Healthy and easy apple donuts

You can make healthy donuts! Yes, today I'm going to surprise you (I hope) with these delicious apple-based donuts fried with hardly any oil ... And some ideas to decorate them to your liking!

In the recipe we tell you how to make them in several ways, either baked or fried, but I wonder if you knew that in addition to healthy, light and delicious dishes, you can also prepare delicious desserts with the air fryer! Yes, this small kitchen appliance called an oil-free fryer or air fryer is becoming so popular for very good reasons, and it is a great helper with which you can cook practically anything.

Air fryers, such as the Tefal Actifry Genius , work in the same way as a convection oven, combining hot air with gentle automated movements. This way, you get a result very similar to traditional frying, without having to use hardly any oil, or turn on the extractor because there are no annoying odours to eliminate.

For this reason, and because it is so easy and quick to prepare any dish, the air fryer has earned a prominent place in the kitchen. It is a great helper with which we can make an endless number of recipes, including delicious desserts or various delicious sweet preparations, which are also healthier than those cooked in a traditional way.

One of the sweet recipes that I like the most is the one we are sharing today. Some delicious and original apple donuts , which are delicious and are fried by just brushing them with a splash of oil.

Ingredients

• 2 apples*
• 2 eggs
• 50 ml of milk
• 70 g flour**
• 1 tablespoon ActiFry sugar
• 1 tablespoon ActiFry oil
• Powdered sugar

*Use larger or smaller apples depending on your preferences when making the donuts: the larger the diameter of the apple, the wider the donuts or the ones that are more donut-like in size.

**You can use gluten-free flour to make the recipe suitable for celiacs.

Preparation

Preparation of apple donuts:

1. We prepare the dough that we will use to cover the apple: first, we have to separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. We can do this very easily with the Tellier separator . In a bowl, we mix the yolks with the milk and the flour, until we can no longer see the flour and everything is integrated without lumps.
2. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with the sugar until stiff, until you get a light meringue. You can beat the egg whites with a hand whisk or with an electric hand mixer .
3. When the meringue is ready, we will mix it with the mixture of the yolks, flour and milk. We will add it little by little with circular movements, until it is completely integrated and we will set it aside.
4. Prepare the apple: Wash the apples, carefully remove the core using a knife or the WMF apple corer , and cut them into slices (not too thin, but not too thick either, otherwise they won't be appetizing to bite into).
5. Once cut, we will dip them in the mixture we have reserved, so that the entire slice is covered in batter, and we will place them on a plate or tray until the time of cooking them.

We fry the apple donuts:

• If we fry in the Actifry with hardly any oil:

1. We remove the tank from the Actifry oil-free fryer , brush it with olive oil and reinsert it into the fryer.
2. Preheat using manual mode to 220°C for 5 minutes.
3. After the time has elapsed, we take the container out again and arrange the apple slices so that they do not touch each other and fry them in turns, programming in mode 3 for 16 minutes each time, until they are all cooked.
4. Before serving, sprinkle them with powdered sugar and off you go! (I'll leave you more ideas for these donuts below).

Here is the step-by-step video so you can easily prepare them in your Actifry fryer.

• We fry in a frying pan or iron fryer:

1. If you choose to fry them in the more traditional way, put plenty of mild oil in a frying pan or deep fryer and heat it up. When the oil is hot, add the apple donuts. A few at a time, leaving space between them, and fry them on all sides.
2. Remove the doughnuts with a slotted spoon to drain the oil and prevent them from breaking, and place them on a plate lined with kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil. Make all the doughnuts in batches.

If you make the donuts in the oven:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the apple doughnuts on it, leaving space between them. Spray the doughnuts with an oil-based release spray (Gobel's is one), and place them in the oven.
3. Bake the donuts for about 12 minutes on each side, and remove from the oven when they look done (stay close to the oven to monitor cooking) and allow them to cool.

Notes on making the dough:

These apple doughnuts are ideal for a snack or for a Sunday breakfast. They are delicious and very quick and easy to make. You can make them more or less thick, and they will be more or less large depending on the diameter of the apples you choose.

Remember also that you can prepare them to your liking, giving them your personal touch:

• Try flavoring the milk with vanilla, cardamom or nutmeg.
• Use coconut sugar or panela to prepare the batter mixture
• Replace cow's milk with oat milk or your usual vegetable drink.
• Use ground cinnamon to sprinkle the apple donuts before serving, if you don't want to add extra sugar.

And if you want to prepare the batter with any flour other than wheat, you can do that too and we would love to hear how you have made your own versions!

Notes on decorating apple donuts

You can serve apple donuts as is, fried and sprinkled with sugar, or you can add a delicious frosting. Here are some ideas for finishing them off:

• Melt the fondant chocolate of your choice (with a higher or lower cocoa content) on the stove or in the microwave, and dip the apple donuts partially or completely in it. The apple inside and the chocolate are great with hazelnuts, almonds, chopped walnuts or even pistachios.
• You can also cover them with melted white chocolate and sprinkle with sliced ​​almonds or colored chocolate shavings. They look very colorful and delicious.
• Brush or dip them in condensed milk! It's more liquid and doesn't cool like chocolate, so don't overdo it, but the touch of condensed milk with apple and some crunchy or colored balls is delicious.
• Mix sugar with a tablespoon of sugar, and also add 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Brush the doughnuts generously with this mixture, and they will make the wave. If the mixture is made of white sugar, brown sugar, panela and cinnamon, the wave will be double.
• Make a lemon glaze, if you have used red apple the combination will be absolutely successful.

What coverage do you choose?

Pssst , if you're curious about air fryers or oil-free fryers, I highly encourage you to check out the ones we have in store, right here.