Everyone goes crazy for pumpkin spice everything in the autumn. Don’t misunderstand – I enjoy pumpkins too. I love using their innards to make an orzo dish, cookies, or pie. Of course, I love to roast the seeds. But if pressed to choose, my favorite autumn flavor comes from apples.
I took some time this weekend to turn several apples my family picked into jelly. I decided it was a perfect opportunity to try the apple fritter recipes from the book Irish Traditional Cooking by Darina Allen. The batter is a simple mixture of flour, salt, egg, and milk. Allen suggests using a deep fryer, but a frying pan with a layer of oil works as well – and it’s what our ancestors would have used*. My family tries to eat healthy as much as possible, so we don’t do enough frying to validate us purchasing a deep fryer. I used a wide frying pan. It was definitely difficult, as the batter stuck to the bottom. The results weren’t as pretty as they would have been in a deep fryer, but they were tasty! I added a dusting of confectionary sugar. The apple fritters tasted like a cross between baked apple and fried dough. Definitely a nice treat! As a bonus, all the cooking I did warmed the house up. Perfect on a snowy, October day…
* The cookbook didn’t specify, but I suspect apple fritters weren’t an ancient treat… Any thoughts?
Author M. A. Phillips 