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Apple Fritters Recipe (with Video!)

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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! 

Apple fritters

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

Apple Fritter

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:

  1. Prepare your batter by whisking together your sugar and dry ingredients.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk your eggs until frothy, then add milk and vanilla. Whisk the butter into this mixture.
  3. Carefully fold together wet and dry ingredients and gently fold in your apple pieces.
  4. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or saucepan and allow it to come to temperature. Fry apple fritters in small batches.
  5. 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!

Chopped apples tossed in glass bowl

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.
Apple fritters

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of apples should I use?

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.

Can I bake this recipe?

I have never tried baking this recipe rather than frying, but I do not think it would turn out very well, unfortunately.

Can I store apple fritters?

Unfortunately, they do not keep very well into the next day. For best taste, I recommend enjoying shortly after making and dipping them.

Can I make these even if I don’t have a thermometer for my oil?

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!

Apple fritters on cooling rack

More Apple Recipes to Try!

Enjoy!

Let’s bake together! Make sure to check out the how-to VIDEO in the recipe card! 

apple fritter on cooling rack

Apple Fritters

My apple fritters (no yeast!) are sweet, tender, and fluffy, and are absolutely packed with flavor. Dip them in a 3 ingredient apple cider glaze or roll them in cinnamon/sugar and enjoy! 
4.93 from 14 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: apple dessert, apple fritter, apple recipe, baking, fall baking
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 15 apple fritters
Calories: 465kcal
Author: Sam Merritt

Ingredients

  • Vegetable or canola oil for frying
  • 1 1/2 cups apples* peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4″ pieces (215g)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon divided
  • 2 cups all purpose flour 250g
  • 1/3 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**
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Recommended Equipment

Instructions

  • Combine your apples and 1/2 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 1/2 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

*For me this was about 2 apples. I recommend using an apple you enjoy eating; I used Gala apples that are neither too sweet nor too tart (I didn’t enjoy Granny Smith apples in this recipe)
**I like to use apple cider because it imparts a subtle, apple-y flavor into the glaze, but if you don’t already have any on hand water or milk will work well. If your glaze is still too thick after combining your ingredients, add additional liquid 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. If it is too thin, add additional powdered sugar 1 Tablespoon at a time until correct consistency is reached. If you don’t feel like making a glaze, these could instead be dusted with powdered sugar or rolled in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar after frying.

Nutrition

Serving: 1fritter | Calories: 465kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 17g | Cholesterol: 30mg | Sodium: 199mg | Potassium: 83mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 38g | Vitamin A: 150IU | Vitamin C: 0.8mg | Calcium: 40mg | Iron: 0.9mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @SugarSpun_Sam or tag #sugarspunrun!

This recipe was originally published September 24th, 2018. Updated to include more helpful tips, recipe remains the same!

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Comments

    • Sugar Spun Run says

      Thank you so much, Eric! I am so glad that you have enjoyed my recipes, I greatly appreciate you trying them. 🙂

      Reply

  2. William says

    4 stars
    Your recipe that you give has some differences to the measurements you use in your video. Please change this so that people in the future know how to better follow your instructions so that they don’t end up making a batch too large or small. The recipe states 1.5 cups of apples and 2 cups of powdered sugar yet in the video you used about 2 cups of apples and 1.5 cups of powdered sugar. Otherwise, neat recipe. Very tasty. Thank you.

    Reply

    • Sam says

      Thanks for pointing that out, William! Honestly 1.5-2 cups will work just fine with either of those measurements (which is not the case with many ingredients in baking) but it’s definitely better to be consistent!

      Reply

    • Dustin says

      We made these Apple Fritters in our air fryer tonight and they were amazing! I used 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of greek yogart. I was just trying to thicken them up a bit for the air fryer. Not sure if it was necessary, but they worked. I kept a real close eye on them because I wasn’t sure how long to fry them. They took about 8 minutes in my air fryer.

      Reply

      • Sam says

        Thank you so much for the feedback, Dustin! I am so glad you enjoyed the apple fritters. 🙂

    • Sugar Spun Run says

      Thank you so much, Sarah! I am so glad that you and your husband enjoyed the apple fritters! Thank you for commenting. 🙂

      Reply

  4. Sharon says

    Any luck freezing the apple fritters? I bought a bushel of apples (much cheep er than purchasing by pound) from a local orchard. Making lots of apple butter using your great recipe, but I need many more ideas I can freeze for upcoming winter treats

    Reply

  7. Marie King says

    I have veen looking for a good apple fritter recipe and I think I found one. I will be making ttbes sometime in Sept. when our temp. cooll down. We’re in SC and temps are in the 100’s. I’ll let you know how they turn out. Thanks for your recipe. They look delicious. Can’t,wait to make them.

    Reply

  9. Charlie says

    5 stars
    Your apple fritters are delicious. Almost as good as the ugly fritters in OBX from the Orange Blossom

    Reply

  11. Melanie says

    5 stars
    I have an old family donut recipe that I usually make around the holidays, but I made these instead since I have some Honey Crisps and cider that I needed to use up. Delicious! I cooked down about half a cup of cider to concentrate the flavor. They were a huge hit. Thanks!

    Reply

  12. Jeff says

    5 stars
    Just wanted to say thanks for the recipe! We were on a hunt for the best apple doughnuts, and the one we had at a farm yesterday were pretty underwhelming. I decided to make my own to make up for that, and went with this recipe – they were phenomenal!

    The only changes I made to the fritters were I used half buttermilk and added a bit of freshly grated nutmeg and some allspice, but they were pretty minor changes overall – the recipe is fantastic. And I didn’t have cider but wanted to have an apple flavored glaze, but luckily I had apple butter – turned out great! Thinned it out with a bit of milk for the right consistency, and it was perfect.

    Also, I have to disagree with you, think these are fantastic the next day! We actually liked them a bit more when they weren’t straight from the fryer – the crust/glaze hardens a bit, but in a good way, and I thought the texture held up really well. Plus, surprisingly, I felt the flavor of the spices came through more. I froze some unglazed fritters (individually wrapped in plastic, then all in foil in a freezer ziploc bag), so we’ll see how that goes!

    Thanks again!

    Reply

    • Sam says

      I am so glad you enjoyed them and liked them the second day too! Thank you for taking the time to comment to let me know. ☺️

      Reply

    • nettie says

      Thanks for this tidbit, I wanted them for an after dinner treat this evening but didn’t want to do all that work when I’m ready to quit for the night. I’ll make now and pull out right after dinner!

      Reply

  15. Lisa Kaste says

    they should be fried until golden brown and this should be about 60-75 minutes on each side.

    Hi Sam – these look scrumptious and I can’t wait to make them after we go apple picking next weekend. The recipe directions are fine – but in your paragraph above you talk about frying for 60 minutes – you’ll want to change your content to “seconds”.

    Thanks for another great recipe! lisa

    Reply

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