Cinnamon Sugar Apple Fritters

Diced apples surrounded by a light and tangy buttermilk batter, deep fried for a few minutes until golden brown and then rolled in cinnamon sugar! These little apple fritters are awesomely tasty and small enough that you can have one…or two.

As I promised in my last recipe, my Creamy, Knock Your Socks Off, Apple Cider Dip, here is my recipe for apple fritters. While I have made apple cider donuts before (I’ll post that recipe someday, I promise), I had never made fritters until a week or two ago. I saw a recipe on The Acci-“Dental” Chef and thought I’d like to try making that and so I did. 🙂

Of course, being me, once I figured out the basics, I went off completely in my own direction. A couple of test batches later to refine the concept, and I bring you beautiful, little apple fritters using a buttermilk batter. I love buttermilk and use it in so many recipes, like my 5 Minute Blue Cheese Dressing, so it seemed a no brainer to use buttermilk to provide the tang I wanted in the fritters. Once you have a few recipes beyond pancakes that use buttermilk, it’s no big deal to keep it in the house so I always have some around. I love Kate’s Homemade Buttermilk, and that’s the one I buy whenever I need a bottle.

How did I make them so pretty and round? Not like the usual lumpy fritters you see? Simple. A cookie scoop is all you need. The first time I made these I found it a little frustrating trying to get nice scoops of batter into the oil. Some were big, some were small, some were especially lumpy, but none of them were pretty. And I wanted pretty! Pretty and all the same size so they would all cook in the same amount of time. Enter my Zeroll #40 cookie scoop. I have a smaller one as well and a couple of large ones, but the #40 (which holds a heaping tablespoon) is my favorite. A simple scoop and press and boom fritters just as quick and easy and pretty as I could hope for.

Print Recipe

Cinnamon Sugar Apple Fritters

A snap to make, these apple fritters are little pillows of happiness full of chopped apples and covered in cinnamon sugar.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time12 mins

Total Time27 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 30 fritters

Author: Just a Little Bit of Bacon

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp table salt
• 2 tsp powdered cinnamon
• 1 tsp powdered allspice
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter melted and cooled
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chopped peeled apples 1/2 inch dice
• vegetable oil for frying

Cinnamon Sugar

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp powdered cinnamon
• 1 tsp powdered allspice

Instructions

• Fill a deep, heavy-duty pot with about 3 inches of vegetable oil. Put the pot on low and begin heating the oil to 350F. It takes 15-20 minutes for the oil to come to temperature on my cooktop, which is plenty of time to make the apple fritter batter. Remember to check the oil temperature a few times while you are making the batter.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a medium bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, butter, and vanilla until well blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the apples, and, using a large spoon or a spatula, mix it all together in a few swift strokes.
• Once the batter is ready, set up your work area. Put out a paper towel lined plate or baking sheet next to the frying pot. Mix together the cinnamon sugar ingredients in a wide bowl so you can roll the fritters around in it. And put out a baking sheet with a cooling rack over it for the finished fritters.
• Check the oil temperature. Once it's at 350F, begin making the fritters. Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, carefully drop tablespoon amounts of batter into the hot oil. Don't overcrowd the oil or it will get too cool. My pot is 10 inches wide and quite deep. I put 7-8 into the pot each batch. Fry the fritters for 3 minutes, turning occasionally, or until brown all over.
• Scoop out the fritters using a slotted spoon or wire skimmer, letting them drain for a moment before moving them to the towel lined plate. Add the next batch of fritters to the oil. While they are cooking, roll the finished fritters in the cinnamon sugar and put them on the cooling rack.
• You can serve them as is or you can pair them with Creamy, Knock Your Socks Off, Apple Cider Dip.

Notes

Use firm baking apples for this recipe. You want an apple that will keep its shape through the frying process. Green apples, Honeycrisp, and Macouns are some of the apples that would work.

I would recommend rinsing the spoon or cookie scoop between batches since it's easier getting nice scoops of batter with a clean spoon.

A #40 Cookie Scoop is really the best and easiest way to make these fritters. It was so much quicker and less frustrating when I switched from a spoon to the scoop!