Apple Fritter Bites

Got Apple Fritter Bites? Brown and crispy with a soft middle, eat apple butter fritters like doughnut holes. It is fun to dip apple fritters  in apple butter and honey. A quick and easy eat-with-your-hands dessert or appetizer.  Let the party begin!  

 

Where did they go? Apple Fritters dippers seem to disappear so fast; especially at fall hayrides, tailgate parties, and cocktail parties in the backyard. Joyce Pinson, Friends Drift Inn

Apple Fritter Bites with Apple Butter – Recipe-At-A-Glance

Prep Time 15 Minutes  Cook Time 30 Minutes Total Time 45 Minutes

Yield about 3 Dozen

Ingredients All Purpose Flour – Sugar – Salt – Baking Powder – Baking Soda – Buttermilk – Egg – Friends Drift Inn Apple Butter

Equipment Deep Fryer – Slotted Spoon – Tongs – Mixing Bowls and Spoon or Scoop – Baking Tray and Cooling Rack

Apple Fritter Bites – Fall Favorite

Not really a doughnut, at least the way we make them, apple fritter bites can be served as a first course appetizer, a breakfast nibble, or as part of a eat-with-your-hands dessert at cocktail parties, tailgates, or hayrides.

Akin to a hush puppy, but browner and with a softer crumb, apple fritter bites are a fun and easy feature for crowd pleasing fun.

I tend to think of apple fritters as a fall or winter dessert. There is something about apple butter, flannel shirts, and a hayride on the farm that makes me want a batch of apple fritters right now!

How Many Apple Fritters Are Enough?

Do you obsess about running out of appetizers, especially if there is a party going on.?

• For appetizers,  figure 2 per person. (I have lots of teenagers around)
• For a dessert,  plate one fritter with swirls of apple butter and honey garnished with several slices of fresh apples.
• If you have leftovers, pop them in the freezer and reheat a few at a time for your afternoon coffee break or when the kids come home from school.

Eat with Your Fingers Good!

Apple Fritters are not fancy food. You snag one up, dip in apple butter or honey and savor the quick bite. The biggest problem is no one stops at just one, so making several batches at a time keeps the cook busy!

At tailgates, we just put them on a platter with small bowls of apple butter and honey, and step back. They disappear quickly!

There is something earthy about eating with your hands, outside in the fall. The crispness of the autumn air, the beautiful color of the fall leaves, and those little warm morsels of flavor packed apple fritters are surely one of life’s simplest of pleasures.

Emily Johnson at food magazine Epicurious claims eating with your hands should be declared a sensory experience.  She says:

Like my mom and grandma before me, I habitually grab bites of whatever I’m eating with my fingers. 

If I wanted to swipe some creamy cheesecake and raspberry sauce up with my finger, my mom understood that I was having a sensory experience and not just being a slob.

Apple Fritter Mixing Tips

Like any quick bread, Apple Fritters are one of those batters you do not want to overmix.  It is the same as mixing Apple Butter Pancakes.

With buttermilk, baking powder and baking soda, you can expect a good rise from the batter if you let rest.  If you do all your prep and mixing first, then by the time you start the fryer the batter will have time to “lighten up.”  

What Makes Apple Fritters with Apple Butter So Special?

By incorporating apple butter into the batter, these apple fritters get a flavor boost and inner moistness  infused with spices and apple butter goodness.

The original Friends Drift Inn was a family diner, commercial orchard, and apiary. In the fall apple butter was our “go-to” fruit spread. A generation later it still is.

Apple Fritters drug through a heap of apple butter takes me back to more innocent times. If you wonder about how Friends Drift Inn came to be so passionate about apple butter, read  my article “What is Apple Butter and How Do You Use It?”

Apple Fritters – What’s in A Name?

The term fritter is apparently a derivation of the word “fry.” According to  Merriam-Webster fritter is defined as:

a small mass of fried or sautéed batter often containing fruit or meat

These little apple butter dippers surely fit the definition.

Serving Suggestions for Apple Fritter Bites with Apple Butter

Apple Fritters, in my opinion, are rustic and casual. We serve apple fritters at fall backyard bbq’s, hayrides and tailgates as an appetizer.

However, these are fun for breakfast or a coffee break too! Who can resist dipping fritters in apple butter? If not apple butter, then honey.

Why not both?

Apple Fritters pair well with:

• Breakfast Foods – especially pork
• Hot Apple Cider Bourbon Wassail
• As a passed appetizer (or dessert) with dips of apple butter and honey
• Cocktails – Especially bourbon cocktails with apple butter

Bringing Luck and Counting Blessings

Rosh Hashana, celebrating the Jewish New Year, occurs in the fall. Tradition has it eating apples and honey together brings favor.

For me, apple butter, apples, and honey was just part of living at the original Friends Drift Inn – the ultimate fall comfort foods.  It may not bring favor from above, but family and friends certainly appreciate homemade apple fritters.

What do you love with apples and honey?

Choose Your Assortment

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