Homemade Apple Butter Filled Donut Holes

 Summers are notorious for country fairs and nothing is more country fair than my Apple Butter Filled Fried Choux with maple cream. Frying with LouAna Peanut Oil makes these beauties easy to make at home.

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*this post originally posted in June of 2017. Updates were made with photography and writing for better flow within the post.*

Everybody loves going to country fairs and they seem to be abundant with summer in full swing. These fairs are notorious for their crazy fried fare and there always seems to be a new addition to the repertoire of fried goodies. In Arizona, our state fair isn’t until late October, but honestly, you could never expect people to pay $20 to be outside in the middle of July for some fried food. Kinda smart on their end, whoever “they” are.

When I moved up to Utah for college, I was introduced to this amazing thing called apple butter. It has nothing to do with butter but everything to do with apples! Seriously, homemade apple butter makes these deep-fried donut holes! So yummy!

And it couldn’t be simpler than throwing some apples and seasonings in a crockpot and calling it a day. Then you blend it up and wham bam! Apple butter. It’s fantastic on toast but I highly recommend stuffing doughnuts or pastries with them.

Are Donut Holes Actually Donut Holes

Yes and no!

Typically when you think of traditional donuts, the ones made from a yeast dough and that have a hole in the middle, those donut holes are the holes from the bigger donuts.

However, over the years, people have made donut holes without punching out donut holes.

These donut holes are the latter.

This donut hole recipe is not made from a traditional yeast dough but rather what is called pate au choux, choux paste, or éclair paste.

It is the same pastry dough used to make eclairs, profiteroles (those are the ones that make cream puffs). It’s a light and airy pastry that hollows out when cooked. It’s absolutely delicious! (check out this post for Chocolate Cream Puffs)

In France, they would make their beignets out of choux pastry, which is much different than the Creole, New Orleans style beignets in which the dough rises from having yeast in the dough. These fried choux gets its puff from the steam created from the cooking of the eggs. When completely done, it’s practically hollow, leaving a fantastic shell that can be filled with any kind of filling, sweet or savory.

Do Donut Holes Have Dairy

This one does. Because this is made from a pate au choux batter, it does contain some butter within the batter. I wouldn’t recommend leaving the butter out of the batter just for the sake of wanting it to be dairy-free.

How To Make Homemade Apple Butter

Apple butter is super incredibly easy to make at home. It’s as simple as chopping up apples (sans skin), adding whole spices, and throwing it all into a slow cooker.

Within 4 hours, you have spiced, cooked apples, that are ready to be blended into apple butter!

For this apple butter, I like to add spices like cinnamon, cloves, and star anise for a rice fall flavor.

You also don’t need to add any sugar to the apples because the natural sugars from the apples will come out and sweeten everything.

What Apples to Use for Homemade Apple Butter

I LOVE LOVE LOVE using Gala apples for apple butter. They’re super sweet and they breakdown easily, which is the opposite of what you want to happen in apple pie filling.

Honeycrisp would also be a great apple to use as well because of the sweetness of the apple.

I would stay away from firmer apples like Granny Smiths or away from drab tasting apples like Red Delicious when making apple butter.

Frying Tips 101

Frying is very much a scientific process and there are some things you need to keep in mind when making delicious fried treats at home.

The first thing you have keep in mind is the kind of oil you’re using. The best oil to use for frying is peanut oil; it has a fantastically high smoke point which means that it can withstand super-hot temperatures without the oil breaking down, molecularly, causing it to burn. You’ll often see stir fry recipes call for the use of peanut oil, this is why. And don’t worry about a peanutty aftertaste, this oil does a really good job of not altering the taste of the food!

I loved using LouAna for this recipe because they make great quality oils, and their peanut oil is no exception. I was able to fry these choux without worrying about my oil burning, I achieved a gorgeous color on them and there was no weird aftertaste that you sometimes get with other oils.

This brand comes highly recommended. And they’re so easy to find! I was able to find this gallon of oil at Walmart, so it’s not some inconspicuous OR expensive brand. I love how accessible they are.

Another thing you need to keep in mind when frying, or rather, post-frying, you need to have your cinnamon sugar mix ready to go so that when these beauties are done frying, you can pop them right into the sugar and season them right away.

Maple Cream Sauce

The piece that really ties all of this together is the maple cream! I really wanted more of a saucy-glaze rather than a cream cheese “frosting,” as you will. The key to this sauce is thoroughly creaming the cream cheese so that when you add the maple syrup and some milk to the cream cheese, it doesn’t get all lumpy and weird on you. Nothing worse than having a bumpy sauce!

I really hope that you enjoy this recipe, have fun frying up all kinds of delicious creations this summer. Check out LouAna’s oils and definitely give this peanut oil a try. I really think it will help you achieve the results that desired when making delicious fried food!

If there are any country fair fare you would like to see featured on the blog, leave a comment or email me and I totally make it!

Happy eating!

For more awesome apple recipes, check out these posts:

• Apple Streusel Muffins
• Easy Apple Crumb Pie
• Puff Pastry Apple Turnovers
• How To Make Apple Pie Filling
• Sweet Potato Bake with Fresh Cranberries and Apples
• Leftover Apple Pie Milkshake
• Rustic Cranberry Apple Galette

Check out these other delicious fried treats:

• Roasted Corn Fritter with Sriracha Mayo
• Coke Battered Deep Fried Cod
• Gourmet Fried Chicken and Waffles
• Fried Mac and Cheese Balls with Bacon Jam
• Mexican Fried Ice Cream
• Southwestern Fried Green Tomatoes
• Fried Okra with Sriracha Mayo
• Fried Risotto Balls

Continue to Content

Homemade Apple Butter Filled Donut Holes

Yield: 27 each

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Summers are notorious for country fairs and nothing is more
country fair than my Apple Butter Filled Donut Holes with maple cream. Frying with LouAna Peanut Oil makes these beauties easy to make at home.

Print

Ingredients

Maple Cream Sauce

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons milk

Apple Butter

• 4 each Gala apples, peeled, cored and small chopped
• 4 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3 star anise

Choux Pastry

• 8 ounces of water
• 3 ounces butter
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2-ounce cake flour
• 2 ¾ ounces bread flour
• 8 ounces eggs, , about 4 each

Cinnamon Sugar

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

Maple Cream Sauce

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. Scrape the edges of the bowl and add the maple syrup and the milk. Mix well until a smooth sauce is achieved.

Apple Butter

1. Cut apples and place in a crock pot with spices. Cook on high for 4 hours. Stir occasionally.
2. Blend cooked apples until smooth. Store in a plastic baggie for piping.

Choux Pastry

1. In a medium saucepot, bring water, butter, and salt to a boil.
2. Remove from heat and stir in flours until well combined and pulls together in a ball.
3. Place dough in a mixing bowl, fitted with the paddle attachment, and begin mixing on low. Introduce one egg at a time to the dough until fully incorporated before adding the next egg. Once all eggs have been added the dough should be shiny and smooth with a pale yellow color.

Putting the Donut Holes Together

1. Bring peanut oil to temperature over medium-high heat in a deep-sided pot. When oil becomes loose and there are ribbons on the bottom, the oil is ready.
2. Using a cookie scoop, scoop pastry into hot oil and let fry for about 9 minutes.
3. Remove from oil and place in cinnamon sugar and make sure the fried choux is fully coated.
4. Using a skewer or a chopstick, puncture a hole in the choux.
5. Take the apple butter baggie, cut a small corner off the bag and pipe into the choux until full.
6. Dip into maple cream sauce and enjoy.

Nutrition Information

Yield 27 Serving Size each
Amount Per ServingCalories 153Saturated Fat 3gCholesterol 47mgSodium 85mgCarbohydrates 22gFiber 1gSugar 16gProtein 2g

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