BA Bake Club: Glazed Apple Pie Fritters

Bon Appétit

Hosts Shilpa Oskakovich and Jesse Szewczyk guide listeners through their October Bake Club recipe: Glazed Apple Pie Fritters. They break down the science

Key takeaways

• Shilpa Oskakovich explains that ricotta adds both moisture and natural acidity, which tenderizes the batter and enhances flavor.
• Testing revealed Honeycrisp apples hold their texture better than Granny Smith, which tends to collapse into a 'sludge of goop.'

Main topics

• Glazed Apple Pie Fritters recipe
• Deep frying techniques and safety

Notable quotes

"Frying dough is kind of benign, right? And once it's browned, it's done."

Conclusion

Listeners gain actionable techniques for mastering deep-fried pastries at

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:03) I'm Jesse Sefchak. And I'm Shilpa Oskakovich. We're both senior Tusk Kitchen editors at Bon Appetit. And this is BA Bake Club. Speaker 3 (0:13) Bake Club is Bon Appetit's community of confident, curious bakers. We're Speaker 2 (0:18) creating the nerdiest and most wholesome corner of the baking internet. Speaker 3 (0:21) Every month, we'll publish a recipe on bonappetit.com that introduces a baking concept that we think you should know. Speaker 2 (0:27) Then you'll bake, send us any questions that you have or pictures of your finished creations. And Speaker 3 (0:32) then we'll get together here on the podcast to talk about the recipe. Our Speaker 2 (0:36) October Bake Club recipe is for salt bread and it's now live on bonappetit.com. We'll tell you more about it at the end of the episode. Speaker 3 (0:44) But today, it is time for Shilpa's state fair fantasy, her glazed apple pie fritters. Speaker 7 (0:51) Which a week ago we found out may not even be a state fair thing, but we'll go with the premise. I Speaker 3 (0:56) just indulge you this whole time. I'm like, yes, yes. Speaker 2 (1:00) See, it's always my, for those of you who are listening and who may not know this fact, but I think you do, I wasn't born here. And when I moved to America, I think the most American thing. was the idea of a state fair. And it has been my longtime dream to go to one. I haven't yet been to one. Inez, our colleague, teases me with all of the wonderful descriptions of the Wisconsin State Fair. Speaker 3 (1:28) That's a big one, yep. Speaker 2 (1:29) And I've always wanted to go, and it's just, I only know that there's a lot of fried food at the state fair, and there's sometimes butter sculptures. Oh, my God. What a magical place this sounds like. I Speaker 7 (1:39) think Speaker 2 (1:39) we could Speaker 3 (1:39) very easily make your dream happen. Okay, next year we're going to New York. Speaker 7 (1:43) Oh. Speaker 3 (1:44) Also, everything looked beautiful on the sub stack. Oh, yes. Speaker 2 (1:47) All Speaker 3 (1:47) of Speaker 2 (1:47) the Speaker 3 (1:47) fritters looked beautiful. Speaker 2 (1:48) Fritters were amazing. Yeah, everybody just knocked it out of the park with this one. Maybe Speaker 3 (1:52) they've all been to the state fair. I Speaker 2 (1:53) mean, we have been running Bake Club for... Almost two years or more than two years now. Speaker 3 (1:59) Yeah, they're professionals now. Almost two years. Yeah, all Speaker 2 (2:01) of our bake clubbers are pros now, Jesse. We've got to step up our game. Speaker 3 (2:04) Okay, okay. So the fritters. And before we get too far, Speaker 2 (2:07) can Speaker 3 (2:07) you walk us through the recipe? And for that, we'll need what else but our jaunty bake club music. Yes, there it is. Shilpa, where do we start? Speaker 2 (2:18) I think, Jesse, that this might be one of our easiest bake club recipes. Oh? It's certainly one of our quickest. To make the fritters, you cook a bunch of apples down with sugar and spice and everything nice, I guess. And then separately, you make a batter with ricotta, eggs, flour, and leavener. And then you combine both of these mixtures. You plop the cooled, cooked apples into the ricotta batter, and you sort of fold them together, and you fry those things up. And then to finish, we have a very simple, like, 10x. Powdered sugar glaze that's spiked with a little bit of cinnamon. Speaker 3 (2:51) 10x. Okay, chef. Speaker 2 (2:53) Okay, chef. Put that on our t-shirt. 10x. Speaker 3 (2:57) 10x, Shilpa. Do you want to tell the people what 10x is? Speaker 7 (3:00) Yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. 10x is just the kitchen term, Speaker 2 (3:05) I guess, for powdered sugar. Yeah. And the reason it's called 10x is because it's... 10 times finer than regular sugar. And it's also like 20x, which I've never used personally. Oh, wow. Yeah. But it's just, I don't know, kitchen speak for powdered sugar. Speaker 3 (3:20) Oui, chef. Speaker 2 (3:21) Oui, chef. Speaker 3 (3:23) Okay, so we talked about your inspiration at the State Fair. Speaker 2 (3:26) But Speaker 3 (3:26) you've never been to a State Fair. Speaker 7 (3:28) So Speaker 3 (3:28) how did A get to B here? Speaker 7 (3:31) It was just Speaker 2 (3:32) the concept. Okay. The idea that a state fair is filled with fried foods, like the deep-fried Mars bars and the deep-fried pickles. Oreos. Yeah. Yes. Oreos and the deep-fried pickles. Deep Speaker 3 (3:45) -fried mayonnaise. Speaker 2 (3:46) Oh, really? I've seen it. Speaker 3 (3:47) I've seen it. Oh, my God. I've seen it. Well, I saw it online. What's the Speaker 2 (3:51) texture? Speaker 3 (3:52) I have no idea. So where did you start when developing the recipe? Like, did ricotta, was it always there? Speaker 2 (3:59) Yes, the ricotta was always there because I've been pitching ricotta beignets. I've been around. And this was actually inspired, or rather stolen, from my husband, Miro, who when he was pastry chef at Grand Marcy, he made these ricotta beignets. And then he would often serve them with like custard and a huckleberry or other sort of berry jam. And they were so... Good. And I've been trying to pitch ricotta beignets. No one was sold. No one was biting. So then I sort of morphed the pitch into yeast-free cake donuts. Okay. Do you know? I was like, let's do this. There was a lot of back and forth, I remember. And then I had to then pursue like a seasonal angle. I said, pull something out. And I was like, oh, what if we make them apple pie? Speaker 7 (4:47) Cake donuts. And Speaker 3 (4:48) that's how you sold it. And that's how I sold Speaker 7 (4:50) it. And a Speaker 3 (4:50) sale was made. Speaker 7 (4:52) A sale was made, ladies and gentlemen. And that's how we ended up with our glazed apple pie. Thank you Speaker 3 (4:57) for your transparency here. Speaker 7 (4:59) See, sometimes it's just the way the fritter is fried. Speaker 3 (5:02) Okay, so what is the difference between a fritter and a donut and your previously mentioned cake donut? Yes, what are all these things? Speaker 2 (5:10) Okay, so I think the unifying factor, I know you asked about the differences, but I think the unifying factor is obviously that... They're all fried. Speaker 7 (5:18) Although some would argue Speaker 2 (5:19) you can have a baked donut, but I don't think it's a donut. Sure, in those Speaker 3 (5:22) little molds, you know? Yeah, those Speaker 2 (5:23) are cute molds. For me, I think of a donut as being typically yeasted, whereas a cake donut is usually made with a chemical leavener, such as baking soda and or baking powder. Speaker 3 (5:35) Sure. Speaker 2 (5:36) And then a fritter, in my head, could be either. I think it could be yeasted or just leavened with, like, a quick leavener. But... The difference to me is that it isn't shaped in any way. It's almost like dropped in free form, whereas a cake donut is usually shaped in some way, usually with that little dispenser that makes the ring. So those to me are the three differences. Speaker 3 (5:59) Okay, so your recipe. Speaker 2 (6:00) Okay, Speaker 3 (6:01) step one, you cook down the apples. Speaker 2 (6:04) What's Speaker 3 (6:04) going on there? Speaker 2 (6:05) So I almost always, when I bake with apples especially, or any fruit in general when it comes to baking, I do tend to pre-cook. Because I think it does two things. One, it sort of drives the excess moisture away. Yeah, they're Speaker 3 (6:21) quite wet. Speaker 2 (6:22) They're wet. Yeah, apples have a lot of water. And then by doing that, you sort of concentrate all of the flavors and it becomes more of whatever it is. I did this with my peach and blueberry filling Speaker 3 (6:31) for Speaker 2 (6:32) the peach and blueberry pie. I did it Speaker 3 (6:33) for the caramel apple monkey bread. Yes. Yes. And you Speaker 2 (6:37) cooked on the cider too. Yes. Speaker 3 (6:38) Yeah. Speaker 2 (6:39) I think pre-cooking fruit is a great way to amp up the flavor without adding anything extra. And then when you cook away the moisture, I think it acts better in your final product. Speaker 3 (6:50) And you cube your apples. I know there was discussion about maybe grating them. Speaker 2 (6:57) Okay, Speaker 3 (6:57) she looks disturbed. Speaker 2 (6:59) Yes, I think grating would release too much moisture. I Speaker 3 (7:02) think it kind of acts like a liquid at that point. Yes, exactly. Speaker 2 (7:05) And then I think it would also disintegrate. into the batter. Just like Speaker 3 (7:10) gumminess. Yeah, that Speaker 2 (7:11) wouldn't work. And I think if you grate it, yeah, you could. You could pre-cook it, but it's going to take a long time to really get all of that moisture out, and then you're going to lose some of the texture. I wanted those chunks of fruit in the batter, so when you bite in, you hit those juicy pockets of fruit. And how Speaker 3 (7:27) far do you cook them? Speaker 2 (7:28) The apples. Yeah. Part of it, you know, of course, because you're dealing with fruit, which has its own variabilities, always depends on your fruit. I tested it with Honeycrisp apples. Our favorite. Our favorite. Yes. I feel like we should tell everybody the Granny Smith experiment. I feel like Granny Smith has Speaker 3 (7:44) been... Speaker 2 (7:44) Granny Smith Speaker 3 (7:45) has... Well, it wasn't even an experiment at first. It was just Granny Smith was screwing us over. Speaker 2 (7:50) Yes. Speaker 3 (7:50) Over and over again. Speaker 2 (7:52) Yes, because Granny Smith is most recommended, like, baking or cooking apple. Yeah. And many times over, when Jesse and I were testing recipes, we would use Granny Smith, and then we would end up with this sludge of goop. Yeah, it's a lie. It is a lie. And then we discovered that an apple such as Honeycrisp is actually the best one for baking because it softens, but it still holds its texture without collapsing into an applesauce. I Speaker 3 (8:21) remember the Tarte de Ten. Yes. It was illuminating because I was using Granny Smith and they were wrinkly. And then I switched it to Honeycrisp and they were perfect little orbs. Yes, Speaker 2 (8:30) they were beautiful. Speaker 3 (8:31) Yes, that's crazy. That Speaker 2 (8:33) was a great discovery. Okay, let's go back to cooking the apples. How long should you cook it? You really have to cook it until most of the liquid is evaporated and that liquid in there is syrupy. Because you cook it with all of the sugar in the recipe. Speaker 3 (8:46) Oh, okay. So Speaker 2 (8:47) you really want it to concentrate and cook down. And the sauce should be sort of clinging to the apples. Speaker 3 (8:53) Sure. You Speaker 2 (8:54) can almost err on the side of overcooking than undercooking for this recipe, I would say. Speaker 3 (9:00) Because undercooking would make your batter too wet. Speaker 2 (9:03) Correct. Correct. And then they would be like, they wouldn't fry well. They would absorb a lot of oil. They would lose their shape and become almost wispy. Speaker 3 (9:10) Sure. And then overcooking apples would just mean you have a more jammy apple bit. Correct. Okay. All right, fair. Okay, now the batter. So what's going on here? What is the ricotta doing? Speaker 2 (9:21) Okay, the ricotta, I was actually very inspired by Eastern European, sort of Central European baking traditions of adding like fresh cheese to doughs and batters. You see it a lot in German and Austrian and Balkan baking. And I like ricotta because it adds this, it adds moisture to the dough, which, you know, translates into a more moist. Fritter in this case. And it also adds this nice acidity, which just sort of lifts all of the flavors up. It's like when you season food and you put a squeeze of lemon juice in the end. It just tastes Speaker 3 (9:56) better. It just tastes Speaker 2 (9:57) better. Exactly. So ricotta brings that natural acidity and also the acidity sort of tenderizes the batter and it reacts with any of your leaveners and creates a much more like fluffy, tender product. And Speaker 3 (10:11) the batter, like what is the consistency? Speaker 2 (10:13) What is the consistency of the batter? Okay, so before you add the apples, the batter is actually very thick. And there will be larger streaks of flour. It will look a little bit dry and clumpy almost. So the batter is a little bit unusual. It is very thick. It can be dry and it can be clumpy. How Speaker 3 (10:34) thick? Speaker 2 (10:36) Damn, you're really making me reach far back. Thicker than pancake batter. Speaker 3 (10:40) Okay, okay. And Speaker 2 (10:41) when you add... The apples, like the cooked down apples and their syrup, at first, it'll be very difficult to incorporate. The batter looks like it's almost breaking. Sure. Because, you know, that moisture is trying to be added to this fat. And then you keep folding it in and everything sort of comes together into what I would describe as like a pancake-like batter. Speaker 3 (11:02) Sure. So, okay, now you have your batter. Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:06) I Speaker 3 (11:06) think it's time to address the elephant in the room, deep frying. This is maybe the part where people have anxiety. Speaker 7 (11:14) Hot Speaker 3 (11:14) oil is scary. So what is the key to a good deep fried fritter and moving past this fear? Speaker 2 (11:21) I actually think the secret to better deep frying or like more streamlined, less anxious deep frying is to just use a smaller pot. Speaker 3 (11:34) So not like a Dutch oven. Speaker 2 (11:36) Yes. Sure. I almost never use a Dutch oven for frying. I just think... That's Speaker 3 (11:40) a lot of oil. Speaker 2 (11:40) Yeah, it's a lot of oil. And I think that's what, at least to me, that's what builds up my anxiety when I see like a huge pot of oil because I think things can go south very fast. Yeah. With such a large volume of oil because it can hold on to a lot of heat. Speaker 3 (11:53) Yeah, it stays hot for hours. Yes. Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:56) So I prefer to use a smaller pot. I usually fry in a wok at home. But over here, I remember I was using like a skillet. I was using a straight-sided skillet, which is about 9 to 10 inches. And then I filled it with maybe like 3-ish cups of oil. And I think that affords you a certain sense of control. And then the second point I would say is also get a pan with high enough sides. Make sure that the oil comes no more than... halfway up the sides of the pan because when you add things into the oil, the hot oil is reacting with, you know, the moisture in there evaporates essentially and things do bubble up. Speaker 3 (12:36) Yeah, it's a little violent at first. It is. And Speaker 2 (12:38) sometimes that can cause the oil to rise up in the pan. So allowing yourself enough margin will sort of relieve that anxiety. Speaker 3 (12:47) And you use a chopstick? Speaker 7 (12:51) I Speaker 2 (12:51) hate that. Speaker 7 (12:53) I hate the deep frame thermometer. I hate one. I don't know if I can say this. Like the clip-on one? Yes. Say it. It's so old-fashioned. I find them useless. I can never Speaker 2 (13:02) get them to clip. on. They're always falling over because I never use a Dutch oven. I suppose if you're using like a Dutch oven or like a tall pot, I think it's nice or convenient to clip on. But I'm almost always frying in a wok, which has a curved side, or I'm using a skillet, which has short sides. So this thing never stays on. I just use a chopstick. People have been using that technique for centuries. Nothing has happened. We're good. Speaker 3 (13:24) Okay, but what does that mean? Speaker 2 (13:26) Okay, so... You can use a chopstick to test the temperature of your oil. And you do this by using like a wooden chopstick, obviously not a metal one. You take a wooden chopstick, which is not polished or sealed or lacquered in Speaker 3 (13:38) any way. Speaker 2 (13:38) Like a takeout one. Like a takeout one. Yeah. Speaker 8 (13:40) And Speaker 2 (13:41) then when your oil, you know, you feel your oil is hot enough, you plunge the tip of the chopstick into the oil. Okay. And then you watch the part that's submerged. The stick. Yeah, you watch the part