Apple fritters with vanilla sauce
Dessert, Vegetarian

Apple fritters with vanilla sauce (‘Apfelküchle mit Vanillesoße’)

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Last Updated on 4 years by Tim

I haven’t been sharing any dessert recipes on my blog yet even though that’s what German cuisine is famous for. All the delicious sweets, cakes, and pastries. I think there’s no better way to introduce you to the world of German sweets than these delicious apple fritters.

They’re surprisingly light, not overly sweet, and super juicy.

I serve them together with homemade vanilla sauce. A dessert classic. However, they’re also delicious on their own sprinkled with some icing sugar and ground cinnamon.

Use tart apples for the best apple fritters

It’s best to make this dish during the fall when fresh apples are abundant. Choose a tart variety such as Granny Smith, Braeburn, or Pink Lady.

Tart apples are the best choice

It’s up to you whether you want to peel your apples or not. I prefer to make my apple fritters from peeled apples so that they are super tender throughout without a fibrous shell around them.

The step you shouldn’t skip is deseeding your apples. It’s no joy to bite into apple seeds.

After you have cut up your apples store them submerged in water so that they don’t discolor or coat them directly with the lemon juice marinade.

Store the apple slices in cold water to prevent them from browning

What goes into my frying batter

For my frying batter, I use spelt flour. It’s a traditional flour that was widely used in the old times in South Germany and Austria. Spätzle were originally made using spelt flour as well.

Today, regular wheat flour is the most popular flour and you can substitute it in case you can’t source spelt flour. Your apple fritters will taste just as good.

I decided to go with baking powder instead of beer or carbonated water in my batter. The baking powder makes these apple fritters super light and airy. You could also substitute the milk for beer or carbonated water and leave out the baking powder in case you like your apple fritters to be a bit denser.

Don’t turn the heat too high when frying the apple fritters

You don’t need to add a ton of oil into your frying pan for frying the apple fritters. Add just enough clarified butter in a nonstick pan so that the bottom is evenly coated.

Frying the fritters in the pan

The heat shouldn’t be higher than mediumlow. You want to give your apple slices some time to soften inside the pan before the batter starts burning. Ideally, the apple fritters should be fried for about 5 minutes so that the outside is golden and the apple slices on the inside are tender and sweet.

If you’ve set your heat too high and your batter is darkening too fast add some more cold clarified butter into your pan to lower the heat. And by all means, take them out earlier if you batter is starting to get very dark.

It’s better to bite into an apple fritter that still has a little crunch than it is to eat one with a burned crust.

Fried apple fritters in the pan

Making homemade vanilla sauce is easy

Vanilla sauce is the classic dessert sauce. It’s delicious poured over ice cream, steamed yeast buns, and, of course, apple fritters.

And even though it uses egg yolks as the thickening agent it is still super easy to make. The only thing you need to be aware of is temperature control.

Homemade vanilla sauce

Before you add your egg yolks into the hot milk you always need to temper them. You do that by pouring some of your hot milk over your whisked egg yolks. Give it a brief mix and then add this tempered mixture back into your pot.

Leave the sauce on low heat for a few minutes to let it thicken. The vanilla sauce should be at 175 °F (80 °C) for the best results. Don’t let it come to a boil as you don’t want your eggs to scramble.

It’s best to take the sauce off the heat once it has thickened and cover the pot with a lid to keep it warm.

For serving, sprinkle the apple fritters with icing sugar and ground cinnamon and pour over the hot vanilla sauce.

5 Comments

  1. Those look AWESOME!!!!!!!

  2. Ein Träumchen , wird bald mal gemacht.

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