Maple Chai Apple Fritters

Warm and cozy chai spiced apple fritters are tossed with a sweet and simple maple glaze.

Let’s talk apples. I’ve always loved apple season—the way it paves the way for crisp fall air, usually while we’re still finishing off the last of the summer tomatoes. Apple season encourages us to start pulling out our sweaters and signals to us that it’s time to trade our iced coffees for hot beverages and it pushes us into the kitchen to start making pie doughs.

And now, living in Minnesota, I’ve never loved apple season more. There are at least 15 apple orchards within a 30 minute drive of the Twin Cities. Last weekend, the temperature dipped into the 60s and we spent an afternoon on a farm, sipping apple cider, wandering through corn mazes, and strolling through rows and rows of apple trees, filling little white bags as we walked. It was peak fall and it was magical. Now I have more apples than I know what to do with. So we make fritters.

what are homemade apple fritters

If you ‘re casually browsing the internet for an apple fritter recipe, you’ll quickly discover that there are two types. One is a yeasted apple fritter—a sweet, brioche-like dough gets filled with cooked apples, layered on top of each other in a haphazard manner before frying. The result are those dense, donut-like fritters you find at most donut shops and bakeries. The other type of apple fritter is a bit simpler. Similar to Southern-style corn or zucchini fritters, it features a simple, non-yeasted batter, filled with fresh produce and fried.

For this recipe, I decided to go simple. I wanted a recipe that would encourage you to start baking with your apple haul as soon as you walk in the door, and a recipe that have you snacking on warm apple fritters in under an hour.

how to make apple fritters

This recipe really couldn’t be simpler. Whisk together flour, baking powder, spices, a little sugar, and salt. Then whisk together eggs and milk. Add a little bit of browned butter and you’ve got yourself a batter. Then add a ton of diced apples—you want just enough batter to barely hold the apple pieces together.

To fry the fritters, you can use any neutral oil you’d like. A candy thermometer helps maintain the appropriate temperature so that you aren’t left with overcooked exteriors and raw centers.

For the glaze, we are simply whisking together powdered sugar, the seeds from a vanilla bean, maple syrup, and heavy cream and then pouring it over the hot fritters.

homemade chai spice blend

My favorite part of this recipe (and possibly the fall baking season in general) is homemade chai spice blend. I make a batch of this at the beginning of the fall baking season and keep it in my pantry all season long. There’s ground black tea, lots of cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger, plus black pepper and cloves. And if you’re looking for more chai forward recipes to use this blend in, check out my Chai Snickerdoodles and my Dirty Chai Banana Bread recipes.

Yield 12

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

20 Min

Cook time

20 Min

Total time

40 Min

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Maple Chai Apple Fritters

Warm and cozy chai spiced apple fritters are tossed with a sweet and simple maple glaze.

Ingredients

for the fritters

• 1 1/4 cup (156 g) all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup (27 g) rye flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp chai spice blend
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, browned
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk*
• 10-12 oz diced apples (from about 3 apples)
• Vegetable oil, for frying

for the glaze

• 2/3 cup (150 g) powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• Pinch of salt
• 5 tbsp heavy cream or coconut milk

Instructions

1. Fill a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot with about 3” of vegetable. Begin heating to 375° F. Line a rimmed sheet pan with paper towels and place a cooling rack over top.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, rye flour, baking powder, sugar, chai spice, and salt. Set aside.
3. Place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook for 6-7 minutes, swirling occasionally until butter is foamy and fragrant and little brown flecks appear at the bottom of the pan. Immediately remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
4. In a large measuring cup, whisk together eggs and coconut milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Whisk in the browned butter until smooth.
5. Add the diced apples and gently fold to disperse.
6. When the oil has reached 375° F, drop scoops of fritter batter (about 1/4 cup in size) into the hot oil, taking care not to crowd the pan. (I was able to fit about 4 at a time.) Fry to 3-4 minutes, flipping halfway through, until fritters are deeply golden brown.
7. Use a slotted spoon to remove the fritters from the oil and transfer the paper towel lined cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining fritters.
8. While the fritters are cooling slightly, whisk together glaze ingredients in a large bowl until smooth. Either toss the warm fritters in the glaze or pour the glaze over top of the warm fritters. Serve warm.

Notes

• As always, you can substitute the rye flour for 100% all purpose flour. I do really love the nuttiness that the rye brings to these fritters, so spelt or buckwheat flour would also be substitutes.
• When I created this recipe, I was completely out of milk so I used coconut milk--which made them dairy free. If you'd like to keep the fritters dairy free, use coconut milk in the glaze, as well. If you don't mind dairy or don't have coconut milk on hand, you can substitute with whole milk or another non-dairy milk like almond or oat.

Similar Recipes

Chai Snickerdoodles

Fall Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Salted Caramel

Buttermilk Beignets with Vino Cotto

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Chai Snickerdoodles

Warm and cozy homemade chai spice blend and soft and chewy snickerdoodles are a match made in heaven. This simple recipe makes the perfect cookies with crispy edges and pillowy centers.

I’ve been a little quiet on the blog for the past few weeks, but not to worry—I’ve still been cranking out recipes and sharing them with you like a mad woman. In case you missed it, at the beginning of the month, I launched Pastry School 101—a weekly newsletter teaching you creative baking recipes and foundational pastry skills. Each month we will deep dive into technique or ingredient and I’ll break down the science behind the process, give step by step instructions, and lots of tips and tricks for pastry mastery. There will also be two bonus recipes each month that incorporate the featured monthly skill/ingredient and there are places within the publication for where readers can comment/ask questions/chat about each recipe or post. This month, we took a little at whipping eggs (both whites and yolks) made olive oil chocolate mousse, and classic tiramisu, and had a blast. If you aren’t already in our little community, I’d love for you to join us!

But now I’m back and I’ve got cookies for you!

This holiday season, my sister was looking for a winning recipe to bring to her annual Christmas Cookie Party. We were chatting about what kind of cookie she could make and the idea of a spiced chai cookie came to mind. I didn’t have time to test a whole new recipe and get it to her before the party, so I told her to make the chai spice blend from my dirty chai banana bread recipe and make my hawaij snickerdoodles subbing the chai spice in place of the hawaij. My sister reported back that they were winners.

We decided to make another batch together over our Christmas holiday they really were perfect. 100%. No notes. So now I’m sharing them with you.

homemade chai spice blend

Making a batch of chai spice blend is as simple as stirring together a few spices and keeping it in a jar in your spice cabinet. We’re incorporating ground black tea (from tea bags), a hefty amount of cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger, and lots of supporting characters like cloves and black pepper. This recipe will make more than you need for the cookies so make a batch of banana bread of keep it in pantry for stirring into coffee.

soft and chewy snickerdoodles

I had a reader once tell me that molasses is never used in snickerdoodle recipes, but I love it and I don’t care what anyone thinks. I love love love using molasses in my spiced snickerdoodle recipes for two main reasons:

1. Molasses is made by boiling, reducing, and concentrating the juice extracted from sugar cane. We know that cooking sugar creates caramelization so when molasses is incorporated into recipes it not only adds sweetness, but a deep caramelized flavor perfect for pairing with warm spices.

2. Molasses is a type of invert syrup, a scientific balance of fructose and glucose, that in baking, adds sweetness and liquid at the same time. Adding an invert syrup like molasses to a recipe will greatly increase moisture, creating a softer, chewier cookie and extending shelf life.

Otherwise, this recipe is very straight forward. Melted browned butter is mixed with sugars, followed by eggs, vanilla, and molasses, and then dry ingredients are folded in. The batter does need a short chill time (about 30 minutes) in order to hold its shape during baking, and then, like any good snickerdoodle, we roll it in sugar.

One last recipe tip: I’ve made this recipe using a stand mixer, a hand mixer, and just a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. I’ve found that though it may take a little more elbow greaser, the wooden spoon/spatula mixing method yielded the thickest, softest cookie.

Yield 30-32 cookies

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

8 Min

Inactive time

30 Min

Total time

53 Min

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Chai Snickerdoodles

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Warm and cozy homemade chai spice blend and soft and chewy snickerdoodles are a match made in heaven. This simple recipe makes the perfect cookies with crispy edges and pillowy centers.

IngredientsUSMetric

for the chai spice blend

• 3 bags ground black tea
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground all spice
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

for the cookie dough

• 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp chai spice, above
• 1/2 c up (113 g) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (56 g) brown sugar
• 1/3 cup (43 g) coconut oil, melted
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

for the rolling sugar

• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp demerara sugar
• 1 tsp chai spice, above

Instructions

1. To make the chai spice blend: combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth and well-combined. Transfer to an air tight container to store.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and chai spice.
3. Place butter in a small saucepan and set it over medium heat. Cook for 6-7 minutes, swirling occasionally until butter is nutty and fragrant with little brown flecks on the bottom. Transfer it to another large bowl and let cool slightly.
4. Add the sugar and brown sugar to the bowl with the butter and whisk until wet and sandy. Stream in the coconut oil, followed by the egg, molasses, and vanilla. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is smooth and homogenous.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until all of the flour is mixed in and no dry streaks remain. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
6. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375° F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Stir together sugar, demerara sugar, and chai spice in a small bowl.
8. Using a two tsp sized cookie scoop, scoop dough into balls. Roll each ball in the chai sugar and place 1-2” apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes, just until the edges are lightly golden and the tops of the cookies are dry. Let cool for 5 minutes on the pan before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

The chai spice blend will yield more than is needed for this recipe. Keep the rest in a sealed jar in your pantry and use it to make Dirty Chai Banana Bread or stir into coffee.

Similar Recipes

Dirty Chai Banana Bread

Citrus, Earl Grey, and Caramelized White Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Hawaij Snickerdoodles

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it #gatheredatmytable

Browned Butter Chai Blondies

This soft, chewy blondie recipe is filled with nutty browned butter and fall chai spices. They are swirled with homemade salted caramel.

We went to the apple orchard this week and it was magical. I was thinking about it last week and I don’t think I’d ever been to an apple orchard before, at least not that I can remember. I’ve been to plenty a pumpkin patches and U-Pick farms, but never an apple orchard and never in prime fall weather.

It was 72° and sunny the day we went to the orchard and all of leaves in Minnesota had just begun to change colors, the edges tinged with reds and oranges. It was just so nice to sit in the sun, amongst the apple trees and grape vines (because yes, this orchard is also a winery and I learned all about hybrid grapes developed by the University of Minnesota to grow in this specific climate and landscape and now I might be a Minnesota-wine connoisseur), soaking up fall like a little autumnal sponge. And no, this recipe really has nothing to do with apples or the apple orchard, I just wanted to tell you about it. So now that I have, let’s talk blondies!

what is a blondie?

I like to think of it as a cross between a brownie and a cookie, blondies are thick and fudge-y in the center, but with less chocolate and more of a cookie-dough flavor. They are super simple to mix up and need no special tools or fancy equipment. The batter consists of melted butter, sugars and/or brown sugars, eggs, flour and leavening agents and the base is super versatile—you can easily swirl in caramel, white chocolate, or nut butters, swap out flavorings, and add or subtract chocolate chunks depending on your mood or preference.

an easy, browned butter and chai blondie recipe

If I could describe these blondies in one word, it would be cozy. They are the definition of cozy and the addition of nutty browned butter, homemade chai spice, and salted caramel kind of just makes you want to curl up in a blanket and eat them straight out of the pan.

We start by browning butter for 6-7 minutes until it is foamy and fragrant and those little brown specks appear on the bottom of the pot. Right when it reaches that golden brown color, we’ll transfer it to a bowl to stop the cooking and whisk in the chai spice blend and some ground espresso. Then it’s just a matter of whisking and baking. Add sugar, vanilla, and eggs, followed by dry ingredients and transfer it all to a baking pan. Before baking, dollop caramel (store-bought or homemade) over the top, swirl it in, and bake them off.

Letting the blondies cool completely is really important, so that they continue to set up and you’re not left with a gooey, doughy, mess (not necessarily a bad thing, but also not what we’re going for). For really clean slicing, chill the blondies overnight and then use a sharp knife to ensure clean cuts.

Yield

12

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

40 Min

Total time

55 Min

Print

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Browned Butter Chai Blondies

This soft, chewy blondie recipe is filled with nutty browned butter and fall chai spices. They are swirled with homemade salted caramel.

Ingredients US Metric Both

for the blondies

• 1 1/3 cup (200 g) all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, browned
• 1 tbsp chai spice blend
• 1 tbsp espresso
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup (250 g) brown sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 oz dark chocolate, chopped or dark chocolate chips
• 3 tbsp caramel sauce, recipe below
• flaky salt

for the caramel

• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• pinch of salt

Instructions

to make the caramel

1. In a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat, combine sugar, lemon juice, and water. Cook, without stirring, until sugar is completely melted and deeply brown in color. 
2. When the caramel reaches that deep amber color, carefully stream in heavy cream while whisking continually. Cook for 1-2 minutes more, and then remove from the heat. 
3. Whisk in the butter and the salt and transfer to a bowl to cool. You can store leftover caramel in a jar in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks. 

to make the blondies

1. Preheat oven to 325° F and line an 8x8” baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Place butter in a small saucepan and set over medium heat. Cook for 6-7 minutes, until butter is foamy and smells nutty and little brown flecks have appeared at the bottom of the pot, then remove from heat. Stir in chai spice and espresso and let cool to room temperature.  
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, combine cooled butter/chai mixture and brown sugar. Whisk to combine and then add eggs and vanilla, whisking until mixture is thick and smooth.
5. Add the dry ingredients and gently stir the batter until no flour streaks remain. Fold in the chocolate pieces, reserving some for sprinkling on top.
6. Transfer the dough to a prepared baking pan and use an offset spatula to spread it into an even layer. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate pieces.
7. Dollop caramel over the blondies and use a knife or skewer to swirl it into the batter.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the edges are deeply golden and there is no wiggle in the center. Let cool completely in the pan before slicing and serving. *For clean slices, chill the blondies overnight and slice cold.*

Similar Recipes

Pumpkin Blondies with Chocolate Ganache

Browned Butter and Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie

Dirty Chai Banana Bread

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it #gatheredatmytable