually prefer the uneven and imperfect look of the hand piped ones.
- The original recipe calls for letting the dough rest in a food storage bin, but I didn't have one so I let mine rest in a stainless bowl and then placed an inverted empty one directly on top of it.
- The original recipe finishes with a maple glaze, since I didn't have any maple syrup on hand I improvised by making a simple glaze and then drizzled it with a caramel sauce.
- If you make the pear variation, make sure they are ripe - soft to the touch.
These look delicious! I haven’t made anything in my doughnut pan for ages! I should dust it off specially for these guys!
I’ve never made baked donuts at home because I hate the idea of a donut pan taking up space in my tiny kitchen. I’m glad you mentioned piping them onto parchment, I can handle that!
Regardless what you call them, these are beautiful! I would need a few to gaze at and a few to gobble up with a big cup of coffee. YUM!
Yum! I can’t wait to try these 🙂 I’ve been wanting to make yeast doughnuts, but I hate how deep frying makes my apartment smell like oil for days. I’m excited to try baking them instead!
One quick question… What kind of yeast did you use? Dry active? Instant?
These are stunning!
I am so glad this recipe is already posted after seeing it last night on Twitter!
They are gorgeous, Naomi! I have never made yeast donuts, just plain quick-bread style donuts but when I do make them, THESE are the ones I will do! They are just chewy, gooey, drizzly perfection!
These look incredible! I haven’t seen baked yeast donuts before—love that you can get the yeast texture without frying.
Laura – I used dry active yeast.
Gorgeous! Now I really have to make these. And I’m so glad the pear adaption is A+. I love pears. 😉
I always make doughnuts, but never thought of doing an apple variation. However, I’m glad to see that pears can be used instead because I have a pear tree that is full this year and I need all the recipes that I can get!
Gorgeous photos, as always.
These are donut perfection!! Love the flavors and the decadent sweet styling.
Baked yeasted donuts?! Wow. I have to make these. They’re absolutely beautiful and I love the rusticness too. 🙂
Beautiful doughnuts! Drooling over that luscious drizzle!
These doughnuts are so cute! I love the striped decoration. And let’s not even get started on the recipe!
Question…when you let these sit at room temperature for 2 hours, should it be pretty warm? I normally let bread rise in the oven (I turn it on the lowest temperature and then turn it off, then let the bread rise in the warm oven). Should I do that with these, too? Our house is normally pretty cool.
These sound delicious! What other kind of apple would you recommend using? And, could I refrigerate dough overnight so I could bake them fresh in morning?
Thanks!
Drool worthy! They look delicious 😀
wow, these are beautiful…not rustic perfect!!! 😀
I can’t wait to try these over the weekend. I only made doughnuts once. What I love is that it’s baked and not fried. I have the Artisans Bread in 5 mins book too. Used to flip through and read as though it’s like my bread bible. LOL.. Have a great week!
Lori-Yes, you can leave these over night to bake fresh in the morning. My second choice of apples would be Fuji.
Tried this recipe at home! Absolutely delicious! However, my caramel sauce wasn’t so dark but still great and added the salt. Definitely the salted caramel glaze was delicious and I used pears instead…very succulent! Thanks for sharing!
I am so glad you have cleared up this doughnut/donut question. These are amazing, Naomi. Perfectly flavored for fall!
this looks scrumptious. i will definitely try this sometimes this or next week. great for gloomy and rainy weather this time of the year. and apple always reminds me of fall.
OMG these look way too good and soft to be baked! Love your photos, and these recipe is a keeper!
these donuts are drool worthy for sure! I love how pretty the glaze with the caramel drizzle looks and I bet the taste is just as good!
Wow this is some of the most amazing mouth-watering food photography I’ve seen! Just beautiful. If my blog is half as good as yours one day I will be very happy!
Joni- Thank you for the very kind words.
Damn…. seriously just damn. Those look melt in your mouth amazing. Doughnut or donut – I need like 12.
And I <3 me some shitfoodbloggers say too. Guilty pleasure.
Wow, those look so good! It’s good to know that you don’t need a donut (doughnut?) pan to make them…thanks for the tip!
Ooo, I think I’d like the pear version too. Pears and caramel go so well together.
These look great! Sadly I tried to make them and they did not turn out. Any tips into making them? All I can say is they spread a little and did not turn a nice color( looked undercook still). I do not believe leaving them in longer would of help either… How should the mix or dough be once everything was combined?
I saw this recipe & walked to straight to the kitchen to make a batch for my family and friends. They were terrific! Easy, delicious, and well received by everyone who tried them. One question: can anyone advise me on the piping? My chilled dough was far too stiff to force through the pastry bag, so I hand-rolled and shaped them, as you would pretzels. That took a little time…if I can figure out why my dough was too stiff to pipe, this recipe will be a snap. And I will definitely be making these again. Thanks so much!
just finished preparing this batter, problem is the dough is so thick it won’t pipe through my pastry bag. disappointing, i don’t know how i am going to get the dough into the wells of my donut pan. any suggestions?
Erica – Did you use a large to extra large tip? It does require some elbow grease, so make sure you use a hardy pastry bag like a fabric one with a coupler on it.
Emily – Did you use a large to extra large tip? It does require some elbow grease, so make sure you use a hardy pastry bag like a fabric one with a coupler on it.
Hi, I just wanted to let you know your recipe is being used here without crediting or linking back to you…
What kind of apples did you use?
I cannot wait to try these donuts. The weekend cannot get here soon enough.
Fried or not, I LOVE these! That glaze and drizzle – that’s all I need!
Please give fat, carbs, fiber, etc so ww points can be calculated. Thank you
will the glaze harden?
I made this dough last night with the plan of waiting until this morning to bake them. I don’t know if keeping it in the fridge over night changed the dough so much that that’s why I got the results I did, but I couldn’t pipe it out. Before I put it in the fridge, it seemed a little stiff, but not dry & did rise, so I put it in the fridge. I decided to just make doughnut holes with it. They still taste really good, but I will have to try this recipe a few more times to see if the results for piping change.
Nicole – Yes, the glaze will harden.
Has anyone actually made these? my boyfriend and I just made them without a donut pan and they just came out flat like cookies. Should I have activated the yeast in water (like bread) before adding to the mixture? Or what may I have done wrong? I used all the ingredients as listed. Help would be appreciated! 🙂
S
Hello neighbour (Canadian spelling).
Daughter and I had a blast making these. She loved impressing her friends and family. We are baking ROOKIES but are enjoying the process of learning and baking.
Tip for other rookies – make sure you dice the apples small as we had “fun” pushing the larger apple chunks through the pastry bag (we bought one as we had never used= rookies).
Great site
can I use something other than regular sugar?
These look heavenly. I am longing to make them for the family but have a few questions before doing so. Hope you don’t mind – I hate failing in the kitchen and don’t know if it will make a difference. 1) Do you have to punch the dough down between letting it rise for the first two hours and sticking it in the fridge? 2) Is it best to leave in the fridge for the full 3 hours or best to check for a particular consistency? 3) What is the diameter of the round tip you use on your piping bag? 4) Is 3 inches the diameter of the piped donut? Looking forward to your responses so I can make them as part of the next baking round.
I didn’t expect these to have the bread consistency they do. It would help to add some apple pie spice, you don’t really taste the apple
Ditto what Cynthia said, also, do I let them rise at all after piping or will they rise as they bake? Thanks