# Issues With Making Fritters (Doughnut)



## maximusm (Dec 5, 2012)

Hi everyone! I've been struggling with trying to make apple fritters. The kind I've been going for are the jumbo sized ones that are usually seen at mom & pop or gourmet donut shops (you know the kind that are about the size of saucers). However I've added my own twist & have used cake donut dough instead of the usual yeast dough, & have more recently tried my hand at a sour cream dough to get more of that sour cream donut taste & consistency but as a fritter instead.

The problem I have is that when I fry them they rarely fully cook leaving a bit of the inside still somewhat raw. If I leave the fritters in the fryer a little longer then the outside of the fritter gets really dark & overcooked..... not burnt but certainly not like the versions I see in shops. I've tried frying at 375 & 350 degrees; outside gets nice & golden within minutes but the inside takes more time to get done so the fritters end up browned. If I fry at ~325 it takes even longer to get done soaking up more oil & leaving me with dark fritters still. So recently what I've done to try to avoid this is to take them out the fryer once they;re nicely golden, & pop them in the oven at 325-350 to hopefully bake that little remaining raw portion in the middle. what I end up with are done fritters but with a really crusty exterior & burnt bottoms... so now I've kind of run out of ideas. I know part of the problem is that I'm using a cake/sour cream dough & the density may create issues when working with large portions but is there anyway around this? Or is it not possible to make large cake donut fritters? Should I be happy with the fry-then-bake results? Maybe I'm being too ambitious or just don't know what the heck I'm doing! I'm not a novice in the kitchen but I'm no expert either so a little help will go a long way for me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

> I know part of the problem is that I'm using a cake/sour cream dough & the density may create issues when working with large portions but is there anyway around this?


Can you share the recipe you are using ?


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## maximusm (Dec 5, 2012)

Thanks for the replay. Well i've tried many recipes over the last 1 1/2 yrs but these are the most recent:

1 box cake mix (betty crocker)

1 cup cake flour

3 eggs

1 1/4 cup water

I found & tried this recipe a fews months ago but didn't like the outcome. I figured it was because I used a cake mix so I decided to go back to using cake flour alone & went with the following which was a recipe for sour cream donuts:

2 1/4 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp shortening
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sour cream

I each instance i would prepare the dough & chill the night before. The following morning I would roll out the dough & chop it up with a bench scrapper, add chopped apple & chop it all together. I would then section off the dough into pieces - large enough to get the desired size after frying - flatten & its ready to go in the fryer


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

Max,

Interesting recipes, thank you for sharing.

Have you ever seen the recipe on Serious Eats ? I think you will like it.

1 1/3 cup AP flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 nutmeg

1/4 salt

1/3 cup sugar ( he uses light brown sugar)

2/3 cup whole milk

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

2 tablespoons melted buttter, cooled

2 apples

vegetable oil for frying

1/3 cup conf. sugar for decorating

They are light and have a very nice texture. Next time I make them I will post a pic for you.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/apple-fritters-fried-sweets-fall.html


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## michaelga (Jan 30, 2012)

One thing you can try is to let the dough rest and warm up after you have shaped and incorporated the apples.  

If you go to frying them right away the dough inside will still be quite cold compared to the outside causing them to cook unevenly.

Not exactly proofing but getting them up to room temp through out.


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