How to Make Peach Fritters

  • last year
With a batter that’s made with chunks of the delicious fruit, this dessert is pure peach goodness. In this video, Chef John shows you how to make his sweet and tender recipe for peach fritters. Start by mixing the batter using sugar to draw out the peach’s natural juices. Mix together the peaches with vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, panko breadcrumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt to make the sweetened batter. Watch the video to see Chef John make this crispy and delicious snack!
Transcript
00:00 Hello this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with peach fritters! That's
00:08 right we've completely redesigned the classic peach fritter recipe and instead
00:12 of just putting chunks of peaches in a plain batter we're gonna put chunks of
00:16 peaches in a peach batter which really does change everything. And by the way if
00:21 you stop the video because you can't get fresh peaches you should turn it back on
00:25 since this will work with canned or frozen peaches instead. But I do have
00:30 fresh peaches so to get started the first thing we'll do is cut one up and
00:35 you don't have to but I'm gonna peel this one first. Alright if I'm making a
00:39 pie or crumble I usually don't bother. Before a fritter I think it's better if
00:43 we just use the flesh and then once peeled we'll go ahead and slice that
00:47 peach off the pit or stone as some people call it. Speaking of which if you
00:52 bought a peach that was a free stone you can easily pop that pit out which makes
00:56 this step easier. But if you're using one with the pit attached you just have to
01:00 go around like this cutting off all that beautiful sweet flesh. And yes this is
01:05 probably the one time where we don't want a super sharp knife. So what I'm
01:09 really saying is be careful and once we've cut off as much as we can we'll go
01:13 ahead and squeeze what's left to get any of the remaining juice. Or I guess we
01:17 could pop it into our mouth or both. Just make sure you do that in the right
01:22 order. And then once we have those larger pieces cut we'll go back into the bowl
01:27 and we'll cut these up into like half-inch pieces. And in case you're
01:31 wondering yes this would be easier on a cutting board but there's a really good
01:35 reason why we're doing everything in the bowl and that's because we don't even
01:39 want to waste one drop of this precious peach juice. And if we do it on a cutting
01:43 board we're definitely gonna lose some. But anyway one way or another we want to
01:48 end up with one heaping cup of cubed up peach. And then what we'll do is take
01:53 that and sprinkle over some white granulated sugar and we will take a
01:57 spoon and give it a thorough mix. And once that is nicely mixed in what we're
02:02 gonna do is cover this and we're gonna let it sit for at least 30 minutes
02:06 during which time that sugar is gonna draw out more liquid from the peach.
02:10 Creating basically a fresh peach syrup and it's this one very simple extra step
02:15 that really is key to this whole operation. So like I said we'll let that
02:20 sit covered for about 30 minutes at which point if everything is gone
02:24 according to plan the bottom of our bowl should look like this. And by this I mean
02:29 very syrupy. So that is looking just about perfect which means we can go
02:35 ahead and add the rest of the ingredients which will include a few
02:39 drops of vanilla extract, the pure and the real, as well as a little bit of
02:44 freshly grated nutmeg, followed by a very small touch of cinnamon. And it's the
02:50 vanilla and the nutmeg and the cinnamon that are gonna give our fritter a little
02:54 bit of a donut vibe but we don't want to overdo it so we're basically micro dosing.
02:59 And then next up we will toss in some panko breadcrumbs which I think are key
03:04 although I couldn't tell you exactly what they do but I can tell you they
03:09 definitely do something. And then we will finish up with some self-rising flour or
03:14 of course some regular all-purpose flour with the addition of baking powder and a
03:19 pinch of salt. And of course as usual we'll explain in the written recipe how
03:23 to do that. And then what we'll do is take a spoon and start mixing this. And
03:28 at first it's gonna look very dry but don't worry just keep stirring. And after
03:33 about 30 seconds it will start looking sticky and start to look more like a
03:37 batter. But we're not done just keep stirring. In another half a minute to a
03:42 minute later we're gonna end up with something that looks like this. Which yes
03:47 does look like I secretly added some more liquid but I did not. Right what
03:51 that is is the sugar and that little bit of salt in the self-rising flour pulling
03:56 more juices out of the peach as well as the baking powder in there has been
04:00 activated and it's made our batter more voluminous and given it a more fluid
04:04 texture. And that's it. Once mixed I like to let the batter sit for about three or
04:09 four minutes before spooning it into our hot oil. Which yes you definitely want to
04:14 get hot while you're making the batter. Okay this can sit around for a while but
04:18 for best results I do like to fry this about three or four minutes after we mix
04:21 it. And you can sort of see why here. Alright this was sitting for about four
04:26 or five minutes and you can see it's beautifully bubbly and very much ready
04:30 to start dropping rounded tablespoons into our fryer. Which by the way we're
04:34 gonna do at 375 degrees Fahrenheit that is. Oh yeah do not do this to 375
04:40 Celsius. But anyway I'm gonna drop in six nice big rounded tablespoons and yes I
04:47 am crowding them a little bit but it's fine. Okay I'm using a new fryer which I
04:52 do like except the heating element is exposed in the bottom. Which means you
04:56 have to use it with the basket in. Which means a little less room to work with.
05:00 But it was fine and I did fit all the batter in. And once we do it's always
05:06 good to check they're not sticking together. Which they usually don't but if
05:10 you are gonna crowd them like I did it's good to check. And what we'll do is fry
05:15 these for about a minute and a half before we tip those over to the other
05:18 side. Which is usually very easy unless you're trying to film it. And then it
05:25 looks much much harder than it really is. But anyway we'll go ahead and carefully
05:29 flip those over and then we'll give the second side a minute and a half as well.
05:33 And in a restaurant after flipping I would probably take a second basket and
05:38 push these down into the oil so they're totally submerged. But with this rig we
05:42 don't have a second basket. So instead I will carefully dunk those down in the
05:46 oil with this fork just to get a little bit of hot oil going over the top. Except
05:51 I accidentally flip those two on the end which I flip back over. Oh and by the way
05:56 feel free to use tongs for this and not a fork. Alright tongs are twice as long
06:00 and ten times safer. And then once that second side is fried for 90 seconds I
06:05 flip them over one last time and cook them for one more minute. Which is a
06:10 little controversial since some people think that makes them absorb a little
06:14 more oil. But I am not concerned. And to those people I would say you do realize
06:20 we're making deep-fried peach fritters right? But bottom line as long as these
06:24 are fried for a total of about four minutes at 375, if they're this size they
06:29 should be very close to perfect. So we will pull those up out of the oil and
06:34 give them a little shake and let them drain for a few seconds before we
06:38 transfer those to a rack to cool. Or you can try to eat these piping hot if you
06:42 want but I do not recommend it. Alright I don't think the taste or texture will
06:47 be as good as if you let these cool down to just warm. And while that was
06:51 happening I moved them closer together so that they'd be easier to take
06:55 pictures of. So I did a few of those and then I grabbed one and went in for a
06:59 taste. And that my friends might look like some kind of standard regular peach
07:04 fritter but it is not. Alright by using that fresh peach syrup instead of milk
07:09 or buttermilk or whatever to make the batter we are talking about a fritter
07:13 that features pure peach goodness. Alright it really does make a huge
07:17 difference. And besides the taste the texture was incredible. Right kind of
07:22 crispy and crusty on the outside but very soft and tender on the inside and
07:26 not at all dense. So this really did have is our bread making friends like to say
07:31 a great crumb. And while these are more than okay to eat as is, my favorite way
07:37 to enjoy would be to serve a few of these up with a scoop of vanilla ice
07:41 cream. And they say if you rub the scoop in your palm like this it will melt the
07:45 surface and you will get a beautiful perfectly smooth scoop. Except it did not
07:51 work. And all I really accomplished was getting a very cold palm. And then to
07:57 finish mine off and shine them up a little bit I went ahead and drizzled
08:00 over a little bit of bourbon whiskey simple syrup. And of course I'll give you
08:04 the ingredients and steps for that in the written recipe. But it's nothing more
08:08 than bourbon water and sugar that we bring to a boil and let cool. And if that
08:12 doesn't sound like your thing you could simply toss these in sugar or a cinnamon
08:16 sugar. So that's gonna be up to you. I mean you guys are after all the Steve
08:21 Kerr's of your peach fritters. But anyway I finished up with a sprig of mint to
08:27 distract people from my not smooth ice cream. And I went ahead and took a few
08:32 more pictures. And yes I did swirl the top of that scoop with my fingertip
08:35 since it really was bugging me. But I quickly lost interest in taking pictures.
08:40 So I found a spoon and lost the mint. And I dug in for the official taste. And if
08:46 there's a better combination than a freshly fried peach fritter and vanilla
08:50 ice cream I would like to know about it. Because this really is spectacular. And
08:55 by using that fresh peach syrup we made as the liquid in this instead of things
09:00 like milk or buttermilk and/or egg we have a peach fritter that tastes much
09:06 much peachier. And when I first started working on this recipe I was gonna be
09:10 more than happy to sacrifice a little bit of texture for extra peachy flavor.
09:14 But as it turns out I think the texture is actually better. So not involving any
09:20 dairy or using any egg was not in any way a disadvantage. And it's always a
09:25 great feeling when we can simplify a recipe and make it better at the same
09:30 time. And as I mentioned if you don't have fresh peaches you could still do
09:34 this. Alright you can thaw some frozen peaches and cut them up just the same.
09:38 And then macerate them with that sugar and proceed as shown. And if you end up
09:42 using canned peaches you don't have to do anything. Alright just cut the peaches
09:46 into the same size and then simply add about three or four tablespoons of this
09:50 syrup. Of course having said that if it is summer and you can get fresh peaches
09:55 it is kind of crazy not to use them. But whether you end up using canned, frozen,
10:00 or fresh I think these are gonna be some of the best fruit fritters you've ever
10:04 had. Which is why I really do hope you give them a try soon. So please follow
10:09 the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and
10:13 much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy!
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