Description
The only thing better than these crispy, sugar-coated treasures almost overloaded with apple slivers is the conversation that happens between friends and family when you put out a platter of these. Families are fortified and friendship is forged over fritters.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 pounds apples (see note)(about a kilogram)
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 4 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (606 g)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar (66 g)
- 5 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons apple pie spice (or ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice)
- 1 and 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 5 large eggs
- 3/4 cup milk (177 mL)
- 2 Tablespoons whiskey (I’m using Jack Daniel’s apple) or rum
- 1/3 cup butter (75 g)
- 1 twelve oz. bottle hard cider (Angry Orchard, Woodchuck, and Strongbow are all good here)
- Oil for frying, or for the best fritters: homemade lard
Instructions
- Fritters are best if you can prep everything the day before you want to make them.
- Peel the apples, and then cut them into thin small pieces. The best way to do this is to cut just to the right of the core on all 4 sides of the apple to get large wedges. Cut each side of the apple into planks about 1/2″ wide. Rotate the planks and cut into 1/16″ thin pieces. They will look more or less like big confetti pieces. As you’re cutting the apples, toss them in a bowl with the lemon juice.
- Pack up the apples in a plastic bag, making sure to get out as much air as possible. The apples will still oxidize a little bit, but this will not affect the taste or the look in the final fritters.
- Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, apple pie spice, and salt in another plastic bag. Seal the bag and shake it well to mix everything together.
- The next day, fill a deep, heavy bottomed pot (cast iron is ideal) with about 4” of lard or oil. Clip your thermometer to the backside of the pot and heat over high initially. The oil needs to be at 350 F (180 C) before you’re ready to fry. This gives you time to finish making the batter.
- Melt the butter, and set it aside for a couple minutes to cool.
- Crack the eggs into a blender (and immersion blender is good too) with the milk and whiskey. Whiz everything for a few seconds to blend the eggs well.
- Dump the flour mix and apples into the largest mixing bowl you have (a roasting pan is also good here). Pour over the cider, egg mixture, and butter. Fold everything together into a loose-ish batter.
- When your oil is at 350 F, fill up a 1/3 cup measuring cup with batter. Position yourself close to the surface of the oil and use a spoon to scoop the batter into the oil. Fry no more than 4 or 5 fritters at a time. You’ll notice that the heat on the thermometer will drop immediately. Do not worry but simply raise the heat on the stove. As long as you don’t overcrowd the fritters in the pan, you’ll be okay.
- Keep turning the fritters over in the oil frequently until they’re deep brown in color. To test when they’re done, stick a toothpick in the center; the toothpick should come out clean. If there’s any batter on the toothpick, test after another minute.
- Scoop out the fritters from the oil with a long-handled strainer (spider) onto a thick pad of paper towels set in a sheet tray.
- Inevitably, there will be small bits of batter that are floating in the oil. Cook these like the other fritters, though you’ll have to strain them out sooner since they’ll cook faster. We call these Tiny Crispies, and they might be even tastier than the full fritters!
- Meanwhile, start another round of fritters, making sure that your oil is back to 350 F. It’s important that the oil stays at this temp so that the fritters don’t absorb too much of the oil. You may need to raise or lower your heat periodically to keep it around here.
- After the fritters have cooled for a couple minutes, pick them up and roll them in a bowl filled with granulated sugar. Set the sugared fritters on a plate for serving.
- Fritters are best eaten right out of the oil, though they’re still good at room temperature for a couple hours. After that, they’ll get soft, but can be reheated in a 300 F oven for about 10 minutes. Do not microwave these—you’ll kill the texture!
Notes
Apple choices: A mix of apple varieties will give you the best flavor. Any sweet or sweet tart cooking apples that hold their shape do well here. McIntosh, Gravenstein, Pink Lady, Gala, Fuji, Ginger Gold, Liberty, or Golden Delicious are all good choices. Make sure your apples are firm when you fritter them. Apples past their prime are better for applesauce or apple butter.
Pear fritters: my dear friend in South Dakota makes fritters with pears instead. It makes sense since pears and apples are so botanically close. Use firm ripe pears and pear cider if you can’t find it.
On the nutrition: the app I use to calculate nutrition is calculating for fritters that are NOT rolled in sugar. As it’s hard to know exactly how much sugar is on any given fritter, this is a closer estimation. It’s also likely that the calculator can’t give a good estimation on how much oil any given fritter is absorbing or that the cholesterol should likely be higher if fried in lard. In reality, whether you can believe the numbers or not, fritters are not a diet food at all.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Pastry
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: German
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 fritter
- Calories: 295
- Sugar: 8
- Sodium: 253
- Fat: 18
- Saturated Fat: 3
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 29
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 4
- Cholesterol: 46