Apples in pancakes

Thursday, Jan. 31. 12:30 pm. Hania has winter break, I happen to be on break all the time, and we love long, lazy, delicious breakfast. I still think that preparing anything more than pasta or sandwich before 5 pm can be as annoying as daytime television. Fortunately, my desire to eat something good usually wins over any noise...so I made apple pancakes, I mean...apples in pancakes.

I didn't know how to translate "frittelle di mele". Google said "pancakes". They are not really pancakes, more like apples in batter, fried. Mostly apple, not much pancake. And they are not just to be eaten for breakfast. They are often served with meat, especially pork.

Italians like to fry food. I don't, but I like Italians. I got the idea from our Italian friends, who brought "frittelle di mele" for our camping party last summer. They disappeared (the apples) from the table within minutes. Mine are not staying around for long either. Soft, moist and sweet, they are more fun to eat then muffins or cookies. Hot, warm or cold.

Recipe adapted from Giallo Zafferano
time: 35 minutes. Longer, if you let the batter rest longer.

ingredients
apples
3 medium apples
juice from 1 lemon
about 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar for covering apples

batter
2 eggs
200 ml (3/4 cups + 1 Tablespoon) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 pinch salt
150 g (1 cup) flour
20 g (2 Tablespoons) powder sugar

oil for frying (peanut or canola works the best)

directions
to prepare batter
In a medium bowl, whisk 2 yolks, milk, vanilla sugar and salt together. Sift in flour, whisk it till all combine, about 1 minute. Put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. I kept mine for 15 minutes.

to prepare apples
Peal and core.  If you have a special tool to core a whole apple through, use it. Or do it with a medium length skinny knife, like I did. Cut 1/2 cm (.2 inch) round pieces. Spray them with lemon juice.

Take the batter from the fridge. Beat egg whites, slowly adding powder sugar toward the end. They should be smooth and glossy. Gently fold in the whites into the batter.

Prepare a plate with about 1/2 cup of sugar.

Heat oil (about 1 cm/.5 inch deep, I didn't do the true deep fry) in a frying pan. On my induction stove top, I was adjusting the temperature, going between 5 and 6 on the scale from 1 - 10. You can test it with a drop of batter. If something is happening, there is a little scorching sound, the oil is ready.

Take a piece of apple, cover it with sugar and dip it in the batter. Let it drip for a second or two, transfer it onto the frying pan. Don't let them get brown too fast or they will be raw in the middle. They need about 2-3 minutes on each side. Place them on a paper towel, then in your hands and eat them while they are warm. Cold are not bad either.