High school was when my biggest efforts for weight loss were finally realized.
I was bigger than a hippopotamus when I entered high school. I didn’t care about my weight or how I even looked like. As long as there’s good food to eat, I would eat it. I remember Mom complaining about how I used to finish one huge bowl of mashed potatoes and still eat the leftovers from my brother’s plate afterward. During high school, my self-esteem fell a bit.
I have classmates who looked really good and felt really good. And while I didn’t exactly care about the “looking good” part, I cared about the “feeling good” part so I decided to be serious about a diet. One diet regimen that I followed was the “apple diet”.
I would eat a heavy breakfast then eat a piece of apple for lunch and another for dinner. I did that for the whole of senior high before I finally couldn’t take the apple’s taste anymore. While I wouldn’t eat an apple again after that, it pretty much set the pace for my diet.
I lost a lot of weight so it was easier for me to continue with or without the apple. Since then, I never liked eating apples. I would only want them in desserts; desserts that I can finally enjoy now because I shed all those pounds because of the apple itself. These amish apple fritters are more than I can ever ask for in a dessert. You have to check this out!
Ingredients
For fritters:
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
- 2-3 cups peeled, cored and chopped Granny Smith or Gravenstein apples (firm pie apples!)
- Vegetable oil for deep-frying (approx. 4-5 cups- enough to come halfway up sides of pan or skillet)
For glaze:
- 1¼ cups powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp. vanilla
- 3-4 tsp. warm water (thin enough to make the glaze “paintable”)
Directions
- In a large bowl (or the bowl to a stand mixer), cream the sugar and eggs for 1-2 minutes with a mixer.
- To this, add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and milk. Mix these ingredients well.
- In a separate bowl, mix the chopped apples with the lemon juice. Using a spoon, add the apple mixture to the batter and stir well, to combine.
- Heat vegetable oil to 375 degrees (use a deep-fry thermometer or use an electric skillet with a temperature control). It is very important to make sure the temperature is hot enough to fry the fritters correctly.
- Once the oil is at 375 degrees, scoop out really large tablespoonfuls of the fritter batter (as big as you can get ’em!) and carefully and gently slide the fritter into the hot oil.
- When they get to a true golden brown color, carefully turn the fritters over to the other side (I used two spoons to carefully flip them) and continue cooking. (This should take approx. 2-3 minutes on each side).
- When the fritters become brown on both sides (you might have to flip them over again to make sure both sides are brown), then you know they will be ready and cooked through.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove the fritters, one at a time, to a paper-towel lined (several thicknesses) plate to drain and cool.
- To make a glaze for the tops of the fritters, mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla and water in a small bowl until you have a nice “paintable” glaze.
- Using a pastry brush, brush this glaze over the entire top of the fritter. Let glaze harden slightly, turn it over and “paint” the glaze on the bottom. Place glazed fritters on wire rack; let glaze harden, then serve.
NotesIf you do not like glaze on your fritters, the author of this recipe also suggests sprinkling the hot “right out of the fryer” fritters with powdered sugar and cinnamon. For mine, I used the glaze option and they were perfect.
Tip #1: These apple fritters are at their very best the first day you make them!
Tip #2: If using self-rising flour as substitute for all purpose flour, omit baking powder and salt from the recipe.
Tip #3: Once oil cools, strain it, store it in a container in refrigerator to use on another batch!
