Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are sliced apples coated in batter and fried, then sprinkled with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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. In a bowl, combine sliced apples, brandy, white wine, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and lemon rind. Let stand, turning frequently.

Make the batter

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

  2. Drain the apples and mix them with the batter.

  3. Using a spoon, take one slice of apple with a spoonful of batter for each fritter.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the fritters in hot oil until light brown. Drain well.

  2. Place on a dish and sprinkle with sugar.

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

Apples
Provide the fruit body and tender texture that the batter coats and surrounds.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the hot oil.
All-purpose flour
Forms the body of the batter that clings to the apple slices and crisps when fried.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat to the batter, contributing to flavor and browning.
Brandy
Macerates the apples and adds aromatic flavor during the soak.

The step that matters

Fry until light brown and drain well. Oil must be hot enough to set the batter quickly and crisp the coating; too cool and the fritters absorb oil and turn greasy, too hot and the outside browns before the apple cooks through.

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