Apple Fritters

I feel guilty posting this after so many healthy recipes. But these were so good that I thought I'd share the experience. And the guilt.

I had a bunch of oil that needed to be used up (gotta rotate that food storage!), and found this recipe. The result is kind of a cross between spice cake doughnuts and a funnel cake. And the apples were just amazing in it. I took the leftovers to work the next day so I wouldn't eat them all, and they were gone almost instantly.

Notes:
* Use all the apples. It seemed like too much to me, so I left out over a fourth of what I had diced, not registering that the batter would expand in the oil, and leave the fritters less apple-y than they should be.
* I used the leftover diced apples a few days later to see if I could bake these instead of frying them. See the end of the recipe for results.

Ingredients

• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• ½ cups Sugar
• 2-¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1-¼ teaspoon Salt
• 2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• 2 whole Large Eggs
• ¾ cups Whole Milk
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
• 3 whole Granny Smith Apples, Peeled And Diced

GLAZE (optional)

• 1-½ cup Powdered Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ teaspoons Vanilla
• ¼ cups Milk

Preparation Instructions

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a fork, then add milk, melted butter, and vanilla.

Gently fold dry and wet ingredients together until just combined (do not overmix.) Fold in apples. Add enough apples to make a very chunky batter. (it should look more apple-y than this.)

Heat a couple of inches of canola oil over medium to medium-low heat (I actually started heating the oil as I was making the batter—it takes a while to heat up to the right temperature). When it gets hot, drop a little drop of batter into the oil. If it sizzles immediately and rises to the top, the oil is ready; if it burns quickly, turn down the heat.

Drop teaspoons of batter (I used a small cookie scoop) into the hot oil, five or six at a time. Flip them after about a minute or a minute and a half. Cook the other side for another minute or minute and a half. Make sure they don’t get too brown, but cook them long enough to make sure the batter’s cooked through.

Remove and drain on a paper towel. Dip fritters in a light doughnut glaze using the above recipe and let them "drip dry" on a cooling rack over a cutting board or other washable surface.

Variation: Apple Spice Doughnuts

I used a miniature doughnut pan I got for my birthday and baked the batter at 325 for about 8 minutes, then dipped them in glaze. As you can see, they look like giant cheerios. Not quite as decadent as the deep fried travesty, but still very good. especially for breakfast.