A dessert easier than this does not exist. Today we make donuts with apples and puff pastry: an easy, quick, and super delicious recipe thanks to the presence of brown sugar and cinnamon! You will smell this in your kitchens! The recipe I present today is one of the recipes you sent me. Or rather, a girl wrote an email to [email protected] to let me know about and then try this recipe because she likes them so much but couldn’t remake them. So, before moving on to the recipe, I’ll write here below the points where I found some problems, more of skill than actual difficulty, to be of greater help during the preparation of the apple and puff pastry donuts!
The first thing I feel like emphasizing is that you need to make sure to make a large enough hole in the center of the apple slice. This will make it easier for you during the various steps of passing the puff pastry through the hole. In fact, I messed up the first one myself. Unfortunately, the puff pastry tends to stretch and fall apart as we pass it through the donut hole. The warmth of the hands and the moisture of the apples don’t help during this step. I recommend cutting strips of puff pastry that are not too large and making a nice hole in the apple slice.
Second point to keep in mind: cooking. In the recipe I read, it talked about 15-20 minutes of cooking. For me, it’s really too little. Consider your knowledge of the world of puff pastry: can it really be cooked after such a short time? Especially if inside there is the moisture given by the apple? Indeed, after the first 20 minutes, the apple donuts were not cooked, and I extended the cooking time to 30 minutes. Now the pastry was beautifully golden, the brown sugar was shiny on the surface, and the apples inside were soft and delicious to the right point.
Having said that, the recipe is really extremely simple: few steps, few ingredients to get a perfect dessert from breakfast to snack. The scent of baked apple, cinnamon, and lemon. I’m crazy about it, and you? If you’re curious, let’s discover together the recipe with doses and step-by-step procedure. I also recorded the video recipe to help you with the images throughout the preparation!
Over the years, I have prepared many recipes with apples and here below I’ll leave you my favorites. Each link is clickable and will take you directly to the recipe you choose to read. Among these, my favorite is the lemon-scented apple cake as my grandma used to make it. Maybe because I associate it with so many beautiful memories that, just preparing it, I remember her, that scent of apple and lemon in the kitchen that smelled of home, of grandma.
Before moving on to the recipe, I remind you that I’ll be waiting for you every morning in the group and fan page on Facebook of Le Ricette di Bea with the Recipe of the Day! An unmissable appointment to start the day with a sweet or savory treat!
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Very Cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 10Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter and Spring, All Seasons
- Energy 159.04 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 14.61 (g) of which sugars 3.22 (g)
- Proteins 2.52 (g)
- Fat 10.06 (g) of which saturated 1.57 (g)of which unsaturated 8.00 (g)
- Fibers 1.00 (g)
- Sodium 109.30 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 30 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for 10 Apple and Puff Pastry Donuts
- 1 package puff pastry (rectangular)
- 2 apples (I chose red and firm ones from Val Venosta)
- 1 egg (or a yolk or milk to brush)
- to taste brown sugar
- to taste ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (to brush the apples)
- 1 pinch salt
Tools to Prepare Donuts with Apples and Puff Pastry with Sugar and Cinnamon
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Pizza Cutter
- 1 Brush
- 1 Oven
- 1 Parchment Paper
- 1 Cooling Rack
- 2 Small Bowls
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Baking Sheet
- 1 Fork
Recipe Steps: Delicious and Fragrant Donuts with Apples and Puff Pastry with Cinnamon
I start the preparation of today’s dessert with the puff pastry and apples, by turning on the oven to 356 degrees Fahrenheit in static mode. I place all the ingredients on the work surface and start with the apples. I gently remove the peel with the help of a knife. I cut the apple slices to the same thickness. This will help us during the baking in the oven.
I make the holes. You can use a large piping bag tip, as I did, or a zucchini corer, so you have a point to score the apple without breaking it. I place the apples on a baking sheet covered with a sheet of parchment paper. I take the lemon juice and the kitchen brush and brush the surface of the apples to prevent them from browning.
Now I unroll the rectangular puff pastry and trim many strips with the help of a pizza cutter. And here, as I was saying, this is the part where you need to be careful and gentle but decisive at the same time. The hole I made was large enough to allow the puff pastry to pass multiple times through it without sticking and breaking during this step of the recipe.
Once the puff pastry has been passed through the hole to cover the entire apple, I can place the apple donuts on the baking sheet. I now prepare the mix of brown sugar and cinnamon by pouring these two ingredients into a small bowl and, with a spoon, I mix them. In another small bowl, I crack the egg and add a pinch of salt. I beat it with a fork and, with the brush, I thoroughly wet the surface of the apple and puff pastry donuts. I sprinkle the surface with brown sugar and cinnamon that I had prepared earlier and bake.
Bake in the center of the oven at 356 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30-32 minutes. Of course, the cooking time may vary depending on the size of the apple donuts, whether you cut them thicker or not. However, consider at least 25 minutes, then always check the oven, the puff pastry should be golden and crispy.
I remove from the oven and transfer the small apple and puff pastry donuts to a cooling rack so they can cool down without absorbing more heat from the baking sheet. You can dust them with powdered sugar before serving. I preferred without because I don’t particularly love it.
Our dessert with apples and puff pastry is finally ready to be enjoyed. Do you smell that scent of apple and cinnamon in your kitchen? I love it, and you?! All that’s left is to wish you a good appetite and remind you that I’ll be waiting for you every day here on my blog with many easy, quick, and delicious recipes like this one!
Tips, Storage, and Variations of the Recipe:
Tips and Variations: as already emphasized in the text and procedure, you will need to carefully score the apple creating a hole large enough to allow the puff pastry to pass through it multiple times. Brush the apples with lemon to prevent them from browning. If you don’t want to use the egg, you can replace it with milk or a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. The browning will be different, but you won’t have wasted an egg just for brushing the pastry. To read about the differences in browning, I recommend this special I published a few months ago: Tips for Achieving a Perfect Golden Puff Pastry.
If you don’t want or don’t like brown sugar, you can use white sugar.
You can store the apple and puff pastry donuts for two days in a covered cake container, so the pastry doesn’t become soft from absorbing too much air. It will not be necessary to heat them before serving them again at the table.
