Have you ever made fried apple fritters before? They’re so easy and this recipe uses no yeast! Sweet, tender, fluffy, and absolutely packed with flavor! Dip them in a 3 ingredient apple cider glaze or roll them in cinnamon/sugar and enjoy! Recipe includes a video!
The Easiest Apple Fritters
It’s finally, officially, Fall so I hope you’re prepared for lots of apple and pumpkin recipes. We’re kicking off the season with one of my favorite Fall treats: Apple Fritters.
These apple fritters are made yeast-free with a batter that’s essentially a thicker version of my buttermilk pancake batter. The best part of this is that there are no long, impatient bouts waiting for dough to rise before you can fry them, just mix up the batter, heat up the oil, and go!
Just… go with caution, because hot oil is no joke. Be careful about gently lowering your batter into the oil without creating a splash. I have a burn on my hand because I became a little… overzealous… with my own frying.
How to Make Them
My apple fritter is incredibly easy to make, mostly thanks to the fact that there is no yeast needed. Making them is just a few simple steps:
- Prepare your batter by whisking together your sugar and dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, whisk your eggs until frothy, then add milk and vanilla. Whisk the butter into this mixture.
- Carefully fold together wet and dry ingredients and gently fold in your apple pieces.
- Heat oil in a Dutch oven or saucepan and allow it to come to temperature. Fry apple fritters in small batches.
- If desired, prepare glaze to coat fritters with after frying.
Tip: Toss your apples with a bit of ground cinnamon before stirring them into the batter, this gives them a great extra flavor!
Tips For Frying:
The most difficult part of today’s process is the fact that the fritters need to be fried. This isn’t really difficult, but if you’ve never done it before here are a few key tips to make the process as smooth as possible for you (and it may be helpful to watch the video in the recipe card!).
- Not all oils are created equal. I recommend using vegetable, canola, or peanut oil for frying apple fritters.
- You will need a thermometer to make sure your oil is at the correct temperature. Make sure that the tip of the thermometer is not touching the bottom of the pan — it should be resting about mid-way through the oil.
- Fry in batches of just 2-3 fritters. Adding the batter will cause the oil temperature to drop, and adding more than 2-3 can make it drop so low that it will take a long time to fry and they may be under-baked on the inside. Make sure that your oil temperature comes back to the right temperature range between batches.
- Do a test batch first to get a good idea of when your apple fritters are finished frying. At the correct temperature, they should be fried until golden brown and this should be about 60-75 seconds on each side. However, if your oil is too hot they will fry much faster and could be golden brown on the outside and still raw and gooey on the inside. After frying your test batch, let the fritters sit for about 2-3 minutes (to completely finish cooking) and then cut one in half and take a peek to make sure that the center is fully cooked.
Frequently Asked Questions
Use an apple that you enjoy eating (so most likely not Granny Smith, save that for your apple turnovers or apple pie)! I like to use Gala, Fuji, or the ever-popular HoneyCrisp when making apple fritters. They’re also great with Golden Delicious.
I have never tried baking this recipe rather than frying, but I do not think it would turn out very well, unfortunately.
Unfortunately, they do not keep very well into the next day. For best taste, I recommend enjoying shortly after making and dipping them.
I really don’t recommend it. While you could try, without knowing the exact temperature of your oil you are likely to end up with fritters that are under-baked on the inside or greasy. Most likely you’ll end up wasting most of your batter trying to get it just right.
Tip: If you don’t want to make a glaze for your apple fritters, just toss them in a blend of cinnamon and granulated sugar (or use powdered sugar) shortly after frying!
More Apple Recipes to Try!
- Apple Butter (this is a great recipe to use up a LOT of apples!)
- Apple Cake
- Apple Crumb Muffins
- Apple Crisp
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Make sure to check out the how-to VIDEO in the recipe card!
Apple Fritters
Ingredients
- Vegetable or canola oil for frying
- 1 ½ cups apples* peeled, cored, and cut into ¼″ pieces (215g)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon divided
- 2 cups all purpose flour (250g)
- ⅓ cup sugar (66g)
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 cup milk (235ml)
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled several minutes
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar (250g)
- 1-2 Tablespoons apple cider, water, or milk**
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Combine your apples and ½ teaspoon cinnamon in a bowl and toss until apples are coated with cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a separate, large bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking powder, remaining ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl and whisk until well-combined.
- Crack your eggs in a separate bowl and use a whisk to beat until pale yellow and frothy (about 15 seconds). Add milk and vanilla extract and whisk together.
- Slowly, while whisking, pour melted butter into wet ingredients and whisk until well-combined (mixture may look slightly curdled).
- Pour wet ingredients into dry and use a spatula to fold ingredients together until about halfway combined. Add cinnamon coated apple pieces and continue to fold into batter until all ingredients are just combined.
- Set the batter aside and fill a Dutch oven or large saucepan 2-3″ deep with oil for frying. Fix a candy thermometer to the edge (make sure it is in the oil but not touching the bottom of the pan) and set your heat to medium-low. Oil will need to reach 360-365F (175-185C) before you can continue.
- While oil is heating, prepare your glaze by whisking together sugar, apple cider (or substitute) and vanilla extract until smooth. Set aside.
- Once oil has reached temperature, use a large spoon or an ice cream scoop (this is my preferred method) to scoop about 3 Tablespoons of batter and *carefully* drop into the oil. Repeat with 2 more scoops of batter and fry each for 60-75 seconds on each side, or until golden brown.
- Use tongs to remove apple fritters to a paper-towel lined plate and allow to cool several minutes before dipping in glaze and transferring to a cooling rack to allow glaze to set. Be sure to allow the oil to return to the correct temperature before frying more fritters.
- Apple fritters are best enjoyed warm the same day they are made for best quality.
Notes
Nutrition
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This recipe was originally published September 24th, 2018. Updated to include more helpful tips, recipe remains the same!
Joyce
I made these, and learned A LOT about deep frying! I had trouble maintaining the oil temperature. I made six that were gorgeous but may not be done in the middle and six “blackened” fritters that are definitely done in the middle but not as attractive. I used a thermometer and watched it carefully, but every other batch burned regardless of returning to temp, which I did between batches. Oh well! They taste great. The glaze really makes them! I love your site and all your recipes.
Sam
There’s definitely a learning curve with frying, I feel you there! It could be an issue of the thermometer being bad, too, unfortunately that happens sometimes (and is so frustrating when it does!). I am glad you still enjoyed and that you have been enjoying the recipes, Joyce! Thank you for commenting!
Sue
These are very tasty. Recipe makes quite a few. We had leftovers. They are good reheated in Air Fryer on the bake setting. Fresh is still best.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how you liked them, Sue! ❤️
John
Very tasty.I found that I needed to thin the batter down with more milk otherwise I got more of an apple ball than a flat fritter. Likewise more apple cider to get the right consistency in the icing, which definitely benefited from using apple cider as it resulted in a noticeably more apple flavor. I will use more cinnamon next time, and maybe a bit of nutmeg. A very good recipe!
Bernie
I love apple fritters
Dani
This recipe seems nice and it it clearly explained. However I have a question, will the apples get cooked all the way through? Or will they still have a slight crunch after cooking?
Sam
Hi Dani! They are mostly tender when finished baking, much like the filling of an apple pie. 🙂