Apple Fritters

 Folks-

It's Fall. (Or Autumn. You do you.) That means it's apple season, which means it's time for our annual trek to Gizdich Ranch to pick too many apples, enjoy apple cider slushies, have a slice of Gizdich pie (they come in so many flavors!) bring home some unfiltered apple cider, then stop at the Freedom Meat Locker for lunch and some delicious meat for the barbecue. (It's located in Freedom, CA. It's name is not a political statement.)

We make this trek maybe a couple of times a year, once for berries, once for apples. But every time we do, we come home with way too much fresh fruit. I have to do something with it, so I usually end up making jams and desserts. So far this week I've made apple dumplings, cranberry apple sauce, apple butter, dried apples, and apple fritters.

For the fritters I made for breakfast I needed a simple recipe. I found one at Preppy Kitchen and then modified it (surprise!) using the experience I got from making the Apple Butter and Apple Dumplings. I'll try to post those recipes later today, if I have the time.

In the meantime, here's my version of Apple Fritters!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon allspice (can add nutmeg and/or cardamom here as well)

3/4 cup milk

2 whole eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1/4 cup pure maple syrup (or 3 tablespoons sugar added to dry ingredients)

2 large apples, finely diced or shredded 

Fresh lemon juice (to keep diced apples from browning).

Vegetable oil for frying

Bring about 1 inch of vegetable oil in a frying pan to 350 degrees F. Whisk together dry ingredients. Fold in wet ingredients, and then fold in diced apples. Use a large spoon or scoop to portion the batter out (about 1/4 cup) into the hot oil, and deep fry about 2 minutes on the first side, flip, then fry another minute on the back. Use a spider or slotted spoon to remove hot fritters from the oil, and let them cool on a wire rack over parchment paper or paper towels for a few minutes. Glaze or coat in cinnamon sugar.

Note: So...uh...Zhenie ate most of them. Yeah. Turns out these are her favorite donuts now. I'm quite surprised. She doesn't usually go for sweets. Like, ever. By her instructions I'm to try this with bananas next time. I will probably also make them with peaches.

Apple Dumplings

Folks-

This year when we made our annual pilgrimage to Gizdich Ranch for the apple harvest, we discovered they now have apple dumplings in the pie shop. We got one for Aaron, and after trying a bite, we decided to try making them.

I found a recipe over at Allrecipes, and adapted it for our use.

This recipe requires a pie crust, and I recommend my mom's Fool Proof Pie Crust for it.

Here's my version of Apple Dumplings!

Ingredients:

1 14oz pie crust recipe or store bought, rolled out and cut into 6-8 equal squares

3-4 baking apples, Granny Smith or similar, peeled, cored, and cut in half

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup, or 1 stick) softened butter, divided

3/4 cup brown sugar (any darkness, your choice, or mix together 2/3 cup sugar and 1-2 tablespoons honey or maple sugar)

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 

3 cups water (2 cups unfiltered apple juice and 1 cup water tested well)

2 cups white sugar (reduce to 1 to 1 1/4 cup if using apple juice)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees and butter a large baking pan or casserole dish.

Mix together 6 tbsp of the butter, brown sugar, and spices. Divide the mixture into 6-8 equal amounts and stuff it into the apple halves where the core was. Place a stuffed apple half into a square of pie crust core down, dust the apple with cinnamon, gather the corners of the pie crust and stretch over the apple and pinch them together to seal. Place the encrusted apples into the buttered baking dish. 

Combine the water and apple juice (if using), sugar, and last two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and heat while stirring until the mixture begins to boil, then reduce the temperature to low and continue to stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

Carefully pour the syrup over the dumplings. Place the baking dish into the oven and bake until the dumplings are golden brown on top, about 45-65 minutes.