My first memories of this recipe for apple fritters comes 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.
Attention Apple Lovers:
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.
How ’bout them fritters?
The ingredients you’ll need for this recipe are:
- Milk
- Brown sugar
- Apples (I use a mix of Red and Granny Smith Apples to mix up the taste bit)
- Eggs
- Melted butter
- Cinnamon
- Self rising flour
TIP Before You Get Started:
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/burner so it will be ready to fry in.
How to Make Apple Fritters Recipe Southern Style
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. 🙂
add in your milk and melted butter
Add in eggs and stir that up good.
Peel and dice up your apples.
What Kind of Apples Do I Use?
I use Red Delicious and Granny Smith to give two different sweet tastes to the fritters. Nothing like tingling the taste buds with different levels of sweet and sour. But honestly you can use whatever type of apples you fancy.
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!
How Many Does This Recipe Make?
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.
Yummm!
Can I Bake These Apple Fritters Instead of Frying Them?
Well every Southerner knows it ain’t Southern unless it’s fried 😉 but yes you can bake apple fritters but I would recommend the following changes to the recipe:
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and use a lined baking sheet or spray the sheet with vegetable oil of your choice.
- Add two tsp of baking soda
- Don’t melt the butter, cut it in to the dry ingredients mix
- Don’t over mix the batter once you add in the milk and eggs.
- Bake at 400 for 10-14 mins but if they are smaller fritters then check after 8 mins.
- If you want them a little crunchy versus soft then broil them 1 min or so on each side.
- Coat with a bit of melted butter and then dip in the confectioners sugar, have them plain or dip in the apple butter. Have ’em any way you like ’em!

Ingredients
- 2 cups apples peeled and diced, granny smith, red delicious or mixed
- 2 cups self rising flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs large
- 1 cup milk
- 3 Tbsp. butter melted
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 c Confectioners sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Mix flour, sugar, and cinnamon together using a fork to break up any lumps.
- Add in milk, melted butter, 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.
Notes
Nutrition
You may also enjoy these apple recipes:
Crock Pot Apple Butter Recipe Easy and Delicious
Ten Best Apple Recipes For Fall
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Unbelievably Blissful