Nothing beats old fashioned deep fried Apple Fritters, so fluffy and loaded with apples on the inside, and perfectly golden on the outside

These Apple Fritters are just as naughty and tasty as doughnuts

What is naughtier than my 20-month-old toddler, Kai, who is intent on destroying my house?

These Apple Fritters are!

Why? because they ain’t baked or air fried. They are unapologetically deep-fried to golden perfection. But, it doesn’t stop there; it gets even better! The fritter gets covered with a sugar glaze. Eating bad has never tasted so good. Hearing this is enough to send health freaks scrambling to find the nearest treadmill. Lucky for me, I’m far from being a health fanatic, unless I was single, but that’s a completely different story.

Thanks to apples, these fritters are slightly healthier than that doughnut you’ve treated yourself to a few weeks ago!

Speaking of doughnuts, these fritters taste similar to one. Golden and sweet on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. These fritters are dangerously irresistible, it’s so light that you may find yourself ‘accidentally’ reaching for another one.

Doughnuts are finicky to make, the words ‘YEAST’ and ‘KNEAD’ are enough to make most people say “Stuff it, I’ll buy a box of doughnuts at 7-Eleven instead”. The good news is these fritters have no yeast and there’s no need to knead, it’s a straightforward recipe. The most challenging part of the recipe is getting the oil temperature right, but that all comes with practice, and trust me, these fritters are worth your time!

I made this batch before the recent COVID lockdown, which meant I could share the fritters with others outside our house. Thank goodness for that, as we would have eaten the fritters ourselves and I believe they wouldn’t last a day.

More tempting sweet recipes to try:

The COVID Diet

Boredom, irritability, laziness, angry and sadness are some feelings we’ve all shared in lockdown. These feelings may contribute to how we eat. If I have no motivation, I can go downhill really fast. This means I’ll be carelessly eating anything in sight.

Having 3 food-loving adults living under one roof makes it even more challenging during the lockdown. We often share our secret stash of snacks which may include chocolate, cookies and ice cream. This is not good at all, especially when we’re still working on losing the kilos we’ve gained from the previous lockdown in 2020!

It’s time for me to step up and take charge! Using the skills I’ve gained from my previous finance role, I have written a quick set of COVID Exercise Terms and Conditions for our household.

*We must exercise for at least 30 minutes a day or pay a fine

*We must weigh in weekly. Whoever loses the highest percentage of weight wins the prize money funded by the losers

*If any of us gained weight on the day of the weigh-in, a fine will apply

*Exclusions accepted for ‘the toddler’ and the ‘four-legged’ family members.

Our first weigh-in was a few days ago and guess who had to pay fines?…..

Bloody ME! And I was the one that took the time to implement these sets of rules. Damn it, I knew I should’ve paid attention to my stationary bike instead of looking at my phone and pedalling with leisure! My husband won, he gloated for hours and asked us to pay him immediately as he had his eyes on an EBAY Item.

Game on for next week, wish me luck! I have evil plans to derail their weigh-ins, like surprising them with irresistible treats like these Apple Fritters.

Let’s keep it old fashioned

I’m a massive fan of old school recipes and cooking. There’s a big stash of old recipes from magazine clippings and cookbooks I’ve collected when I was younger. Nothing is more relaxing than putting my feet up with a coffee and a bunch of cookbooks.

These Apple Fritters is an ‘old school’ recipe. Come on, seriously, who makes apple fritters these days? probably grandparents and cool people like us! If people knew how ridiculously delicious these Apple Fritters are, they’ll be making them regularly. Such an easy treat to make and yet the results are very rewarding.

These fritters take less than 6 minutes of prep time. There’s no need for fancy mixing equipment and you won’t end up with a sore arm from mixing the batter. You just throw everything into a bowl and mix, it’s that easy! Oh, you need to sift through some ingredients, that’s annoying I know, but it’s way better than…ugh, kneading!

The soda water in the batter makes the fritters light and fluffy. If you decide to have a food fight, these fritters won’t do a great deal of damage to your opponent as they are far from being dense.

As mentioned previously, the tricky part of this recipe is getting the oil temperature correct. If you manually deep fry foods often, this will be a breeze for you but if you’re new, it may take a few attempts to get it right.

I deep fry foods much more often than I should, so I do plan to write a post on deep-frying and providing tips, but for now, if you want some quick frying tips, visit my Karaage Fried Chicken post.

Ingredients for Easy Apple Fritters

Apples – Most varieties of apples will work, peel and core the apples, chop them roughly into small cubes. I used Granny Smith apples as l like the subtle tartness it provides in the fritters.

Plain flour or ‘All-purpose’ flour has no leavening agent added.

Icing sugar mixture is also known as ‘confectioners’ sugar’ or ‘powdered sugar’. Icing sugar mixture has a small amount of cornflour added to keep it soft and clump-free. Pure icing sugar will also work but you may need to sift it prior to use if it’s clumpy.

Soda water is also known as sparkling water, seltzer water, club soda or carbonated water. I used my SodaStream machine to make mine. Sparkling apple juice or apple cider will also work.

How to make Easy Apple Fritters

Step by step guide with photos

Peel and core the apples, roughly chop the apples into small cubes and set aside.

Make the wet ingredients – In a large bowl, mix the sugar, egg and melted butter. Pour in the vanilla extract and soda water and mix well to combine.

Mix in the dry ingredients – Sift in flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and salt into the wet ingredients. Fold the mixture until a batter forms then add in the apples, continue to fold until the batter covers the apples.

Pour approximately 2 inches of oil in a heavy-based saucepan or deep frying pan. Heat the oil on medium heat. The oil is ready by placing a cube of bread in the oil, if bubbles form rapidly around the bread, it’s ready to use. If you’re using a thermometer, heat the oil to around 170°C (340°F).

Fry the batter in small batches – You will need two dinner spoons to fry the batter. Use a spoon to scoop up a generous amount of batter and the other spoon to scrape the batter into the oil. Once the batter hits the oil, use a spoon to flatten the batter out slightly. Fry until the fritter turns to a golden colour, then carefully flip over the fritter. Each fritter will take approximately 4 minutes to cook. To avoid them going too dark, I flip them regularly once the fritter holds its shape in the oil. Take the cooked fritters out of the oil and place them on a cooling rack, place a plate underneath the rack so it catches any oil that drips out.

Make the glaze – Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add in the vanilla extract and pour a small amount of milk, stir and add more milk each time until you get a runny consistency. You may not need to use all the milk or may need a little more if the glaze is too thick. If you’ve accidentally added too much milk and it’s too thin, add more icing sugar. Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze on the fritters, leave it to sit for five minutes then flip the fritters over and glaze the other side.

Leftovers – Store fritters in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days or refrigerate for a week or freeze them. If frozen they will keep for up to 3 months.

I’ve used a third-party application to calculate the calories and nutritional information, so please use this as an approximate guide only.

Cooking measurements are in Australian standard spoon and cup measurements. For specific details and conversions, visit our Australian Cooking Measurements page.

I would love your feedback and support if you made this recipe. To do this, please rate this recipe and provide a comment by scrolling down this page or by clicking that green circle on the bottom left. An email address is required (for spam), but it won’t be published. I would also love to see your dish, so don’t forget to tag me on my Instagram account ‘3catsfoodie’

Cheers – Cat T