Get Out in the Orchard (Apple Fritters)

French cooks would call these Beignets aux Pommes, but damn it, while I’m a French chef, I also grew up in Pennsylvania where huge Deitsch women cook apple fritters in vats of oil, bringing delight to us all.  This is a seasonal variation on my standard fritter recipe.  Don’t be scared by how the batter will look.  It should resemble taffy, however when you drop it in a fryer, you’ll get a crisp, airy, misshapen bit of dough, packed with concentrated apple flavor. 

If you would prefer to cook the fritters on a buttered griddle, deep frying can be scary, add an extra 1/2 cup of milk to the recipe and cook them like small pancakes.  Avoid the temptation to add “Apple Pie Spices” to the fritters.  While that might seem like a good idea at the time, they will burn in the oil and give the fritters a nasty acrid taste. 

October and November is the time to get out in the orchards and support the farmers.  Buy pumpkins and squash with the intention of eating them.   Ask the orchardists for the apples that they don’t normally offer to customers.  Their favorites, the ugly, spotty and streaked fruit is often the best.   

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Apple Fritters

2 cups flour

½ cup milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons melted butter

1 cup sliced apples, sautéed in butter

a pinch each of sugar and salt

powdered sugar for dusting the fritters

Peel, core and thinly slice 2 medium sized, crisp, tart apples.  Here is one place where Jonathans or Macs are a good choice.  Sauté the apples over low heat in 1 tablespoon butter.  You want to soften them, but not cook them so much that you make applesauce.  Refrigerate to cool the cooked apples while you make the batter. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk, egg, butter, salt and sugar.  Mix with a wooden spoon to combine.  Add the baking powder and flour.  Mix the fritter batter until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  You’ve done nothing wrong.  It should be a sticky mess.  Fold in the cooled apples.  Rest the batter for 10 minutes. 

Heat a three inch deep pot of oil to 375°.  The oil must not be too hot or the center of the fritters will not cook.  With a small spoon, drop one teaspoon of batter into the oil.  Turn the fritter when one side is cooked.  Fry for about three minutes until brown and crispy on the outside.  Remove from the oil with a strainer and drain on some newspaper.  Fry the fritters in small batches. Hold the cooked fritter in a 165° oven.   

Dust with powdered sugar before serving hot.  It is unlikely that they will get to cool, since children, spouses and strays normally grab them up as soon as they clear the oil.