Curiosities about apples
The fruit par excellence that is part of the apple pancake recipe is precisely the apple. The apple can be bought and eaten all year round, it keeps very well and is the basis of a healthy and genuine table, also ideal for diets. The apple is rich in vitamins, sugars, enzymes, mineral salts, iron, iodine, etc. All this makes the apple an energetic fruit that helps in gastric functions, thirst-quenching, diuretic, purifying, mineralizing …
It helps those with high cholesterol problems, if it is cooked it is a laxative and its peel is also rich in active ingredients.
In Italy, excellent ones are produced, especially in Veneto, Trentino Alto-Adige, Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta. The apple is a typical autumn-winter fruit and is the classic after-meal fruit. It triumphs over all other fruits also for its adaptability to become an ingredient in many recipes. In the pastry shop it enters the grandmother’s cake, the carnival fritters and the strudel. But also in refined charlottes and Bavarians, as well as in many preparations based on shortcrust pastry, brisèe, brioche.
Apples are also used in famous international recipes such as apple pie, an English cake and tatin, a French dessert.
For the sweet and sour taste it is used in sauces, both sweet and savory, in salads and in dishes based on not too lean meats.
Which apple to choose for apple pancakes
There are about 2000 varieties of apples and the most common are the best for making apple pancakes and are also the most available. Let’s see the most common characteristics to be able to carefully choose the best type of apple to use in the recipe to guarantee the best taste.
Red Apple
The most common variants:
- Red and yellow: it has a crunchy and juicy pulp, particularly aromatic and sugary, with low acidity. It smells of honey and nectar;
- Dark red and scarlet: it has a crunchy and compact pulp with a sweet-sour taste;
- Red-pink: juicy and crunchy pulp with a sweet flavor, rich in fructose;
- Intense red with light yellow veins: it has a firm and crunchy pulp, together with a sweet and slightly sour taste;
- Red: fine and crunchy pulp, aromatic flavor. It is particularly rich in carotene.
Yellow apple
There are two main types of yellow apples:
- Bright yellow: compact and crunchy pulp, sweet and slightly acidic flavor;
- Yellow and green: fragrant with a sour and sugary taste;
Green apple
The main one is the most common with an intense green color. It has a fresh, juicy, very crunchy pulp with a sour taste. It is also rich in magnesium.
How to fry
The key point for preparing apple fritters is frying. There are several ways to fry and there are “rules” to follow to ensure perfect frying.
First you need to choose the oil to use for frying the pancakes. The most common is the extra virgin olive oil, which has a very high maximum temperature to prevent it from burning.
However, the best is peanut oil. This is the one that comes closest to extra virgin olive oil. It is recommended in the diets of those who want to counteract the accumulation of cholesterol. The maximum temperature it can reach is 230 °.
The second rule to follow is the temperature. In fact, this must be contained between 165 ° and 180 °, for a recipe of this type the temperature of 175 ° is optimal.
Proceeding to the third rule, let’s talk about maintaining the oil temperature. It is in fact necessary to constantly check the temperature of the oil to fry the apple fritters, making sure that it does not drop or increase too much compared to the recommended temperature indicated above.
A very useful tip to keep the oil temperature constant is to fry a few pancakes at a time. This avoids lowering the temperature of the oil, which happens when you fry too many pancakes together.
The last rule concerns conservation. As you proceed to fry it is necessary to keep the pancakes warm in an oven without covering them to prevent the steam from making them soggy.
Cooking apple pancakes
As a first step to prepare the apple pancakes we take a bowl where we beat the egg yolks with the wine, slowly add the flour, previously sifted, with the salt.
We continue to mix the batter, until we run out of all the flour, being careful not to make it neither too fluid nor too thick. When our batter is ready, cover it and let it rest for about thirty minutes.
In the meantime we peel and remove the core from the apples; then cut them into round slices.
We heat the oil in a high and narrow saucepan. Then flour the apple slices one by one, always pass them one at a time in the batter and fry them in hot oil.
When they are golden brown, drain them using a perforated scoop and gently place them on absorbent paper sheets. Then sprinkle our apple fritters with plenty of icing sugar. At this point they are ready to be served.
Useful tips
The doses of flour and wine may vary depending on the type and size of the egg.
One way to serve apple fritters in an original way is to sprinkle them with ginger, a spice that goes very well with apples. Then you need to let them rest in the fridge for about twenty minutes.
A very interesting variant are the orange pancakes, very savory and tasty.
Curiosity
Apple fritters are prepared both in Italy and abroad. We are aware of ancient recipes that date back to 1300 where they were embellished with saffron and raisins. The simplicity of the ingredients of the apple fritters made this recipe lucky. Once they were prepared for the carnival, but they continued to eat throughout Lent instead of richer and more elaborate sweets.
We dispel the belief that fried desserts are always fatty and indigestible. This is not true if they are cooked to perfection.
