The BEST Apple Fritters Recipe

Hey, you're watching Preppy Kitchen, where I, John Kanell, teach you how to make delicious, home-cooked dishes to share with your family and friends. Today, we're making something that's so easy. I know a lot of you are really bored with your breakfast offerings, and you wanna treat yourself every once in a while. Well, why not an apple fritter? It's the donut that you don't have to have all the yeast and leavening for. It fries up in a minute, and you will be in heaven. Let's get started. If you're wondering, like, what is this kitchen? This doesn't look like my new kitchen situation. The renovations are dragging on a bit, so we moved into a rental house, and in the meantime, we're gonna prep our apples. We have to give them a peel and just a little chop. Got a mix of a couple gala apples and a Granny Smith. You don't have to be too picky. Just choose tasty apples. I think the key to a great fritter is having a lot of delicious apples held together with a little bit of batter. It makes a big difference. You don't wanna have just, like, donut. It's an apple fritter. The other thing is, of course, frying it the right way. It has to be in oil, of course, but you really wanna take it dark. I think my perfect fritter is really dark, because that's when it gets real crispy. Normally, we have, like, a really, like, balanced breakfast. It's actually pretty Spartan, but you can't live that life every day, so on the weekends, I like to have either some waffles, pancakes, or on an extra indulgent day, an apple fritter. So, we'll be enjoying these very shortly. It'll be delicious, and the kids will get just a little piece at the end of breakfast. I learned having kids that the key to treating them is to let them have something at the end of the experience, so they're not, like, brain-locked on waffles or whatever. More waffles, more waffles. It's not a fun time at the restaurant. I'm just chopping this willy-nilly. It doesn't really matter if the pieces are irregular, because, you know, some will be softer, and some will have a bit more bite to them. So, when I was growing up, we would get to go to the donut shop once a week for a special treat, and I would always get an apple fritter, but I also liked the Krullers, which are my adult favorite donut. There's one place locally that has, like, the best Kruller in the world, although I grew up on the West Coast, and I'm hearing, they're like, "'What do you want, a Kruller?' And I was like, "'Yeah, that one over there.'" And they're like, "'Oh, you mean a Kruller?' And I was like, "'Oh, is it called a Kruller? "'I don't know.'" You can let me know in the comments if you say Kruller or Kruller, or if you have no idea what I'm talking about. I called my mom after this incident, and she said it was a Kruller, and she's never heard of a Kruller before, but she's from Mexico and has a slight accent, if you've seen some of her videos, that she is in with me. Okay, I'm just getting all the apple off of this core, because I don't want to waste it. When I eat an apple, it's like a squirrel has gotten to it. There's just the seeds hanging on the end. This is gonna go into our bowl now, and I'm also gonna squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on here. I am part Greek, so lemon has to be in every single thing. I like the way it wakes the apple up. The Granny Smith is actually pretty tart, so it doesn't technically need it, but the lemon juice isn't hurting it. This can get set aside, and now it's on to the dry ingredients. We're adding about a quart of vegetable oil into a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. It's gonna be warming up while we make our quick batter. You know the drill. These little puppies are getting deep-fried. For the dry mixture, we're adding in 180 grams, or one and a half cups, of all-purpose flour, half a teaspoon of cinnamon, one teaspoon of salt, two and a half teaspoons of baking powder, tap, tap, tap, three tablespoons of sugar. Give it a sift. Sifting is kind of optional, but I think it really just helps things along. It's never bad to sift. You can't go wrong. We're gonna whisk it up just a little bit, and then set it aside. Setting it aside carefully on a smaller island than the rental house. Pulling that back, because I forgot the nutmeg. There's like a bit of nutmeg in here. It's optional, but I love nutmeg and apple, and if you can ever grate fresh nutmeg, that is the way to go. It is totally different than regular nutmeg, like the pre-made, pre-ground one. It's much more aromatic. Okay, pinch of nutmeg. Now I'm setting things aside carefully, and now onto the wet ingredients. For the wet ingredients, we're adding in two thirds of a cup of milk. Mm, delicious. Two eggs, room temperature please, and then two teaspoons of vanilla. Okay, give this a whisk. This bowl should have been bigger. Okay, now we're ready to assemble that batter. So, this is so easy. All we have to do is add the wet mixture to the dry. We're gonna fold it together, then as you get closer to it all being incorporated, see it turns into a dough. Oh, that nutmeg smells so good. We're gonna dump the apples in. So, doesn't even have to be fully like mixed together, because you're gonna fold the apples and that little bit of lemon juice in, and what do we have here? This looks to me like a fritter. Okay, at this point too, I'm gonna stir in that melted butter. Well, well, well, well, it makes a difference. So, you can see right here, the mixture is really a lot of apples held together with a little bit of batter. You don't want too much batter, and that is my firm opinion on apple fritters. Okay, that's good. Now, we are ready to go to our hot oil, which should be about 360, so let's go check. Okay, so my oil hit 360. It's time to add in your fritters. I like to do like three or four at a time. Now, it's great if you have a spider. I don't, so I'm using the slotted spoon situation. We're gonna let them get nice and golden brown, and then flip them over so they can cook on both sides. So, keep a careful eye out because it's kind of like nothing happens, then it happens. Now, for fritters, it's kind of interesting because you'd think like golden brown, extra beautiful, but I like them burnt. The more burnt they are, the more crispy they are, and as they release their steam when they're cooling, they kind of soften up a bit, so gotta air on the side of darker. Just transfer them onto some paper towels to kind of cool down and soak up some of the excess oil because when you blot fried things off with paper towels, they become healthy, and just keep that train moving. Sometimes I like to like beat them up a little bit right after they're in the oil so they kind of spread out more. The thing that I don't like with fritters is when they're kind of like too blobby, so feel free to give them a little flatten out. So, these guys can get rolled in cinnamon sugar, which is really easy and delicious, but I like a glaze, and mine will have some lemon juice. It's so easy to make. One cup of powdered sugar, then we're gonna add in just enough lemon juice to turn it into a glaze. I love the contrast of the lemon. Really takes away some of the sweetness of that pure sugar amount, and you can of course use a strainer. I'm using my fingers because I can't find a strainer at the rental house. I know there is one. I don't know where anything is. It's crazy. You can also use water, milk. You can add in vanilla if you want. Just really any liquid. Okay, now that we're here, we're gonna mix, mix. Making a glaze is always kind of hilarious because it starts out so gunky, like what is this? But then as you mix, it just magically turns smooth. Gonna add in some more lemon juice because it's not magically turning smooth. Here we go. And you can see, we're getting into a more drippy, glazy consistency. There we go. I want a nice drizzle on top of these, and that's all I needed. Just a couple extra drops. Okay, time to drizzle some on. You could also dip them in glaze, but I like, whoa. I like to just douse them in glaze. Oh my gosh, what happened? Drizzle, drizzle, drizzle, drizzle, drizzle. Drizzle, drizzle, drizzle. There we go, that's better. That was like extreme bites of sugar there. Now that's what I call a balanced breakfast. If you love apples, you've gotta check out my apple pie recipe. It is the perfect apple pie, and you will love it. In the meantime, you know that the cook gets the first bite. That is good, oh my God. Hello. All right, well, they're still in my heart, and I can't take it anymore. The apples are so juicy in there and sweet, and just enough batter to cover it all. Zing of a lemon, amazing. If you like my videos, hit that like button and subscribe, and I'll see you in the next video.