Today we’ll prepare with Sonia the Fun-Fair fritters, a simple yet succulent sweet treat that can be easily found at fun-fairs or village festivals… a real temptation!
***
Hi GialloZafferano viewers and welcome to our kitchen! Today we’ll be preparing together a very special sweet. Do you remember those disc-shaped, flattened fritters which can be found at fun-fairs or at village festivals? I’ve decided to call them Fun Fair Fritters. Both adults and kids will surely like them and they’re much easier to prepare than you can imagine.
But let’s see together the ingredients:
4 cups (500 g) of strong (Manitoba) flour
less than 1 oz (25 g) of brewer’s yeast
1 sachet of vanilla powder
or in alternative 1/2 vanilla pod
3,5 oz (100 g) of butter
1 cup (250 ml) of fresh whole milk
1/4 cup (50 g) of caster sugar
2 tsp (10 g) of salt
the grated zest of 2 organic lemons
vegetable oil for frying
and some more sugar for sprinkling the fritters.
So, let’s prepare together the Fun Fair fritters!
First of all pour the salt and the sugar into the milk, which must be at room temperature, and stir to melt; after that add also the grated zest of the 2 lemons into the jug, to release all its flavour. In this bowl I’ve sifted the flour and added the vanilla pod or, if you prefer, the vanilla powder. Now add the liquids into the mixer bowl which, as you can see, has a dough hook attachment. Now add 1/3 of the powders until you have a rather liquid batter. Now add the crumbled brewer’s yeast; knead for 3 minutes, after that add the remaining flour until you get a smooth and even dough. Now it’s time to add the butter to our dough. As you can see, the butter must be soft, at room temperature, and you have to add it in 2-3 times, the butter you’ve just added has been absorbed. The dough for the fritters is ready. I’ve greased this bowl with little vegetable oil so, put in the dough and brush the surface with little vegetable oil then cover with cling film or with a wet cloth and let it rise for at least 1 hour and a half or until doubled in volume, at 82-86°F (28-30°C).
90 min.
Here we are, the dough has finally risen as you can see, it has doubled in volume and we can pour it onto the worktop. Form the dough into a loaf, perhaps sprinkle some flour so you can work better but just a small amount. As you can see, now we have a loaf of dough that we’ll cut into pieces of about 3,5 oz (100 g) each. After dividing the dough, we’ll form it into balls so, take a piece of dough and, using the palm of your hand like this, roll it into a ball, without pressing too much, in this way. So, lay the balls on a baking pan lined with a clean cloth, leaving some space between them and let them rise, this time for 30 minutes at 82-86°F (28-30°C). If you don’t know how to measure the temperature, turn the oven light on and put the dough in to rise.
30 min.
As you can see, after half an hour the balls of dough have doubled in volume so, take one at a time stretch and flatten it a bit, leaving the edge a little bit thicker until you reach a diameter of about 6-8 inches (15-20 cm). Once the fritters have reached this diameter and are thin enough, we’ll fry them in hot oil, which must be around 335-350°F (170-180°C), not warmer than this, or they would burn without having the time to rise while cooking. The oil temperature shouldn’t be too low either, that is under 300°F (150°C), or your fritters will get soaked with oil. Here we are, more or less we’ve reached the right dimension so now let’s fry them in oil. Flip them over regularly so that they rise on both sides and get brown slowly, after that we’ll let them drip straight over the pan, without draining on kitchen paper, and roll them in caster sugar. It’s better to use a shallow dish to fill with a small amount of sugar, because after 2 or 3 fritters the sugar will get soaked with oil and maybe you’ll need to change it. So, in order not to waste too much sugar, use less of it and change it more often. Here we are, now let them drip well over the pan and roll them straight in sugar. You can also use your hands, I’m using a spoon not to get too dirty. Here they are! So, we can proceed with the others. And finally, these are our hot steaming Fun Fair fritters! You’d better eat them hot, but even the day after, I must admit they’ll be good as well. From Sonia and GialloZafferano, bye bye see you next video recipe, and now I’ll eat a nice fritter!