Skip to main content
Dessert

Beignets De Pommes

Apple fritters made from sliced apples, soaked in brandy and kirsch, battered, fried, and dusted with cinnamon sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Beignets De Pommes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the frying batter as directed on page 135.

  2. Peel the apples thinly and cut them into slices about ½ inch thick, removing the cores with a column cutter.

  3. Place the apple slices on a plate, pour over the brandy and kirsch, cover with another plate, and shake for a few minutes.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the apple slices into the batter and fry in hot fat until golden brown.

  2. Drain on a cloth, mix a little ground cinnamon with caster sugar, sprinkle over the fritters, and serve hot.

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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sour cooking apples
Their firm flesh holds its shape in the batter and their tartness balances the sweet coating.
Frying batter
Forms a crisp, golden coating that seals in moisture while the apple slices cook.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cinnamon coating cling to the hot fritters.
Brandy and kirsch
Their alcohol and aroma flavour the apple slices as they soak.

The step that matters

Frying the battered apple slices in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the apple softens inside. Steady heat gives a crisp coating and a tender fruit centre.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, brandy. 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 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes