Easy Homemade Apple Fritters
These Easy Homemade Apple Fritters are packed full of fresh apples, easy to make with simple ingredients, and can be ready in just 30 minutes! They’re destined to be a new family favorite!
Next, be sure to try our Easy Homemade Peach Fritters!
Here’s a super quickie for you all! These Easy Homemade Apple Fritters were a spur of the “I really want some fritters,” moment kind of delicious creation and they were sooo tasty I had to share! Not only are they ready in just about 30 minutes, but they’re an apple fritter where you’re not searching for the apples and have just the right amount of complimentary spices and a sweet glaze for a delicious sweet fall breakfast treat – especially with some freshly picked apples!
Ingredients Needed
- Apples – Honeycrisp are a favorite (mainly because they are just an overall favorite apple) but Granny Smith is also great in this recipe. An apple that’s more crisp and tart will work best.
- Lemon Juice – This helps to keep the apples from browning after they’ve been diced, but also helps highlight the acidity.
- Flour, Baking Powder, and Sugar– You can use all-purpose or gluten-free flour or nut flour. We have not made these with whole wheat flour.
- Eggs, Milk, Butter – We usually use 2% milk but you can absolutely use whatever you have. Almond milk works great, too!
- Cinnamon and Nutmeg – Just a pinch of nutmeg adds a great flavor. But you could also use a touch of apple pie spice!
- Ground Ginger – Totally optional but a fun touch! I love the flavor ground ginger brings to sweet treats, I always use it in our homemade granolas.
- Vanilla Extract – Have you made your own, yet?
Then for the glaze, you’ll need some confectioner’s sugar, too!
Recipe Video
Easy to Make
- Dice apples, mix dry ingredients, and wet them in separate bowls.
- Mix into a batter.
- Fry
- Glaze.
Making your own Homemade Apple Fritters is just that easy!
Recipe Tips
Be sure to dice those apples small. Especially since we pack ’em into these fritters. These are truly apple fritters with a serious emphasis on apples, because in my opinion, there’s nothing worse than getting an apple fritter and searching for the apple.
Make sure that your oil is hot enough. If you don’t have an instant-read thermometer (although if you don’t have one, trust me you won’t regret buying one) but you can also do the wooden spoon test. See recipe notes.
You want to bring your oil up to temp, but then make sure that the temp stays there. So once your oil has reached 375 degrees, turn your burner down just a little to ensure that it doesn’t get too hot. If your oil is too hot, you’ll burn your fritters. But also, if your oil gets too cool, the inside of the fritters won’t fully cook. That’s where an instant-read thermometer comes in handy!
We love a slightly larger fritter, which is more of an overflowing 1/4 cup or small 1/3 cup of batter size. If you’re not sure if they’re done yet, use a sharp knife and insert it into the center of the fritter. If it pulls clean, you’re good. But if it doesn’t that means it’s still doughy and needs to cook longer.
One of the most fun parts! While we love this glaze, we also love a cinnamon and sugar blend, but also to add a fun maple touch, you could coat them with our Maple Sugar Glaze!
Brunch plans? Secured with these Easy Homemade Apple Fritters! Or try one of these other sweet brunch treats! You’ll love how apple-packed they are with just the right amount of complimentary spices, especially one of our favorites that you’ll find in so many of our sweet recipes!
- Strawberries and Cream Scones
- Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
- Easy Homemade Peach Fritters
- Maple Walnut Baked Apples
- Sourdough Walnut Cinnamon Rolls
- Butterscotch Snickerdoodle Bread
- Glazed Chocolate Munchkins (Donut Holes)
- German Apple Pancake
- Banana Maple Munchkins
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
If you want to see more, be sure to sign up for my 5 Easy Ways to Start Cooking From Scratch!
Easy Homemade Apple Fritters
Ingredients
APPLE FRITTER
- 3-4 cups apples, diced about 2-3 apples, peeled and diced into bite-size pieces (honeycrisp or granny smith)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice fresh
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour 183 g
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 g
- 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 g
- 2 teaspoons baking powder 10
- pinch nutmeg or apple pie spice!
- pinch ground ginger (optional)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar 12 g
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon melted butter cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Vegetable oil for frying
GLAZE
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-5 teaspoons milk or water
Instructions
- Dice your apples, place in a bowl and add lemon juice. This will prevent the apples from browning.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs. Add milk, vanilla, and cooled melted butter (don't add it hot, you'll cook your eggs!) Whisk together with a fork until it is all combined.
- In another medium sized bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and ground ginger.
- Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well until a loose dough is formed. Fold in the apples.
- Fill a frying pan or sauce pan with about 3-4 cups of oil or so that you have about 3-4 inches of oil in your pan. Heat oil over medium heat until the oil reaches 375°F with a candy thermometer or an instant read thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer, use the wooden spoon test (see notes).
- Use a measuring cup to drop batter into oil, 1/4 cup or 1/3 cup. Fry until the outside is golden brown. Flip and fry other side until golden brown, for a total of about 4-5 minutes. You'll know they're done if you insert a small knife into the center and it comes clean. If not, fry a little longer so that the center is fully cooked. This time will depend on the size of your fritter.
- Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a paper towel-lined cooling rack and let cool. Repeat with all the batter.
GLAZE
- In a small bowl, combine the sugar, vanilla, and 2 teaspoons of milk (or water). Add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you have the consistency you want. Think thick but drizzly.
- Drizzle the glaze over the cooled fritters and let dry.
What? They’re that easy to make? All these years I was intimidated for no reason. I love the idea of making apple fritters from scratch…not only are they awesome to eat while still hot, BUT, I can make them smaller so I don’t over indulge. That’s HUGE for me.
Oh wow. These are spectacular. I love apples and anything apple-y so much. In fact, when fall hits, I’m all over the apple stuff and completely ignoring pumpkin spice everything. I have family visiting next month and I can’t wait to make these for them!
You have me drooling!! The apple fritters sound so good I can almost smell them. This is one recipe the gang here would go nuts over. I’m putting this on my upcoming weekend schedule. I’m going to surprise them.
How can you rate a recipe you haven’t even tried?
Gosh, I’d probably get an immediate proposal of marriage if I made these for the fella. These are one of his favorite treats and looking at your photos is absolutely mouthwatering! Saving this one to try for sure!
How do you keep yours crispy? Mine were sooo delicious but got soggy pretty quick
Hi Mariah!
You can try a couple of things – making the fritters a little smaller or cooking them for longer at a lower temp. This can help with keeping them crispy!
I miss the summer as it slips away, but boy apples sure do a good job of making the transition a little easier to stomach. Literally, I suppose. I’ve never actually made my own fritters but these look so easy and delicious and airy and perfect! I’d love to give them a try with a few different apple types. I’m particularly fond of baking with Red Rome, as they hold their shape so nicely while bridging the gap between sweet and sour. Cheers!
Oh my goodness, this looks so good! My I -laws are always eating store-bought apple fritters (they buy them in the bakery and have them in the kitchen like.. always.) I should blow their minds with some homemade ones!
My partner loves apple fritters so I’ll have to try my hand at making these! How well do these hold up in the fridge if I wanted to make a batch over the weekend?
I don’t like the cold weather, but I do LOVE apple season. So delicious….and much better than the blah apples in the grocery stores. These look perfect for a nice treat for brunch on the weekend.
Looks good but flavor was not what I expected, the only sweetness came from the glaze.
I added a little extra sugar and cinnamon to the batter and used the helpful hint to add cinnamon to the glaze. They were delicious but, a softer fritter.
I wonder how these will work in a air fryer???
Oooh GREAT question, DD. I don’t have an air fryer (yet!) but let me look into it for you and get back to you!
Doesn’t work. Batter too thin.
Oh that’s too bad, but THANK YOU for letting me know!!