Apple Fritters

While I’m not always a fan of fruit, I have to say that apple fritters are one of my all-time favorite things in the world. I think because there might not be another dessert that includes fresh fruit…yet still screams out that this is NOT health food.

Plus, pretty much anything fried is great. I went to China and ate fried scorpions and even then all I thought was – “not bad”.

These however are definitely not “not bad”. They are outstanding!

Difficulty: easy
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Fritters

2-3 apples* (you’re going to want to end up with 3 cups of diced apples, so use however many apples it takes to get there)
2 eggs
2 ½ T dark brown sugar
2 t vanilla
¼ cup milk (this is not a recipe that calls for skim milk…just sayin’)
1 cup flour
2 t baking powder
1 ½ t cinnamon
1 t baking soda
2 t lemon juice
Oil for frying. Use vegetable or corn or canola.

Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar
2 ½ T milk (again, probably not skim)
1 t vanilla [/recipe-ingredients]

Directions

These are pretty simple, though they do involve frying so be careful!

Start with the apples. You can pretty much use any type of apple you prefer, but I’d recommend Granny Smith or Honeycrisp. Better yet, mix it up a bit and use 2 or 3 different types to vary up the flavors a bit.

Dice the apples into small chunks and set that aside in a bowl – you’ll need it soon.

Put the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and milk into a large bowl and mix until well combined. Add in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and baking soda and mix again, until everything is once again well combined.

Get your diced apples. Add in the lemon juice and gently stir with a wooden spoon.

Add the apples into the batter and mix with a wooden spoon until they are evenly distributed throughout.

Pour your oil into a medium saucepot. How much you’ll need depends on the size of the pot, but figure you’ll need enough to cover the fritters (you’ll be making 6).

Heat the oil to 375 degrees. Here, you’ll need a thermometer for this. It needs to be this hot for the fritters to cook all the way through – too cold and they’ll cook on the outside and be raw on the inside…too hot and they’ll burn.

When your oil is hot enough, take large wooden spoonfuls of the batter and put them into the oil. You’re shooting to make six of these, so eyeball about how big each should be. BE CAREFUL! The oil is hot (375 hot to be exact) and may splash when you put the dough in. You don’t want it to splash on you, because pain hurts.

Cooking time is more of an eyeball thing. Cook them until the bottom is a dark golden brown, then flip each one and cook that side until that side is also a nice golden brown. For me, it only took a couple minutes for each side.

When they’re done, lift them out with a slotted wooden spoon and place them on paper towels to drain. I put 4 layers of paper towels on a cookie sheet so that if the oil soaked through it wouldn’t get all over the counter. I think that was a good idea.

While the fritters are draining and cooling, you can make the glaze. Like most glazes this is super-simple – just pour all three ingredients (powdered sugar, milk, vanilla) into a smallish bowl and whisk together until smooth.

Once the fritters are cool enough to handle with your fingers (they can still be a little warm), dip them into the glaze, pour the glaze over them or just use a brush to coat them. Place the fritters onto a wire rack to cool – put more paper towels or newspaper underneath it in order to protect your counter.