Baked Apple Fritters with Maple-Cider Glaze and Broiled Tops

Baked apple fritters with maple-cider glaze skip the fryer, using the broiler to blister the spiced tops into a glassy, crackling sugar crust. I fold shredded and cubed fruit into the dough for 24 tender mini rounds in 40 minutes.

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How to Make Baked Apple Fritters with Maple-Cider Glaze

Heat the oven and prep the pans. Set a rack in the middle of your oven, roughly 6 inches beneath the top heating element, and heat to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray and cover a broiler-safe metal baking sheet with aluminum foil to catch the dripping sugar later.

Cut in the cold butter. Whisk the all-purpose flour, light brown sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon, fine sea salt, and freshly grated nutmeg in a wide bowl. Toss in the cold ½-inch butter cubes and rub them into the dry mix with your fingertips or a pastry cutter until sandy crumbs form with pea-sized bits of butter still showing.

Stop working the butter while pea-sized pieces still show so they steam and lift the heavy batter in the oven.

Fold the batter and fruit. Whisk the whole-milk vanilla yogurt, egg, and pure vanilla extract in a separate bowl until smooth, then fold into the flour mixture with a flexible spatula just until a thick, rough dough comes together. Fold in the 1 ¼ cups finely diced apple and ⅓ cup coarsely grated apple, keeping your diced pieces strictly at ¼ inch. Whenever my knife work gets sloppy and leaves half-inch chunks, the fruit stays raw in the brief bake and forces the small rounds to break apart when lifted from the tin.

Mound and bake. Scoop about 1 ½ rounded tablespoons of dough into each of the 24 mini muffin cups. Leave the tops jagged and uneven so those high ridges catch the broiler heat later, then bake for 12 to 14 minutes until the centers spring back under a light tap and the edges turn golden brown.

Glaze and broil until bubbly. Pull the muffin tin out, switch the oven to high broil, and run a thin knife around the warm rounds to transfer them upright onto your foil-lined baking sheet spaced 1 inch apart. Whisk ¾ cup (90 g) powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons (45 ml) apple cider, and 1 tablespoon (15 ml) pure maple syrup into a thin wash, brush it generously over the tops and sides, and save the rest in the bowl. Broil on the center rack for 1 to 2 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through, and stay at the oven door watching until the glaze foams and forms amber spots so the sugars do not scorch.

Brush the final shell. Pull the sheet from the oven right away and whisk the remaining ¾ cup (90 g) powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon (15 ml) apple cider into the reserved bowl until thick and opaque. Brush this second coat over the hot rounds and let them cool on the pan for 10 minutes until the glaze hardens into a crisp shell.

Common Questions About Baked Apple Fritters

Can I use apple juice instead of apple cider in the glaze?

Yes, unsweetened apple juice works in the same ¼ cup (60 ml) measure if unfiltered apple cider isn’t in your fridge. The glaze still sets into a snappy shell, though the orchard tang will taste milder.

Why didn’t my second layer of glaze harden?

The second coat needs both the residual heat of the freshly broiled rounds and the full 10 minutes of cooling on the sheet pan to crystallize. If the mixture looked translucent when brushed on, whisk in an extra spoonful of powdered sugar next time until it turns thick and opaque before applying.

Can I bake this dough in a standard 12-cup muffin pan?

Stick with a 24-cup mini muffin pan so every piece has enough crust-to-crumb ratio to eat like a true fritter. Standard muffin cups trap more moisture in the middle and need longer in the oven, which darkens the brown-sugar bottoms before the centers set.

Grabbing two warm rounds off the foil sheet right at the 10-minute mark, when the amber glaze snaps over the tender cinnamon crumb, is my favorite part of a weekend morning. Save this recipe for the next time Honeycrisp or Granny Smith apples sit on your counter and you want doughnut-shop texture without heating a pot of oil.

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