Apple donut stuffed with the best apple donut filling made at home! These apple donuts are made with brioche dough, to make for the softest, sweetest, and most delicate donuts. Trust me, no one will believe you made these yourself… Yes, they’re that good.
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If you’re a serious donut lover like me, you owe it to yourself to try these at least once. They are a little more on the time consuming side, but once they’re done and you take a bite out of them you’re life will change. You will probably not be going back to buying your apple donuts from outside anymore.
After I made these a few times I realized that I needed to share my favorite apple filled donuts with you because they became a staple weekend treat for us. Especially since it felt like everyone was getting in the fall baking mood.
Can you believe this is a better than Krispy Kreme apple donut recipe!?
I understand that this is a big statement, but I fully stand behind it. I mean, sure Krispy creme has pretty tasty glazed donuts. But when it comes to their filled donuts, the filling always tastes so chemically. I’m sure their filling comes from a can and is full of preservatives, so that’s the main reason why I started making my own filled apple donut.
This homemade yeasted donut recipe is a little time consuming but not challenging at all. The hardest part is to be patient while your dough is rising.
What’s so special about these apple stuffed donuts?
Here are only a few reasons for why this spiced apple donut should be on your to do list ASAP!
- Soft and tender donut dough
- Perfectly spiced
- Impressive and well worth all the effort
- Will make the house smell like a donut shop
- Perfect fall dessert recipe
Is it donuts or doughnuts?
That’s probably the best question you could ask yourself! Doughnuts is the correct way to spell this fantastic fried dough! But the shortened version has gotten even more popular than the original word when Dunkin Donuts came around.
Both words mean the same thing though, so use them as you please and go ahead and make yourself some do(nuts)ughnuts!
Ingredients to make apple filled donuts from scratch
For the dough, you will need:
- Bread flour
- Yeast
- Milk
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Salt
- Butter
For the Spiced Apple filling, you will need:
- Apples
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar
- Cinnamon
- Lemon juice
- Corn starch
- Vanilla extract
How to make apple filling for donuts?
To make the apple filling for the doughnuts you will need to:
- Add in the apples, both sugars, cinnamon, corn starch, lemon juice, and vanilla extract to a large saucepan. Give it a good stir and cook it over medium heat for about 40-45 minutes or until the apples are cooked and are swimming in a little of their own sauce. Make sure to stir the apple mixture from time to time so that the bottom does not burn.
- Transfer the apple mixture to a silicone lined baking sheet or a glass container and let it cool completely then place it in the fridge overnight.
How to make donuts?
This is a brief overview of the recipe. If you want to get to the detailed recipe click here!
- Add all the ingredients except the butter to a stand mixer and mix using a hook attachment for about 8 minutes. Let it rest for 1 minutes.
- Start the mixer again and slowly start adding the softened butter, while still mixing. This is the method used to make brioche dough.
- Once you’re done adding the butter, let the mixer go for another 5 minutes.
- Cover the dough and let it rise for 2 hours or until it has doubled in size.
- Punch the dough down, cover again and let it rest in the fridge overnight or for up to 16 hours.
Before proofing 
Look at how much they grew!
- The next day, pull out the donut dough from the fridge and divide it into 10 equally sized dough balls. I use my scale for this step.
- Roll each dough into a tight bun and place it on a floured surface, cover, and let it rise for another 4 hours.
- Once the dough is ready to be fried, heat up your frying oil to 345F and start frying 2-4 at a time for 2 minutes per side.
- Place the donuts on kitchen paper to cool a bit then coat them in granulated sugar and let them cool completely before filling them with the apple filling.
- Enjoy right away since donuts always taste better fresh!
Tips to make the best stuffed donuts
To make the best homemade doughnuts, these few tips will help you tremendously!
- Be patient- This is the first and the most important tip I can give you. Patience is key to make these apple doughnuts. You will need to let your dough rise multiple times, and if you decide to start
- Be delicate- When handling the risen doughnut balls, you need to work gently in order not to deflate them before you fry them.
- Don’t crowd the frying pan- If the frying pan is too crowded the frying oil will get colder and we don’t want that. My tip for this issue is to check the oil temperature often and of course not to over crowd the pan.
- Coat the donuts in granulated sugar before they’re completely cool- If you wait until they’re completely cool, the sugar won’t stick. So coat them as soon as you can can touch them without getting burnt but before they’re completely cold.
- Let the donuts cool before filling them- Let the donuts cool down before filling them so that the inside finishes cooking throughly.
- Don’t be stingy with the filling- These are better than Krispy Kreme apple filled donuts so fill them up with a good amount of that amazingly spiced apple filling we made earlier! Trust me, you won’t regret it.
Can I make these in advance?
These apple donuts are best fried the day of. They don’t store well, so you have to plan on starting the process of making these about 20 hours before you want to eat them. So that’s as much in advance as you can make them.
I tried storing these in the fridge after I made them and the sugar kinda melts into them and they become a little less soft. To remedy to the softness issue, microwave them for 10-15 seconds if you end up storing them in the fridge. They will taste pretty good still ( but won’t look that good)
Check out more donut recipes you’ll love
Apple stuffed donuts recipe
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Better than Krispy Kreme Apple Filled Donuts
Ingredients
Donut dough
- 350 g bread flour
- 1 + ½ teaspoon yeast
- ⅓cup +2 tablespoon milk warm
- 2 & ½ tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 4 & ½ tablespoon butter softened and cut into smaller cubes
Spiced apple filling
- 6 cups apples peeled, cored and cut into ¼" cubes.
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice or juice of half a lemon
- 2 tablespoon corn starch
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Day 1, make the dough.
- Add the flour, yeast, warm milk, granulated sugar, eggs, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on medium speed for about 8 minutes using the hook attachement. Once the dough ball is formed, turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for one minute.
- Once the dough has rested for 1 minute, turn on the mixer again on medium speed and add a little bit of butter to the dough at a time. Whenever the first bit of butter disappears add another piece. Once you've added all your butter, mix on high speed for 5 minutes. The dough will be glossy and elastic. This is the same method used to make brioche.
- Cover the dough and let it rise for about 2 hours or until it has doubled in size. Once it has doubled in size, punch it down, recover it and place it in the fridge overnight or for up to 16 hours.
Day 1, make the apple filling
- In a large saucepan, add in the apples, both sugars, cinnamon, corn starch, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Give it a good stir and cook it over medium heat for about 40-45 minutes or until the apples are cooked and are swimming in a little of their own sauce. Make sure to stir the apple mixture from time to time so that the bottom does not burn.
- Transfer the apple mixture to a silicone lined baking sheet or a glass container and let it cool completely then place it in the fridge overnight.
Day 2, shape and fry the donuts.
- The next day, pull out your donut dough out of the fridge and cut it into 53g pieces. This will make about 10 donuts.
- Roll each 53g piece of dough into a perfectly tight little bun. Place the buns onto a floured surface, making sure to leave enough room between them because they will get a lot larger and we don't want them to stick together. Cover the buns loosely and let them rest for 4 hours or until they double in size.
- Once the donuts are almost ready to be fried, fill a deep fryer halfway with neutral flavored oil and heat to 345F.
- When the oil reaches the right temperature, carefully pick up the donuts, making sure not to deflate them and slide them in the hot oil. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side. Depending on the size of your fryer you can fry 2-4 donuts at the same time without dropping the temperature too much.
- Remove the donuts from the hot oil and place them on kitchen paper to get rid of any excess oil. Once they are cool enough to handle but not so cool that the sugar doesn't stick, toss them in a bowl of granulated sugar. Place them on a cooling wrack to let them cool completely before filling.
- To fill the donuts, make a whole using chopsticks of a small knife on the side of the donut. This will be on the lighter line that develops between the fried top and bottom.
- Fill up a piping bag that has a medium sized piping tip at the bottom of it with apple filling and gently fill the donuts in the whole you made previously. Fill the donuts until they are a perfectly swollen.
- These donuts are best served right away! You can store them in an airtight container for later but they will not be the same.
Thank you so much for making it all the way down here! If you tried this donut recipe from scratch, make sure to let me know in the comments how it turned out for you. In the mean time, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram.
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Addie
What kind of Apples would be better to use???
Chahinez
For Krispy Kreme apple donuts, you’ll want to use apples that hold their shape well and have a nice balance of sweet and tart flavors. Some good options include Granny Smith apples, Honeycrisp apples, or a mix of both for a more complex flavor. These apples will provide a nice texture and flavor to your donuts without becoming too mushy during baking.
Anindita Vishwanath
Hello, I tried this because my child kept saying that I want donuts and a friend had requested for an apple pie. Its a lot of work and I am grateful for the recipe. The filling was awesome!
I noticed a few things and it maybe because I don’t have a deep fryer and I used atta flour which is unbleached dough. I felt that I could have made smaller 20 donuts and it would have cooked better. The dough could have been sweeter so more sugar. It was good overall and healthy! Hugs!
Chahinez
Thank you so much for the thorough review Anindita! Glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Chahinez
Guy
I tried this recipe for my family this weekend because I wanted to treat them to something special and they loved the apple donuts. It was truly a labor of love and I will be making them again for sure.
Chahinez
Hi Guy,
Thank you so much for sharing! I am glad to hear that you family loved these apple doughnuts. They’re some of my favorites as well!
Have. a great day,
Chahinez