Year in Review with Oven Baked Apple Fritters

Another year is about to pass and it’s always fun to take a look back at everything that has happened. It’s amazing how fast 2011 flew by and it has been a great year full of get-togethers, great memories and of course…food. I look forward to continuing the celebration tonight with more said good food and great friends. Here’s hoping that everybody’s New Year brings in even more joy and happiness!

Here’s a recipe to help end everybody’s year in a bang, baked apple fritters! It’s a healthier version then deep fried fritters, but still remains decadent and apropos for any celebratory event. I adjusted the original recipe (found here) a bit to reduce the amount of sugar used in the dough and nobody seemed to notice (especially because the final step includes rolling the fritters in a bit of cinnamon sugar). I hope you enjoy this recipe and I look forward to another great blogging year!

Oven Baked Cinnamon Apple Fritters

Ingredients for fritters:1/4 cup brown sugar, do not pack down the sugar
2 tbsp white sugar
1 1/2 cups of bite size chunks of apple, peeled and cored
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp clove
1/3 cup cold butter, frozen and I’ll tell you why later
1 egg
1/4 cup skim milk

Ingredients for coating:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder


Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350F and grease two muffin pans.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugars, salt and nutmeg in a bowl.

Remove the butter from the freezer and grate in to mixture using a mandolin. This makes the dough moist because the butter remains in solid pieces. Combine until the dough becomes crumbly.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg and then mix in the milk. Fold in the apple chunks until combined.
Carefully fold the flour mixture in to the egg mixture without over stirring. Place a spoonful of batter into each mold of a buttered muffin pan.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in to fritters come out clean.

Remove from the oven, unmold and lightly brush each fritter with the melted butter. Roll the fritter in the sugar and cinnamon.

Best served warm but the fritters can be made in advance and then rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar shortly before serving.

Enjoy!