Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are thin apple slices coated in batter and fried, then sprinkled with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Combine sliced apples, brandy, white wine, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon rind in a bowl; let stand, turning occasionally.

  2. Drain apples and mix with the batter.

Make the batter

  1. Beat eggs until light; add flour, melted butter, and enough cold water to make a thin batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a pan; for each fritter, take one slice of apple and coat it with batter.

  2. Fry fritters until light brown; drain on paper towels.

  3. Place fritters on a dish and sprinkle with sugar before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and give the coating structure and a light texture when fried.
Flour
Forms the body of the batter that coats each apple slice and crisps as it fries.
Apples
Provide the fruit filling, with their moisture and sweetness softened by the soaking liquid.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the fritters brown in the hot oil.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat to the batter for a tender coating.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the apples as they soak.

The step that matters

Fry fritters until light brown. Oil that is too cool lets the batter soak up grease and turn heavy, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the apple inside is cooked. Frying at a steady medium heat gives a crisp, evenly cooked coating.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, brandy, white wine, sugar, cinnamon, egg, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, brandy, white wine, sugar, cinnamon, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More apple fritters recipes

Potato 3 See all 377 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes