Mini Baked Apple Fritters Recipe

Apple fritters are a sweet American classic, combining tart juicy apples with tender dough in a perfect crispy package. They're usually made with a simple recipe that only calls for pantry ingredients, flavored with cinnamon, and best served warm. The traditional recipe sees them deep-fried in oil, but in this recipe brought to us by developer Kate Shungu they are baked instead. "These baked treats are a lighter spin on my favorite donut: the apple fritter," she tells us. "The combination of warm spices, apples, and maple syrup glaze transforms these two-bite snacks into a comfort food breakfast."

With these baked fritters also comes a certain air of convenience; you don't have to worry about heating up a ton of oil, you don't need a plethora of complicated ingredients, and you don't need any special tools outside of a mini muffin tin. Despite their uniqueness — not quite a muffin, not quite a cupcake, and not quite a donut — these apple fritters are refreshingly simple to make, delightfully sweet, and overall just fun for those of all ages. Just ask Shungu: "My kids love these, and they're just the right size for packing in lunchboxes, too."

To make these mini apple fritters, you'll need softened unsalted butter, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground nutmeg, milk, and an apple (peeled and diced). For the maple glaze, you'll simply need powdered sugar and maple syrup. Finally, you'll also need cooking spray to prep the baking pan.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Spray a mini muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla, and mix to combine.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by half of the milk. Stir to combine.

Repeat with the remaining flour mixture and remaining milk.

Fold in the diced apples.

Spoon the dough into the prepared mini muffin tin, filling each cup about ¾ of the way up.

Bake for 13–15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with dry crumbs. Let cool for 5 minutes and remove from the pan.

Repeat with any remaining batter.

While the fritters are baking, whisk together the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons maple syrup to create a pourable glaze. Add additional maple syrup if the mixture is too thick.

Dip the tops of each slightly cooled fritter into the maple glaze.

Serve right away, or allow the fritters to cool completely and the maple glaze to dry, and serve.

There's a certain simplicity to these apple fritters that's pretty hard to beat and that allows apple (along with a few spices) to take center stage when it comes to flavor. Though the simplicity is a good thing here, there is also an entire world of opportunity to change, add to, or enhance these fritters — a world that Shungu encourages you to explore. 

For starters, you may be inclined to switch up that maple glaze. To do so, you could use apple cider in the glaze instead of maple syrup, which would help enhance the apple-forward nature of the pastry while still maintaining a similar level of sweetness. Another option is to sprinkle flaky salt on top of the still-wet glaze, which would offer a nice salty contrast to a treat that's otherwise sweet through and through. 

As for the fritters themselves, you can easily swap in apple pie spice instead of cinnamon and nutmeg, especially if you want to hone in on that apple flavor. Finally, you can skip the mini nature of these treats if you prefer full-sized ones (or if you simply don't have a mini muffin pan) by baking the batter in a regular-sized muffin tin. Should you go the full-sized route, up the baking time to 20 to 22 minutes.

This recipe yields a whopping 36 mini apple fritters, meaning that unless you've got a large family or a particularly large appetite for fritters, you're going to have some extras. Luckily, with this recipe, you can store leftover fritters and you can also make this recipe ahead of time. 

As Shungu says, "These are a great make-ahead treat." Whether you don't want to serve them fresh from the oven or you have an abundance left over after initially enjoying them, you can store any leftover minis at room temperature in an airtight container. So, if you'd like to serve these to your kids in the morning, you don't have to get up an extra hour early — make them the night before and serve them virtually fresh the next day. "If you'd like to serve them warm in the morning, add a few to a plate and microwave for 10–15 seconds to warm them slightly," Shungu advises.

Finally, you can freeze the fritters and defrost them at room temperature overnight or in the microwave. If you go the frozen route, it'd be best to freeze them unglazed and make the glaze fresh when you plan to serve the thawed fritters.