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Glazed baked apple fritters on a wire rack, craggy golden tops with visible apple chunks and one broken open showing the soft cakey crumb

Baked Apple Fritters

A thick, apple-heavy quick-bread batter dropped in rough mounds onto a sheet pan, baked at 375F until deep golden, then glazed once cool. Ten fritters, no pot of oil.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Cooling and glazing 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 10 fritters
Course: Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Calories: 300
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

For the fritters
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour 240 g, spooned and levelled
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar 100 g
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup whole milk 120 ml
  • 1/2 cup sour cream 120 g, full-fat, at room temperature
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter 57 g, melted and cooled
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups peeled, cored and diced apple about 260 g, roughly 2 medium Granny Smith, 1/4-inch dice, blotted dry
For the glaze
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 180 g, sifted
  • 3 tbsp milk added a tablespoon at a time
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Equipment

  • Two rimmed baking sheets
  • Parchment paper
  • Two mixing bowls
  • Whisk
  • - Rubber spatula
  • 1/4-cup scoop
  • - Wire cooling rack

Method
 

Make the batter
  1. Heat the oven to 375F (190C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until evenly combined.
  3. In a second bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, sour cream, melted butter and vanilla until smooth.
  4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and fold with a spatula only until the last dry patches disappear. Fold in the diced apple. The batter should be thick and lumpy.
Bake and glaze
  1. Drop scant 1/4-cup mounds onto the parchment, five per sheet, leaving about 3 inches between them. Pile them high and leave the surface rough.
  2. Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for 18 to 20 minutes, until the tops are deep golden and a toothpick pushed into the centre, away from a piece of apple, comes out with no wet batter.
  3. Move the fritters to a wire rack and cool completely, at least 30 minutes.
  4. Whisk the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla, adding the milk a tablespoon at a time until the glaze falls from the spoon in a slow ribbon. Spoon it over the cooled fritters and let the excess drip onto parchment.

Notes

Store airtight: up to 2 days at room temperature, up to 5 days refrigerated, or up to 3 months frozen. Freeze them unglazed on the tray, then bag; reheat from frozen at 350F for 8 minutes and glaze once cool.
Make-ahead: the batter does not keep, because the baking soda starts working as soon as it meets the sour cream. Bake within about 15 minutes of mixing. Dice and refrigerate the apples the night before instead.
Substitutions: full-fat plain yoghurt in place of the sour cream, same amount; firm pear in place of the apple, cut slightly larger; boiled-down apple cider in place of the milk in the glaze.
Nutrition is an estimate, not a laboratory analysis.