Gumdrops and Groanings: October 2011

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Easy Fall Recipe: Batter Fried Apple Slices

I've said it before, my daughter (almost 4) loves to help in the kitchen. I try to give her any task like stirring, dipping, taste testing, that she can handle. She's pretty good but I do have to remind her that we cannot reuse any utensil she "tastes" from. Sometimes she'll sneak and stick her finger in whatever we're working on if I've got my back turned. I have to promise she can lick the bowl once we're finished.

Its apple picking season in New England. I didn't know I lived so close to some orchards! An old friend invited us to go with her and her 11 yr old daughter to a popular one called Silverman's Farms. They have pumpkins,apples, a general store, and a petting zoo. Check out some photos we took there.

So, my plan was to attempt an apple pie with the apples I got from there. I've never made an apple pie before but I can follow a recipe. After I got home I thought about how I'm not a big fan of pie in general and really didn't want to make a crust and dough from scratch. I didn't feel like making a grocery store run for a ready made pie crust either. I thought about coring them and baking them like my mom used to do but that didn't seem very exciting. I mentioned the pie dilemma to my best friend in Georgia and she remembered making fried apples with her daughter some years before. She thought the recipe may have been from the Food Network and said it called for pancake batter. I had some "just add water" mix in box that has been in my cabinet for a while and I wasn't a fan but maybe if I spruced the batter up a bit I wouldn't have to throw it away?! I tried searching for the recipe she alluded to with no luck. So I decided to wing it. My daughter mixed water, a tablespoon of vanilla extract, cinnamon, dash of nutmeg and stirred. Looked a lot like tempura batter. I sliced the apples into half moons about 1/2 wide on the skin end (yes I left the skin on). I let her coat the apples with a spoon. I fish them out with a spoon and dropped them into hot canola oil and to my surprise they kind of poofed up and floated, They browned quickly (about 1 min) so I watched intently so they didn't burn and flipped for a minute on the opposite side. I drained the oil and let cool. DELICIOUS! I wanted to eat with a scoop a vanilla ice cream but alas, none in the freezer. Maybe that store run wasn't such a bad idea. I resisted the urge to sprinkle powdered sugar because I didn't want the toddler to overdo it on a school night. They were so good, I was kind of mad when I came back about an hour later and my husband had eaten the last few. Warning these are really addicting!