Chag Hannukah Sameach everyone! Happy Hannukah.
We were invited to a lovely Hannukah party at a friend’s house. So, I decided to make an Italian fritter that is usually made for Carnevale, but is quite fitting for our oily festival. Every region in Italy has their own fritter recipe: mine is from the imaginary province of Italy where we live in central Israel.
Our landlord recently surprised us one Friday morning by planting three lovely citrus trees: a clementine, a lemon, and an orange tree. He also brought us a large box of clementines and oranges to eat.
So, I decided to make some candied orange peel with some of the oranges and they were a perfect addition to the Hannukah fritters. These are lightly candied because I do not like to make them with a lot of sugar.
These fritters are also not too sweet because I cut the sugar in half. So, if you have a sweet tooth, you can make them with 1/2 cup of sugar. I also think the dusting of sugar is not necessary because the sweetness of the apples and the candied orange is enough.
Because they are not fried for very long, the apples remain crunchy enough to still taste fresh. Mr. BT thinks that next time we should also add some fresh or candied ginger to the batter in order to give it a real kick.
- 2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour plus 2 more tablespoons
- 1/4 cup sugar plus more for dusting (if you want)
- 3/4 cup whole milk may need to add a little more
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup raisins muscatel if possible
- 1/2 cup chopped pistachios or whole pine nuts
- 1/2 cup candied orange rind minced
- 2 large granny smith apples
- Brandy
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Zest and juice of one small lemon
- Oil for frying
- 20 g fresh yeast or 1 sachet instant dried yeast
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon warm milk
- 2 cups flour
- Pinch salt
- 1/4 cup sugar plus more for dusting (if you want)
- 1/2 cup raisins muscatel if possible
- 1/2 chopped pistachios or whole pine nuts
- 1/2 cup candied orange rind minced
- 2 granny smith apples
- Brandy
- Zest and juice of one small lemon
- Oil for frying
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Put the raisins in a small bowl and soak in brandy for one hour, until plump.
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Grate the zest of the lemon. Peel, core and cut the apples into a medium dice. Set aside and sprinkle the juice of the lemon you just zested on the apples.
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Mix the eggs, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Add the flour, baking powder and milk. Then fold in the pistachio nuts, apples and candied orange. Drain the raisins well and dust them with the 2 tablespoons of flour, shaking them in a strainer to remove the excess flour. Fold them into the flour mixture.
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Heat the oil on medium-high heat and when it is hot, drop the batter a tablespoon at a time into the hot oil. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Drain them on absorbent paper and dust optionally with sugar.
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Serve immediately. These do not keep well.
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Put the raisins in a small bowl and soak in brandy for one hour, until plump.
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In another bowl, mix together yeast and warm milk. Add flour, salt, sugar, apples, pistachios, candied peel and raisins to the batter. Whisk together well to make a thick batter. Cover and leave in a warm place for 2-3 hours, or until volume has doubled.
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Heat the oil on medium-high heat and when it is hot, drop the batter a tablespoon at a time into the hot oil. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Drain them on absorbent paper and dust optionally with sugar.
I can attest to these fritters – they are relishious. ‘Sfar as I’m concerned, they already kick plenty and don’t need additional flavoring. Yum!