Homemade Apple Fritters
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Bursting with cinnamon apple flavor and dusted in sugar, learn just how easy it is to make these fried homemade apple fritters.
My first memories of this homemade apple fritter recipe 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 handheld 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. It’s one that my husband swears could bring about world peace if I played my cards right and kept the sides of apple butter coming.
So, what do you need to make homemade apple fritters? Ingredients I bet you have at home right now! Like milk, brown sugar, fresh apples, eggs, melted butter, cinnamon, and self-rising flour. These fritters are so easy to make. All you need to do is hand-mix the ingredients to make the batter, and then fry them in oil. Add a dusting of powdered sugar and you have yourself a batch of homemade apple fritters.
Your house is going to smell like a bakery and these apple fritters taste as if they came straight from a bakery too. With that cinnamon apple flavor in a buttery crispy fritter coating, and topped with sugar, these apple fritters are fall comfort food at its finest.
So, 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)
- Eggs
- Melted butter
- Cinnamon
- Self-rising flour
How to Make Homemade Apple Fritters, Southern-Style
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.
In a medium bowl, place your dry ingredients: 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, it’s bad luck not to eat them.
Add in the wet ingredients: your milk and melted butter.
Add in eggs and stir that up well.
Peel and dice up your apples.
Toss that into your batter.
Mix together until your batter looks like this.
Now you’re ready to go!
Drop batter by spoonfuls into the 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. Another option is to use a cookie dough scoop or ice cream scoop.
After they get golden brown on one side, turn them over to brown on the other.
Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the skillet and place them 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!
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!
Storage
These fried apple fritters are best eaten immediately. However, you can keep leftovers in an airtight container for up to 24 hours and quickly reheat them in the oven or air fryer.
Recipe Notes
- To ensure your apple fritters don’t break apart once they hit the oil, it needs to be hot enough (375 degrees is the optimal temperature).
- If you can’t get enough cinnamon, add cinnamon to the powdered sugar topping.
- For added flavor, add a pinch of ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and/or apple pie spice.
- Speaking of added flavor, you can also add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the fritter batter.
- Any type of flour and milk works, like gluten-free flour, almond flour, and almond milk.
- For a touch of acidity and to keep the apples from browning, add 2 tablespoons of bottled or fresh lemon juice.
Recipe FAQs
What are the best kinds of apples to use in homemade apple fritters?
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 sweetness and sour. But honestly, you can use whatever type of apples you fancy. Honeycrisp, Gala, and Fuji also work.
How do I make baked 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. 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 cooking spray.
- Add two teaspoons of baking soda.
- Don’t melt the unsalted butter, cut it into the dry ingredients mix.
- Don’t over-mix the batter once you add in the milk and eggs.
- Bake at 400 for 10-14 minutes, but if they are smaller fritters then check after 8 minutes.
- If you want them a little crunchy versus soft, then broil them for 1 minute or so on each side.
- Coat with a bit of melted butter and then dip in the confectioner’s sugar, have them plain, or dip in the apple butter. Have ’em any way you like ’em!
You can also follow these instructions to bake apple fritters in the air fryer.
Can I top my apple fritters with a vanilla glaze?
Yes, if you’d like to top your homemade apple fritters with a glaze instead of sugar, you’ll want to combine 1.5 cups of powdered sugar, a dash of vanilla extra, and 1-1.5 tablespoons of milk in a bowl. Stir until smooth and then drizzle this over the fritters or dunk them into the glaze instead.
What’s the best oil for frying apple fritters?
You want to use an oil with a high smoke point, which is generally canola oil, vegetable oil, or peanut oil.
You may also enjoy these appetizing apple recipes:
Cinnamon Apple Crisps (Only 3 ingredients)
Ten Best Apple Recipes For Fall
Ingredients
- 2 cups apples, peeled and diced any kind of apple
- 2 cups self-rising flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tbsp melted butter
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar, optional
Instructions
- Mix flour, sugar, and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl, using a fork to break up any lumps.2 cups self-rising flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Add in milk, melted butter, and eggs. Stir well to combine.1 cup milk, 3 tbsp melted butter, 2 large eggs
- Peel and dice apples, then stir them into the batter.2 cups apples, peeled and diced
- Drop 1/8 cup of the batter into the hot oil and turn to allow them to brown on both sides.
- Drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Dust with confectioner’s sugar, if desired.1 cup confectioner's sugar, optional
- Serve with apple butter.
Nutrition
These look so good!! I can’t wait to make some. Thanks for all the great recipes. You have a beautiful family!
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.
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!
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!!!
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.
Bag balm is great for all kinds of things (like really red, chapped hands – and noses)! We get it at the feed & seed up here (chilly, frequently-snowy, MI). I’ll just bet you can find them at the F&Ss down home, too.
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
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????
What kind of apples did you use?
I use whatever I have on hand. Often that is honeycrisp or jonagold.