THE BEST YEAST-RAISED APPLE FRITTERS

The Best Yeast-Raised Apple Fritters image

How to make The Best Yeast-Raised Apple Fritters

Provided by @MakeItYours

Number Of Ingredients 25

Ingredients

For the Apples
3 large-ish apples, peeled and chopped into about ½" dice
1 tablespoon sugar (I used Sugar in the Raw, or you can use maple syrup or honey)
1 tablespoon butter
salt, to taste
½ teaspoon Baker's Brew Coffee Spice (or use apple pie spice or just cinnamon)
a wee splash apple cider vinegar (or a squirt of lemon juice would work)
a couple of splashes of apple cider or apple juice
For the Dough
1¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
⅓ cup whole milk, warm
2 tablespoons apple juice or apple cider, warm
7.5 oz all purpose flour
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar (I used Sugar in the Raw)
1 oz melted butter
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon Baker's Brew Coffee Spice
1 teaspoon vanilla
For the Confectioners Sugar Topping
2 cups 10x sugar
½ teaspoon Baker's Brew Coffee Spice
heavy pinch of fine sea salt
For Deep Frying
2″ peanut oil in a large Dutch oven

Steps:

For the Apples
Cook the apples in the sugar, butter, salt and spice until they turn a bit golden brown.
In the meantime, reduce the cider and cider vinegar by half.
When the apples are starting to get some color, add the reduced liquids and cook together until almost dry. If the apples are getting too much color before the liquid reduces sufficiently, simple drain them in a colander and call them done.
Set aside.
For the Dough
This dough uses the straight dough method, so just put all the ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook and turn it on medium-low speed.
Once the dough has come together, turn the speed up just a bit and let the mixer knead the dough for about 5 minutes. The dough will be extremely soft-sort of on the edge of being a batter.
Spray the top of the dough very well with pan spray and then cover and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours. It does not need to double, and it might not because of all the yolks and butter.
Once the dough has risen, spray your hands well with pan spray (or rub them with coconut oil or something) and press the gases out of the dough.
Press the dough up the sides of the pan a bit and then put about ⅓ of the apple mixture in the center.
Fold all the sides in and press down again. Pan spray as necessary to keep things from sticking.
Press the dough down again and up the sides of the bowl, and add another third of the apples.
Fold in and then add the last third of the apple in the same way. Press down and fold over a couple of more times.
There will be a lot of apples, so if some poke out, don't worry. Just keep going.
Cover and let rest for about 20 minutes.
For the Confectioners Sugar Topping
Place the sugar, salt and baking spice in a gallon-sized zip top bag. Shake to distribute the spices and salt. Taste and add a bit more seasoning if necessary.
To Fry and Finish
Heat the oil to 350F.
Have a cooling rack set over several layers of paper towels ready.
When the oil has reached 350F, scoop the batter using a 1.5 ounce disher (about 3 tablespoons). Fry no more than four at a time. Total fry time will be about 5 minutes, until the fritters are a lovely deep golden brown.
Place the first four on the draining rack.
When the oil is back to temperature, fry four more.
While those four are frying, place the first four in the gallon bag and shake so the fritters are completely covered with the spiced powdered sugar.
Continue frying and "sugaring" until all the fritters are done.
Dig right in.
They are lovely with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, too.