Apple-filled doughnuts

My childhood memory from Poland – oval apple-filled doughnuts. Just yesterday, my sister and I were talking about whether apple doughnuts are oval everywhere. In Słupsk they certainly were! 😉 We prepare the apple filling just like for a traditional apple pie and fill the doughnuts before frying, although you can also use ready-made apples from a jar, provided they have not been cooked down into a purée. With these doughnuts (they are heavier than traditional ones), it is more difficult to achieve the characteristic pale ring around the middle, but you should be patient and allow the shaped doughnuts to rise properly. 

Makes approximately 18–20 doughnuts.

Ingredients for the apple-filled doughnuts:

• 600 g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• 3 large eggs
• 100 g butter, melted
• 70 g vanilla sugar made with real vanilla
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract (or vodka)
• 250 ml lukewarm milk
• 20 g fresh yeast or 10 g dried yeast

Additionally:

• fat for frying, such as rapeseed oil, coconut oil or lard
• apple filling (recipe below)

Sift the flour and mix with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, prepare a starter first). Add the remaining ingredients and knead the dough, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead for several minutes until the dough is smooth and soft (try not to add extra flour, even though the dough will be slightly sticky; I recommend using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or a bread machine).
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured bowl, cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1½ hours).

Once risen, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly. Shape by hand – tear off pieces of dough, weighing about 60 g for each doughnut, and fill them with the apple filling. Gently flatten a piece of dough into an oval shape, place a generous tablespoon of apple filling in the centre, then seal very carefully so that the filling does not escape during frying. Shape into oval doughnuts and place them on a tea towel or pastry board dusted with flour. Cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 25–45 minutes depending on the temperature; the doughnuts should be well puffed up but not overproved).

Once risen, fry the doughnuts in fat heated to 175°C for 2–3 minutes on each side. The frying temperature should not be too high, otherwise the doughnuts will brown quickly on the outside while remaining undercooked in the centre. After frying, transfer to kitchen paper to drain. While still warm, glaze them (glaze recipe below).

Ingredients for the apple filling:

• 1.2 kg apples
• juice of lemon, to taste
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (if you like) or 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod
• ⅕ cup water

Peel the apples, remove the cores and cut them into thin slices or small cubes. Mix with the sugar, cinnamon or vanilla, and lemon juice, then transfer to a saucepan. Cook over medium heat for several minutes, stirring frequently, until some of the liquid has evaporated. The apples should soften and partially break down.

Ingredients for lemon glaze:

• 1½ cups icing sugar
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice

Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice until smooth. Adjust the consistency of the glaze by adding more lemon juice or icing sugar as needed.

Method for bread machine users:

Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.

Enjoy!