When I was a little kid, I had a friend whose mom would always make donuts on the first snow day of every school year. I thought to myself, “What a great idea! I want to do that with my family when I have kids.” (Even though I had no clue how to make donuts.)
Last year I did it! I followed through with my dream and we made potato donuts for the first time. And I surprised myself—it was much simpler than I thought. This year I wanted to do something a little different, so I had the idea of apple fritters. I figured they would be more difficult, but when I looked up a recipe, I learned they were actually quite simple.
Folks, they were SO EASY and SO DELICIOUS that I now make them EVERY SNOW DAY! (Literally, yesterday I went to the store to buy some apples to make sure we could make these today during this freak nor’easter snow storm.) FRUGAL TIP > buy the discount apples for this recipe and save some money—they don’t need to be perfect apples.
I found this recipe for apple fritters and added it to my snow day pinterest board. I made a few changes to the way I do things, so I’ve included my version of the recipe below.
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (depending on how much you want)
- 1 egg, beaten
- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
- 2 cups apples (chop them small)
- peanut oil for frying (we prefer the sweet flavor of peanut oil)
Instructions
- Heat peanut oil in a deep frying pan (I use a soup pan so I use less oil). I set my stove burner to medium (around 5 or 6).
- Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl with a wire whisk.
- Add egg and milk to the dry ingredients and mix well.
- Add apples to the batter and stir so everything is coated.
- Drop about a heaping tablespoon of batter in the oil.
- Fry until dark golden brown, about 1.5 minutes per side.
- Cool the fritters on a bakers rack. (I put a paper towel underneath for easy cleanup.)
- After they have cooled, drizzle on some glaze (or roll them in the glaze).
- TIP > Peanut oil is expensive, so I save my oil after it cools and use it a few times over our 'snow day' months.
After I made the dough I was really worried it wouldn’t make enough fritters for our family. But trust me, this recipe will make about a dozen small fritters and it should be plenty to feed a family of five. The batter really expands as the fritters cook!
The recipe says to roll the fritters in glaze after they cool, but we like to drizzle the glaze on top of the fritters. It feels less messy and its less sugary. I cut the glaze recipe in half so I don’t have too much left over.
I love to include my kids in the kitchen as much as possible, and the glazing of the fritters is an easy step to include them on. It gives them responsibility and ownership. Shown in the photo is my five-year-old daughter.
Apple Fritter Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3-4 tablespoons milk (I like mine smooth and runny.)
If you want to get a good laugh, watch this live video of me making these apple fritters on facebook. Unfortunately the oil got a little hot for the video, but at least you can see the first few fritters I made, and what they are suppose to look like. 
