Apple Fritters
Whenever The Picky Apple gets doughnuts (or donuts, however you spell it), I always request an apple fritter. Plain glazed donuts are great (and obviously the favorite choice of The Picky Apple, because they’re the plainest donut of all), chocolate glazed donuts are even better, but my favorite donut is the apple fritter. Crunchy, sweet, and melt-in-your mouth on the outside, cinnamon-y dough with apple chunks on the inside. At least, that’s the way they are made at Shipley’s, our favorite donut shop.
When I saw that Peabody and Tartelette were hosting Time to Make the Doughnuts, I knew I wanted to participate. I briefly considered making beignets, having just had Mardi Gras and New Orleans on the brain. As I mentioned in my King Cake post, I used to live in Louisiana, and whenever we went to New Orleans, we always had beignets at Cafe Du Monde at least once or twice during our stay. Ah, the smell of fried dough and coffee in the air, the tables and chairs slightly sticky from all the powdered sugar. I’ve made beignets once or twice before. Beignets are delicious and fairly simple to make, but I’ve been craving apple fritters. Besides, I’ve never made apple fritters, and there’s something really satisfying about trying/creating a new recipe that turns out well, don’t you think?  Notice how I said it’s satisfying when it turns out well.
My foray into the world of apple fritters seemed doomed from the get-go. I had lots of trouble finding a recipe. Many apple fritter recipes I ran across were for fried apple slices, which I’m sure are great, but not what I had in mind. After finding a few recipes that were close to what I was looking for, I decided to do my own thing.
The key to any good donut is lots of hot oil because after all, donuts are fried dough. I was low on oil, so decided to substitute Crisco. Substitutions already? That should be your first clue that things are about to go horribly wrong. But how bad could it be? Besides, the Crisco was butter flavored, so that should taste good, right? Right? WRONG. Very very very wrong. The first batch of apple fritters were overwhelmed by the yucky taste of artificial butter. And they were too salty. And the texture wasn’t quite right. And the powdered sugar coating didn’t stick because I waited too long. Need I go on? All in all, disastrous. The Picky Apple took one bite of his, and promptly spit it out and threw the rest in the trash. I tried so hard to like them, thought maybe they would grow on me, but they did not. I decided maybe it wasn’t meant to be….
But all weekend, I kept thinking about apple fritters, reading other entries in the doughnut event, and decided to give it one more try this afternoon with the event deadline looming. I couldn’t stand being defeated by the apple fritters. For my second attempt, I used oil and changed up my recipe a little. This batch turned out much better (because really, they couldn’t get much worse than that first batch!).  They still weren’t as good as the apple fritters from Shipley’s….not even close. But they were decent, and I’m glad I attempted donuts for this event.
Apple Fritters
Fritter:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 cup chopped apple
Glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons milk
Directions:  Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon. Stir in milk and egg until just combined. Fold in apple. Pour oil into skillet so that it is approximately 1 1/2 deep. Heat oil on high. Oil is ready when dough floats to top. Carefully add dough to oil in heaping teaspoons. Cook until brown, about 2 minutes, then flip. Cook another 1-2 minutes, until both sides are browned. Transfer briefly to paper towels to absorb excess oil, then transfer to cooling rack. Make glaze by stirring milk and powdered sugar together in a small bowl. Drizzle over apple fritters. Wait approximately 3 minutes for glaze to harden, then flip fritters and drizzle glaze over the other side. Best served warm.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Culinary Concoctions by Peabody » Time to Make the Doughnuts….
- Donuts! « The Recipe Box
- Dine and Dish » Autumn in a Bundle
- Apple Fritters « JAMIE’S KITCHEN
- The Picky Apple » 2008 in Review
- Apple Fritters « Jamie’s Recipes
- seeing apples in a different light « :: epicurean escapism ::
- Weekly Menu Plan | The Picky Apple
- Apple Picks | The Picky Apple
- What You’re Reading | The Picky Apple
I always go for the apple fritter too! They are the best.
They look wonderful! Apple fritters rock with a good glass of cider! Wonderful entry!
Wow! This is my favorite doughnut too.. and when looking for a recipe for them, I found only yeasted recipes.. (is the reason why I went for a different apple fritter for my submission) but this is EXACTLY what I was looking for! They look SO GOOD! Thanks Cara! 🙂
xoxo
I LOOOVE apple fritters. I still remember the first time I ever ate one, and it was a revelation. Soooo good — and these look amazing!!
There is a group of apple orchards outside of Sacramento that my family frequents.. and their apple fritters are to die for!!!
This makes me miss home.. these look soo yummy…
Your apple fritters look great. Good for you not giving up after the first failed attempt!
These look yummy and so much better than the apple fritters we get at Starbucks!
Reading this has left me with my mouth watering. It has been years since I have had an apple fritter. What a great entry!
These look like they’re absolutely dripping with icing — just they way I like them!
I am going to try these. I’m looking for a good recipe like the one I get at dominick’s grocery store here in Chicago. It is the best I’ve tried so far. I hope I find one just like it.
I don’t get to my local American bakery as much anymore, so I’ve been looking for a recipe. All I found were the fried apples and other cakey ones. Thanks for this!
What do you think of this recipe? Makes a lot.
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/06/cook-the-book-apple-fritters.html
Kat,
That recipe looks great! That may be exactly what I was trying to make with my apple fritter recipe. I’ll have to give it a try. Thanks for letting me know about it.
I tried it. it was Ok. not like the dominicks brand I’m looking for. I would’ve liked it more crispy and less cakey and it was a little bland. Kids like it.
The only apple fritters I ever have had are at Disneyland in Anaheim…New Orleans Square…they are fabulous!!!
I tried these this morning and they are very simple to make for a male non-cook, and they are delicious. My family was amazed at my Saturday morning accomplishment. Your recipe made 4 fritters, which was just right for our family of four, but naturally we all wanted more! I did have to adjust the recipe for glaze. I used a cup of powdered sugar and added enough milk to make a thick liquid.
I to am from louisiana outside of new orleans in fact,all though i like beignets the apple fritter is my favorite this recipe sound like a good one.
I just had a yen for fritters, visited Pastry Chef Google, who sent me to you. Whipped up a batch and am running back, with still-sticky fingers (not doing any good to my keyboard) to send you a resounding thanks! All the mouths in my house are grinning through the glaze.
i made your apple fritters today and i have to say they are amazing. i set out looking for a copycat Starbucks recipe and came across yours. it definately sufficed! it is incredible. just as good as Starbucks or BETTER!
Love these fritters!!!!
third time making them in 2 months!
Easy to make, not a large batch which is great as the bigger the batch the more we’d eat! my kids and husband love them for an after dinner dessert!
All of the ‘real’ bakeries use those huge cans of precooked and jell-packed apples….. but I’m giving yours a try! Thanks
I just made these and WHOA. They were EASY and delicious!!! I’m making them again for our families on Sunday for Mother’s Day. Thanks for the recipe! I’ve been holding onto it for a while now and they were worth the wait!
I just made these! AWESOME! I cut the glaze in half, though, because I didn’t want to overpower the fritter. Thank you so much for the recipe. I’m sure this will be a family favorite for years to come.
Hey everyone! Thanks so much to all of you who have tried these apple fritters and commented on them! They’ve been getting lots of love lately, and it really makes my day to see all of your comments!
I tried these…they weren’t what I was looking for. I’m desperately trying to make apple fritters like you get at the donut shop. So far, the best efforts have been with raised (yeast) dough. These just weren’t crispy enough for my taste. The pics look fabulous tho, thanks for sharing.
Ciao, I’m Luana,
Hi, I’m writing from Italy, thanks for this recipe…. can’t wait to make them this week-end… apple fritters remind me of when I was a little girl that lived in Canada and that now is a bit older….I want my children and their friends to party on the american APPLE FRITTERS Grazie tanto per la ricetta…!!!!! Sei Grande!! Luana from Italy.
Just what I was looking for. We just got a fryer for our concession. I plan on selling them at festivals. Thanks so much!!!
My four year old wanted an apple instead (there’s something not right about that boy!), but my 2 year old woke up from his nap and thought he had walked into the seventh dimension of heaven. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this.
I was too lazy to play with glaze, so I sprinkled powdered sugar on them and it stuck well (and tasted wonderful).
Thanks for the recipe. I haven’t made it yet, but with all the positive comments, I’m sure it’s the one I’ve been looking for. I’ll get some apples today!!
I’m so looking forward to these-I’m going to make them this weekend-it’s so cheap to cook from scratch-I sure can’t afford a trip to the doughnut store! Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this recipe. It was great and really hit the spot for what our family wanted. I will need to play with the glaze a bit (it was a little sweeter than we wanted) but that is just to suit our personal tastes.
Donut shop yummy!!
Maybe I am doing this wrong but mine burnt and the insides didn’t cook…
Also 2 cups of powdered sugar does not mix with only 2 tbs of milk!
I was so excited to make these and then really dissapointed 🙁
Lucy,
Sorry to hear the recipe didn’t work out for you….it’s hard to say exactly what happened, but my guess is that your oil might have been too hot. (I’ve done that before. I’ve also had the oil not hot enough, which is also problematic). For the glaze, I like mine fairly thick, but definitely add more milk until it is your preferred consistency! I hope you’ll try them again!
what type of oil did you use to make your apple fritters?
Tried this recipe this morning and it turned out great! The key to our success was small batches of dough (one ice cream scoop’s worth each) and using our beloved Fry Daddy. They were crispy on the outside, and steamy and delicious on the inside. One small change ot the recipe was to increase the amount of apple to one large braeburn (almost 2 cups diced) to ensure each bite had yummy apple flavor. Thanks for the great recipe!
I added an extra half cup of flour and extra half cup of apples , so the batter was almost solid, then cooked them on Medium Heat for 2-3 mins per side, dropped in about 2 tbs of batter per turned out closer to donut shop style
This recipe is fantastic. I’ve used it 3 times in the last 2 weeks! Hot, crispy, delicious.
One question – how would you go about making the fritters a bit thinner and more dense? It seems that when you by them in stores, they are a bit more collapsed, for lack of a better term. Less cakey, heavier, but just as tasty.
Reed-I’m so glad that you enjoy my apple fritters recipe. As for your question…to make them thinner, you could add a little more milk and drizzle the batter into the pan more like pancakes. To make it more dense (which might not work if you make them thinner too), you could cut back on the baking powder…I’d start by cutting it in half, and see how that works. Hope that helps!
Just made these and, after some trial and error, they turned out yummy! I was also one of those where my first few burned and the inside was raw. When heating the oil, it’s best to maybe heat at medium or medium high instead of just high. After letting the oil cool and adjust the temperature down, it worked a LOT better. Very yummy! I loved the glaze, but it required a little more milk to get the consistency I wanted. Thank you so much for the recipe!