Apple doughnuts with apple purée recipe

These apple doughnuts with apple purée are the perfect way to flex your baking skills with a really impressive treat.

The little doughnuts are filled with stewed apples and dusted with crunchy sugar. They're not difficult to make and the results are really fabulous. A delicious treat to serve up to the family at tea time, or as a fun pudding. Put a couple in a bowl with some vanilla or caramel ice cream. Alternatively, if you have guests, they make a lovely snack with a cup of tea or coffee, and they also great at kids' birthday parties. Challenge children to eat them without licking their lips - we bet they can't.

Ingredients

For the doughnuts:

• 280g strong white flour plus extra for dusting
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ cup yoghurt
• 7g sachet fast action dried yeast
• 20g caster sugar
• 20g soft butter
• 1 small egg
• 125ml lukewarm water
• Sunflower oil for deep frying

For the filling:

• 3 apples quartered and cored
• 2tbsp caster sugar
• 75ml apple juice

To serve:

• Golden caster sugar for dusting
• Double cream whipped with a little icing sugar to serve

Method

1. Mix the flour, salt, yeast and sugar in a processor, add the soft butter, egg, yoghurt and water and pulse until smooth. Tip onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, if necessary add a little more flour, bring into a ball.
2. Clean out the bowl and lightly oil it, put the dough in the bowl and cover with cling film and put in the fridge overnight (the dough can be kept up to 48 hours in the fridge)
3. To make the apple purée and the filling cut the apple quarters into 5mm slices across and place straight into the pan, add the sugar and apple juice. Cover and cook on a moderate heat for about 7 minutes until just softening.
4. Drain over a bowl, keeping the juice and roughly chop the apple and cool. Put 100g to one side and reserve for the filling, and put the rest in a processor with the juice and blitz to a textured puree to create the apple purée.
5. Prepare two baking trays by dusting them with flour and setting aside.
6. Cut the dough into 4 and work with a piece at a time, keeping the remainder covered as you go. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm thickness or even thinner and stamp out 7 circles from each piece, using a 5-6cm round cutter.
7. Put a quarter teaspoon of cooked apple in the centre of each circle dab a little water around the edges and pinch the edges together to seal well.
8. Put on the floured trays and cover with dry cloths and leave about 30 minutes - 1 hour until almost double the size.
9. Heat the oil to 175°C/350ºF and fry the doughnuts in small batches for about 3-5 minutes until golden, turning them as they cook. Toss in sugar while hot. Serve with the sweetened cream for dipping.

Top tip for making apple doughnuts with apple purée

You can swap the apples for pears or blackberries if they are in season.

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