Apple Fritters and Fall Days
My first memories of apple fritters come from a family trip to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee when I was about seven years old. Up until then, I’d never had them before but it was obvious that my parents were no strangers as they hunted down one particular restaurant just to partake of the treat, served alongside apple butter for dipping.
Apple lovers seem to hold these little hand held delights in such high regard that their eyes glaze over when talking of them. I’ve had more readers than I can count ask me if I had an apple fritter recipe and so today I’m bringing you my very own recipe for them, one that my husband swears could bring about world peace if I played my cards right and kept the sides of apple butter coming.
Speaking of family trips, around these parts fall is the prime time for family outings. We have festivals galore throughout the south and we’ve been getting a head start on this by going on family “adventures” each weekend. We choose one day to get up early and all pile into the car headed off. We don’t tell the kids where we are going and they love the surprise of not finding out until we get there.
We started this a few weeks back and its done wonders for our sanity as well as our sense of togetherness as a family. What started out as something mainly for the kids has become the one thing we all look forward to the most all week long. So far we’ve gone to a historic mill in Belvedere, Tennessee, a day trip to my Papa Reed’s farm, and this past weekend we really surprised them by taking them to Alabama Adventures, an amusement park in Bessemer, Alabama. I have the next three weekend “adventures” planned but I can’t post them here because my Bradybug reads Southern Plate!
We always took little day trips like this when I was a girl, too. If you can, I hope you’ll take some time off this weekend to do something special with your family. It can be as simple as taking lunch out to the back yard for a picnic versus eating at the table, walking around your neighborhood and seeing how many different varieties of leaves you can find, or just going out for a drive one afternoon. In the hectic pace of 2009, its nice to be able to slow down and savor time spent with family like folks did in the old days. I promise you that the simplest of outings will be remembered for lifetimes to come.
How ’bout them fritters?
You’ll need: Milk, brown sugar, apples, eggs, melted margarine, cinnamon, and self rising flour.
Before you mix up your batter, pour about 1/2 inch of oil into a skillet and put it on medium heat on your stove eye so it will be ready to fry in.
In a medium sized bowl, place your flour, sugar, and cinnamon.
Stir that up well, breaking up any sugar lumps as you go.
Now you know if any of those lumps are really stubborn, its bad luck not to eat them. 
In fact, I think it should be considered bad luck not to eat a pinch of brown sugar every time you cook with it.
add in your milk and melted margarine
Add in eggs
Stir that up good.
Peel and dice up your apples.
Toss that into your batter.
Until it looks like this.
Now you’re ready to go!
Drop batter by spoonfuls into hot oil.
I use a big spoon that holds about 1/8 of a cup but feel free to make these as large or as small as you like.
After they get browned on one side, turn them over to brown on the other.
Place the on a paper towel lined plate.
If you like, you can roll some in confectioner’s sugar or just sprinkle confectioner’s sugar over them. I put some in a pie plate and roll them a bit but I usually only do this with half of them since we can never decide which we like best!
The cool thing about doing half in sugar and half plain is that you have to eat at least one of each!
See? I work on these angles for y’all!
Here are my little sugared fritters
and get a gander at these unpowdered ones.
See how hard it is to choose?
This recipe makes about two dozen and you’ll notice that several of those didn’t make it to this photograph.
These mysterious hands started snatching them off the platter on the way and I heard choruses of “yummm” as a result.
I did volunteer to take a bite of one so y’all could see all the chunks of apple inside.
These are so moist and delicious!
And then I thought I wouldn’t be doing y’all right unless I showed you what it looked like with a little apple butter slathered on.
~sighs heavily~ Oh the things I do just for you.
~gobbles up the fritter dutifully with a twinkle in her eye~
Yummm!
Southern Plate Apple Fritters
- 2 cups apples, peeled and diced
- 2 cups self rising flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 3 Tbsp. melted butter
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Mix flour, sugar, and cinnamon together using a fork to break up any lumps. Add in milk, melted margarine, and eggs. Stir well to combine. Peel and dice apples, add to batter, stirring in. Drop by 1/8 cup fulls into hot oil and turn to allow to brown on both sides. Drain on paper towel lined plate. Dust with confectioner’s sugar, if desired. Serve with apple butter.
To get my recipe for crock pot apple butter, click here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sidenote to anyone who might get a cold this year:
I am just finishing off the first good cold of the season and thought I’d share a little tidbit with you that our family Doctor had us try when our oldest was just a baby. We have one of those great common sense doctors who shares all sorts of little tidbits for care beyond prescriptions and such.
You know how little noses get all raw when a cold comes on? Sore and red, you feel so sorry for the little guys! My doctor said to take some plain old chapstick…
Break off a bit like this and warm it between your fingers. Then smear it around your little ones (or yours!) sore nose and you’ll feel instant relief. This also helps heal the soreness and prevent more from happening. I use it on my kids as soon as they start getting colds and such, it’s a great preventative! Hopefully you won’t need this anytime soon but I thought I’d share this little common sense remedy that has saved a lot of discomfort in my house!
Whatever you are, be a good one.
~Abraham Lincoln. Submit your quote here.
Have a wonderful Wednesday and don’t forget to tune in tonight if you’re in the viewing area. I sure have enjoyed our time together today and hope you’ll drop me a “hidy!” in the comments section below!
Gratefully,
Christy 
Me and my younguns at Alabama Adventures.
My Three
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Can’t wait to try this one. Apple festival next week. I allready have plans for apple butter. The thought of home made apple fritters with apple butter. Yummmmmmm
Oh Gina, can I come to your house????
oh my…those look good! I was headed to the freezer to take out an apple cider doughnut from our local apple orchard when I stopped to read this post! Hope that doughnut will hold me over until I can make those fritters!:)
We are enjoying the start of Fall here in Ct. Have been apple picking and to the pumpkin patch on our weekend adventures!
Bountiful Blessings!
Oh Tina, I bet CT in the fall is a gorgeous sight to behold! I always think of Who’s The Boss whenever I think of that state and I think in the opening they had outdoor and changing fall leaves.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend, always enjoy hearing from you!
Gratefully,
Christy
Oh, yum! This reminds me of our local Harvest Festival – can’t wait to try my own. Thanks for the chap stick tip too. We use Eucerin Cream around here – no burn, no taste and gives the kid’s a funny Santa beard when you swipe around their nose and chin. I hate to see young’uns with a red, ouchy nose/chin too!!
I’ll have to snag me some Eucerin, too! thank you!
I know, I feel so sorry for them when their little noses get raw. It worked like a charm on me this past week, I was looking a wee bit like Santa or WC Fields there for a bit!
I hope you have a wonderful weekend, Susie!
Something I use for red nose is Bag Balm. It has a soothing feel. The children and myself would get a red nose during the winter. This works great. You can find it at WalMart.
Sometimes it is sold in small tins in needlework, craft or fabric stores.
Honey pie just loves Autumn with all the delicious apple treats that are all a special part of Apple Festivals etc. Thanks to you, Ms.-Christy-with-a-cold, I can make my own festival event right here in my little ol’ kitchen and teach my teen a way to change the world. If Amanda gets this right, in a few years she could snag the man of her choice, tee hee. It looks easy, so since I have never tried these, I hope I get it right the first time. Thanks again for gobbling up a fritter…just for all us SP folks. Feel better soon! Love ya.
Terri,
You silly thing, I can’t imagine you ever doing anything wrong!!! Get it right the first time? Pfft!
I love my new native name you’ve given me, too, “Christy-with-a-cold”, lol. Remember that when next we see each other Miss Terri-the-terrific.
Yeah.. ~sighs heavily~ I actually had to eat three of them for y’all, for testing purposes. I’m not saying I mind it so much though, seeing as how much I love y’all!
Amanda will have ‘em lined up around the block even without the cooking!!!
Those look soooo good and in reading the ingredients very frugal too which is just my speed. Those things are around three dollars for a couple small ones at festivals so I am thinking I can do the whole batch for that. Can’t wait to try them.
oh yeah, definitely frugal! I didn’t mean for them to be, but most of my cooking just kinda naturally is because I’m so cheap myself ~grins~.
You might even want to half it since it makes a little over two dozen. Course, I’m not sayin’ you can’t eat that many! lol
Thank you so much, Elaine! Have a great weekend!
We used to go to a restaurant named “Green Valley” in Pigeon Forge when I young. There was always Apple Fritters like these on the tables. My mom and dad always wanted to eat there when on vacation. Thanks for the memories.
These look so good!! I can’t wait to make some. Thanks for all the great recipes. You have a beautiful family!
I love these too. When we go to Pigeon Forge Tennessee we always go to the Apple Barn for fritters and then we go next door to their store for some jars of apple butter to take home. I have their recipe somewhere. They give out the fritters, apple butter and their fruit tea recipes. I love the Apple BArn. They have a great breakfast. Yours looks delicious. I know I would love them in the sugar. Might as well add more calories. Happy fall weekends to you and the family. I think Madison is having their fall thing this weekend downtown and Athens has their Fiddlers Convention. It should be a great weekend.
I’m ALL OVER The Fiddler’s Convention! We LIVE for that weekend, it is out all time favorite festival. We may try to check out the street festival, too, but we’re undecided. Fiddler’s is a must.
Also, the Toy Story double feature in 3-D starts this weekend and is only playing for two weeks. We are HUGE Toy Story fans.
This is the busiest and most fun weekend of the entire year for me, well, next to Christmas
Hope you have a wonderful one!!!!!!
Gratefully,
Christy
HEY, WE’LL LOOK FOR YA AT FIDDLERS. MY LITTLE ONE IS A BEGINNER FIDDLER, HE WANTED TO ENTER, BUT JUST GETTING OVER A BROKEN COLLAR BONE SO HE HASNT HAD PRACTICE IS 6WKS. ANYWAY, WAS GONNA SAY, THERE WAS A VENDOR LAST YEAR ON SOUTH SIDE OF FOUNDERS THAT MADE CARAMEL APPLE (OR BANANA) SUNDAES. WE TRIED ‘EM AND THAT BECAME ONE OF MY SONS FAVORITE RV WEEKEND TREATS(HE LOVES THEM AT HOME TOO)
These do look good, might have to try them sometime. I remember day trips from when I was a kid, not too often, a lot of the time it was just to drive around for awhile looking at crops, etc., then maybe stopping for an ice cream cone. After I graduated and went to live with an aunt and uncle in order to get a job and go on to school, we took day trips quite frequently, to different lakes, parks, etc. in the area. Even took day trips half way across the state, we would take a picnic lunch with and find a nice park to eat in. I was in for a rude awakening when I got married and we would be sitting around in the evening and I would say lets go for a ride and we would get in the pick up and go to the one restaurant where the cop “co-workers” of my ex and his C-B buddies would hang out drinking coffee, and I had been referring to driving around looking at the new housing developments. We also could never take a day to drive half way across the state so the girls could see the state capital. He is just a different type of man, I guess. Anyway your recipes sound good and your stories are always interesting.
OH MY!! THERE USED TO BE A PLACE IN FLORENCE (CULPEPPER’S BAKERY) THAT MADE THE BIGGEST, BESTESTESS APPLE FRITTERS EVER. I’M TALKING ALMOST AS BIG AS A SOFTBALL! I CANT WAIT TO TRY THESE, CANT BELIEVE THEY ARE SO SIMPLE, BUT I’D NEVER THOUGHT OF MAKING THEM.
The Apple Barn in Sevierville,TN oh they have some pretty good fritters. I can’t wait to see where the next weekend adventure will take us. Wow, I think I just invited everyone to go with you Christy. It sure is fun hearing about the adventures. I took my 2 girls to our cabin in TN labor day weekend, had it all planned out in 20 minutes only to find the cabin was rented oh and that didn’t stop me I was ready we stayed at a hotel.
These sound awesome! I love them just about anyway or anytime! I especially love them on those gorgeous vintage plates! I have been collecting the jadite for some time now….never knew how much prettier they would be with apple fritters on them! I am so glad I “stumbled” onto this website….keep up the good work…it only makes the South look the way it really is….warm, welcoming and full of good things!
If I would’ve known these were that easy to make, I’d have been making my very own for years!! Great recipe! Thanks –
I made these today and they are wonderful!!! I even shared
Thanks for the yummy recipe!!
Christy , I will surely try these. I don’t live
far from Pigeon Forge (about 60 miles east) and when I go ,
I always have to go to The Apple Barn and get some of their
Apple Fritters. Yum Yum. Can we fry these fritters
in Olive Oil?
Thank you for all the wonderful recipes you send us
I have all my friends hooked up to your web site also.
Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week
Betty
Christy, do you know if it would work to use apples that have been frozen? I have a bunch of sliced apples in the freezer in my food saver bags and wondered if they would turn out using apples that have been frozen. Thanks so much for a wonderful website! I just love reading all of your posts and the humor you inject into them!
Rebecca
Christy, Christy, Christy…we get a triple whammy today.
1. The fritters look heavenly, and I’m definitely going to be trying them for myself.
2. How can you beat finding another use for plain old chapstick?
3. And you look absolutely adorable with the young ‘uns.
Thanks so much for the apple fritter recipe! i can’t wait to try it out!
OH MY Those looks SOOOOO yummy and easy. Can’t wait to try them at my sisters next week for our visit. Thank you.
Those look so good, I have had them at the Apple Barn in Tn.
We have an apple festival here in town this weekend. I had myself talked out of going since the only reason that I usually go is to get an apple fritter. Now the debate…take the easy way out, go and get one already made and fried over an open fire? or make my own? Yours look just like theirs do sooooo yummmy! The problem with getting them at the festival is that fritters aren’t the only appley things there…you name it! cheesecake, pie, cobbler, dumplings and more!
My husband, the Yankee, had never had homemade apple fritters before. (He has led a deprived life when it comes to good southern cooking.) I made these up tonight as I happened to have purchased some wonderful apple butter from a farmers market recently on one of our weekend family excursions. They were really good with or without the apple butter. He has now requested them as breakfast this weekend.
oh christy these look soo yummy i went too the apple orchard today,will make these after dinner tonight, hugss cilla
Yummy! I would be trying these tonight but don’t have any apples. But, I will be going tomorrow and will make some then. They sound just fantastic. Guess I will have to get extra so I can make apple butter too.
I give up! These look yummy. Diet will have to wait until the next recipe. Of course, that is just days away…..Will you be running out of recipes anytime soon?
PS…what kind of oil do you use for these thigh builders.
I just love this site……just like being back home in GA & Al.
Stay safe,
Carol in PA
Oh my goodness these look deliscious!!! Christy, I LOVE your flour Canister, could you point me in the direction of where I might find one like it
Thanks, Mandi
Hi from North Utah in a little town Garden City. If I want a fritter I go to the supermarket called Massy and love their fritter. But now showing me how to make them I think I willgo for it !!! This should please my sweetheart… Love you site you got me back into cooking and baking –it’s funny how you slowly slow down doing the yumy meals and baking once the kids leave home. But I am back baking again not just buying the bake goodies!
One more thing if you see mistakes I leave comment s from my iPhone and not use to it still it’s a bit touchy thing — any sorry
Yummy! Those look delicious! I love the AL Adventures pictures- y’all look like you’re having fun
Yay!
Made these today! Turned out great. I used an extra dark brown organic sugar, that added some lovely caramel flavor tones.
I had never made these before and couldn’t believe how easy and quick. Though I do need a little patience. I didn’t let my first batch cool long enough before putting on the confectioners sugar. Still tasted good, but just didn’t look as pretty.
Thanks so much. You’ve got a fan!
Oh weekend trips! I did that a lot with my family when I was a kid too! We did aquariums, parks, fruit harvesting…any festival going on, we’d be there.
And I *love* apple fritters! Actually, I pretty much like any cooked/baked apple goodies. Can’t wait to give this a go.
Thanks Christy, for a great fritter recipe. These remind me of my mom’s famous “fried pies.” Although there were several variations of this in my family, some fried, some baked, some called pies, some called tarts, some called puffs…everyone stood in line when my mom made her apple tarts. Even the preacher has been known to hide one on Sunday dinner days, to make sure he got one. Tomorrow would be my mom’s 95 birthday and she will be greatly missed.
When the weather begins to turn cooler something inside me wants to start baking. This week I dug out all the frozen bananas and made banana nut bread. We went and gleaned sweet potatoes and I made a couple of fresh sweet potato pies. Both of these are my husband’s favorite.
However I picked up some fresh apples at the fruit stand and decided to try this recipe. His first comment was..”KEEP THIS RECIPE” and the second was “Are there more?”
Thanks for such a simple yet husband pleasing recipe.
These look so delicious! Is there a certain type of apple you use, or can you just use any apples?
It’s just such a comfort to read your posts everyday. These days it seems like every food site either wants you to do everything gourmet or completely flavorless and healthy. It’s so nice to read your posts and come across things like this that my Mama makes. It makes my little corner of the world feel so much closer to home.
Ohh! my goodness. My girls and I just finished making them for Friday family fun night and I can not see buying another store bought doughnut again. They were fantastic. My DH said “Good job, hon!”
Lil sis from GA came down for a work week at my house. We made this recipe but forgot(?) to cut the recipe in 1/2 since there was just the 2 of us. We cooked up half the batter and put the rest in the fridge. Awesome fritters….we ate them for our supper…lol Then the next night I added some apple pie spice (we love spices) and a little more SR flour (the apples had thinned it down to much) and cooked the rest. Just as good the next night. So, if you dont need the whole bunch, refrigerate and use later. OR could make on Sat. night for a great Sunday breakfast. Easy, breezy….Still love’n your posts. ps. sis took pics and will post when she gets home and settled.
These look delish, Christy!! Yummmmmy!
I just recently found this website while searching for some recipe. Since we had some apples, my 9 year old daughter decided to try this recipe.
It was SO good. I had apple fritters as a young child…maybe once or twice, but they were cooked totally different.
These reminded me of the funnel cakes at the fair…yum!
I made these this morning and they are AWESOME!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe! Today I will be doing the steak tips!
Ooohhh..I was all prepared to make some candied apples with my Granny Smiths’…now I’ll have to make some fritters’. YUM!
I love love love your site. I have made so many delicious things since finding you.
I made these last night and they came out tasty but very greasy and not very fluffy. What could I have done wrong? Love the flavor but not the grease. I followed the recipe exactly. Could I have cooked them too low? Thanks for all the great recipes!!
Help, for I had the same thing happen the other night (when my sister and I made some along with applebutter and those apple pinwheels). We used self risen flour. We used about 1/2″ of veg.oil in an electric skillet. What kind of oil do you use? They didn’t look fluffy like yours and ours too were very super greasy. I would love to try them again but want to know what we did wrong.
Looking forward to making these for Thanksgiving weekend! What kind of oil do you use when frying up these fritters?