Have you ever tried a recipe for the first time and thought to yourself, where have you been all my life? Well, that was me just this past weekend when I opened up my newest cookbook. If you’re wondering, be sure to hop over to my family blog and find out how I discovered the Southern Plate Cookbook on twitter.
Now about the fritters, I’m almost ashamed to admit this, but I’ve never had an Apple Fritter before, actually, not even a fritter period. I’ve clearly been missing out. They’re like apple pie, apple bread and apple cake all wrapped up into this comforting, little ball of goodness.
FYI – a fritter is … a small mass of fried batter often containing fruit or meat. Call me silly, but I love the dictionary and using it to look up funny sounding words. Yes, I find humor in the word fritter.
Ingredients
(adapted from Southern Plate Cookbook)
- 2 cups self-rising flour
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Apple Pie Spice (substituted for cinnamon)
- 1 cup milk
- 3 TBS butter, melted
- 2 large eggs
- 2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced (substituted for 2 cups apples)
- powdered sugar, optional
Before preparing the batter, I pulled out my trusty cast iron skillet and filled it about 1/2 inch deep with pure vegetable oil (add more for larger fritters like I made to avoid scorching the bottom of the fritters) and placed it over a medium heat (4 on an electric stove).
While the oil is heating, combine the flour, brown sugar and apple pie spice in a large mixing bowl. I used a fork (as suggested in the cookbook) to mix the ingredients and break up any clumps, which could probably be avoided by sifting the dry ingredients beforehand.
While the fritters would be incredible with just about any baking apple, I chose my all time favorite, the Granny Smith. It gave the fritters that extra little kick of sour to balance all of the sweetness of the batter.
Add the milk, butter and eggs to the dry ingredients and stir well. Add diced apples and stir.
With the batter and oil now ready, I used an ice cream scoop to add about 4 to 5 dollops of batter to the hot oil. My first batch turned out some rather large fritters, so for the additional ones, I only filled the scoop about half way.
At this point I wish I had used a timer so I could say exactly how long each side spent frying but I would guess it wasn’t anymore than 2 minutes per side, probably even less. I just used a metal straining spoon to lift the edge and see how brown it was getting every 30 seconds or so. Once brown, just carefully flip each fritter over to cook on the other side.
As someone who is often intimidated by hot oil, you would be too if you’ve set a few grease fires, I found these extremely easy to make. While I don’t have a fritter to compare these too, saying they’re the best I’ve ever had wouldn’t exactly mean much but, after taking my first bite, I walked into the living room, looked at my husband and whispered, “uhhhh Jon, these are soooooo good”. Don’t ask my why I whispered, subconsciously I was probably trying to avoid alerting my children of the freshly fried fritters so I wouldn’t have to share them.
Inside the fritters …pure comfort … bite size bits of apple that are tender surrounded by the cake-like fried batter. Mmmmm. Just talking about these makes me want to go fry another batch.
As much as I’d love to share all all of the goodies inside the Southern Plate Cookbook, I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun of discovering them for yourself. So go grab yourself a copy, if you love comforting, Southern cooking, you won’t regret it!
Katherine says
We LOVE apple fritters in our family! We do them with sliced apples though – same goodness otherwise, just a different texture since it’s more apple than filler. YUM I want some right now!! 🙂
Avanika (Yumsilicious Bakes) says
Oh yumm. I love fritters. That last picture has me drooling for some!
Henrietta says
MMM! I haven’t had a fritter in ages! Yours look delicious!
Lorie Shewbridge says
OMG, these look SO good and a simple recipe to do. I’m always looking for something to do with apples besides pie because they are one of my favorite fruits. I will definitely be trying these.
Thanks!!
Lisa L says
MMM….looks delicious & easy to make too. I’ll be trying these. Thanks!
Sarah @ OneStarryNight says
Oh wow those look AWESOME! I wish I could figure out an alternative way to frying them (on weightwatchers right now). I LOVE anything apple!
Regina Clower says
I made you apple fritters today – they are fabulous and so easy!