When a sweet craving hits, I personally would choose something homemade like these easy Blueberry Fritters over just about anything store-bought.
Well except for really good caramels that is...or better yet dark chocolate covered caramels with sea salt, awww yeah! I may or may not be a little obsessed with the dark chocolate sea salt caramels made by Aldallah from Minnesota that I can get in my town's card shop. They are soooo stinkin' delicious!
Ok, pushing all thoughts of caramel aside to talk about this recipe for homemade Blueberry Fritters. These babies hit the spot. I often make Apple Fritters and Peach Fritters, so one day when I had a bunch of blueberries from a buy one get one free situation, I decided to see how blueberry fritters would be since they are loaded with antioxidants and all (a girl's got to justify!).
We all enjoyed them! Even the husband who wants nothing to do with cooked fruit (seriously he does not). Isn't that weird?? He tolerated the fritters. He wants them without any fruit, however, I will not cater to his oddness about cooked fruit and do that, haha!
What IS a Fritter??
Fritters are technically dough, alone or combined with meat, fruit, vegetables, seafood or other ingredients that can be either sweet or savory. Literally, every country has its own version of fritters. Think tempura (Japan), twigim (Korea), arancini (Italy), croquettes (France) and beignets (various countries) to name a few.
Here is the US, most commonly we enjoy fruit fritters, seafood fritters, hush puppies, and vegetable fritters like a zucchini fritter. I make my zucchini fritters with cheese and its one of those recipes the whole family is crazy for, which in my world (when it comes to savory foods) doesn't happen enough!
You can drop fritters into hot oil in a pot or fryer where they come out in various shapes. Or for some, you can pan fry them more like a cake. Call them whatever you want, they are delicious and often they don't take too much effort to make (especially fruit fritters).
How Do I Make Blueberry Fritters?
To make the fritters, all you need to do is combine the sugar, egg, milk, vanilla, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and mix it until its smooth. After than fold in fresh blueberries (room temperature berries work best) and then carefully drop the batter into a pot or fryer with hot oil (350-375 degrees) and cook them for 3-4 minutes or so each.
I like to make these fritters small, and to do so I use a cookie scoop for the batter (not an ice cream scoop). You can also use two tablespoon-sized spoons to drop the batter in.
After the fritters have cooked through, place them on a cooling rack or a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and then either sprinkle them with powdered sugar or glaze them. Delicious!
Gather the following ingredients to make Homemade Blueberry Fritters:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ TBS fresh lemon juice
- ¾ cup fresh blueberries
- Vegetable oil for frying fritters
How To Make Blueberry Dessert Fritters:
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Combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder, and whisk until combined.
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In a small bowl whisk the milk and egg until combined, add in the vanilla and lemon juice and whisk until combined. Add mixture to dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.
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Stir in the blueberries.
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Heat oil to 370 degrees.
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Fry heaping spoonful's of the batter (make sure blueberries are in every scoop) until cooked through (about 2-3 minutes). Fritters will pass golden brown and begin to brown.
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Once fritters are removed from the fryer, place them on a cooling rack with paper towels under to catch any drips.
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Sift or shake powdered sugar on fritters or dip or drizzle them with a simple lemon glaze.
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To make glaze simply combine 1½ cups powdered sugar, a TBS of fresh lemon juice and 1 TBS water (more as needed). Stir until smooth and drizzle over fritters or go ahead and dunk them in. If dunking them in, allow them to set for a few minutes and enjoy...they don't really "keep" that way. You don't want the glaze to thin or runny, you want it on the thicker side.
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Fritters are best enjoyed soon after you make them while still warm. For best results fry in batches of 3 or four.
Tips for Making Fried Fruit Fritters:
- Fill a small pot ½ way with oil. You just need enough oil to allow the fritters to float. I usually use 2 cups of oil. If you are making more fritters the following day or two, you can reuse the oil.
- Make sure your oil is hot (but not too hot) using a thermometer is best so you know the temperature of the oil (or a deep fryer).
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Make sure to carefully spin fritters around using a fork or tongs as they fry so they cook and brown evenly. I like using a skimmer (like a slotted spatula) similar to this one. Which allows me to easily scoop out the fritters.
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If frying in a sealed fryer, shake basket around just a bit during frying to ensure even rotation of cooking. If cooking in an open frying pan/pot.
- Place fritters on a cooling rack or a parchment paper-lined baking sheet after you remove them.
- Glaze or powder your fritters over parchment paper for easy cleanup.
What Fruit Fritters Can I Make?
People may think of apple first when a sweet fritter comes to mind however you can make all sorts of fritters both sweet and savory. In addition to these Blueberry Fritters, I make Apple Fritters and Peach Fritters. Those I cover with glaze, however, I happen to like the Blueberry Fritters with powdered sugar (my daughter, however, enjoys hers glazed, she would cover 50% of allll the food she eats in glaze if I let her, lol,)
Enjoy!
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If you enjoyed this recipe I'd love a 5-star rating in the comments area, thanks!!
Easy Blueberry Fritters
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ TBS fresh lemon juice
- ¾ cup fresh blueberries
- Vegetable oil for frying the fritters
Instructions
- Combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder, and whisk until combined.
- In a small bowl whisk the milk and egg until combined, add in the vanilla and lemon juice and whisk until combined. Add mixture to dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.
- Stir in the blueberries and mash them just a bit, just enough to pop them a bit. They have a tendency to "pop" pot of the edges of the batter when frying if left whole. They don't pop out of the pot, they just float. If you see that, simply scoop out and discard.
- Heat oil to 370 degrees.
- Fry heaping spoonfuls of the batter (make sure blueberries are in every scoop) until cooked through (about 2-3 minutes). I typically use a small cookie scooper for this. Fritters will pass golden brown and begin to brown.
- Make sure to carefully spin fritters around using a fork or tongs as they fry so they cook and brown evenly.
- If frying in a sealed fryer, shake basked around just a bit during frying to ensure even rotation of cooking. If cooking in an open frying pan/pot.
- Once fritters are removed from the fryer, place them on a cooling rack with paper towels under to catch any drips.
- Sift or shake powdered sugar on fritters or dip or drizzle them with a simple lemon glaze (below).
- To make glaze simply combine 1½ cups powdered sugar, 1 TBS of fresh lemon juice and 1TBS water (more as needed). Stir until smooth and drizzle over fritters or go ahead and dunk them in. If dunking them in, allow them to set for a few minutes and enjoy...they don't really "keep" that way. You don't want the glaze to thin or runny, you want it on the thicker side. You can decide to coat them twice after the first coat dries.
- Fritters are best enjoyed soon after you make them while still warm. For best results fry fritters in small batches of 3 or 4.
Nutrition
Dee B says
ridiculously delicious!!!!
Colleen says
Hooray! Thanks for the 5-star rating Dee!
Christine says
These came out great. Quick and easy. Thanks for recipe!
Colleen says
So glad you enjoyed them Christine!
Michelle says
These were fritter redemption for me. The last recipe I tried was a disaster; messy and raw in the middle.
These were GREAT. Family loved them and I'll make these again they were fast and easy. Thank you.
PS Lemon icing is the way to go.
Colleen says
So awesome to hear Michelle! And yum to the lemon icing!
carole champagne says
Really yummy, and easy to make. Thank you
P says
Can they be baked in the oven?
Colleen says
No, not like this. They would be too runny to bake up.
Sue says
Looks good, can I use frozen berries in place of fresh?
Colleen says
You can not use the berries actually when frozen or they will really POP. If you completely thaw them I think they should be fine (I have never tried with frozen).