Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Fruit Fritters. — Fruit Fritters should always be marinaded in a tablespoonful of fruit juice, or a dessertspoonful of suitable spirit, for at least an hour before they are cooked. Mix the marinade with the batter, and wipe the pieces of fruit dry before you dip them into the batter. Preserved fruit in slices or halves answers perfectly for fritters. The slices of fruit must not be too thick ; if unripe, or hard, parboil the fruit in thin syrup for a few minutes. Orange Fritters. — Peel two oranges, removing all the white part, and cut them into rounds across, five slices from each orange. Set them in a breakfast cup with either a tablespoonful of juice from another orange or a tablespoonful of brandy, and a little powdered sugar, and let them remain an hour. Then make a batter of a quarter of a pound of flour, a pinch of salt, one ounce of butter and a tablespoonful of the liquid from the orange, add a teaspoonful of the orange rind very finely scraped, and a tablespoonful of powdered sugar. Beat up the yolks of two eggs and the white of one to a froth, beating the yolks and the white separately. Now put the yolks into the batter and beat it for a quarter of an hour. Add the white froth, and beat for another quarter of an hour. Coat the slices of orange with the batter, and fry in butter to a light brown. Sprinkle a little fine white sugar over them, and serve on a napkin. Apple Fritters. — Peel apples which are good baking apples, becoming soft and clear when made into tarts. Cut them into thickish slices, take out the pips, and let them soak for two hours APPLE FRITTERS in water with half a lemon squeezed into it. Put a quarter of a pound of flour into a basin, melt one ounce of butter in two tablespoonfuls of the water the apples were soaked in, but be careful not to make it hotter than is required just to melt the butter. Add either a dessertspoonful of brandy or the same of lemon-juice, working the flour to a paste, and adding the brandy, apple-water, and butter by degrees. Knead all well together. Beat up the white of an egg to a froth, and beat the batter all together. Dip the slices of apple in the batter, and fry them in butter. Cover them with powdered white sugar, and serve very hot. German Fritters. — Beat up the yolks of three eggs, and beat the whites separately to a stiff froth. Add an ounce and a half of white sugar, grate in a little lemon-peel, dust in a pinch of salt, and mix all with half a pint of milk. Butter a flat dish well, and bake the custard in it for half an hour. Leave it all night to get quite cold. Turn out the custard on a large flat dish ; it will be about an inch and a half thick. Cut it into rounds two inches aeross. Have the yolks of two eggs beaten up in a soupplate, and plenty of well dried and sifted bread or sponge-cake crumbs in another plate. Lay each round of custard as you cut it on the egg, and spread the egg over the top and sides with a knife. Now lay the rounds one by one in the crumbs and cover them thickly. Fry in butter, which must be boiling when the fritters are put in. It requires great care to prevent breaking the fritters. Lay them on a paper before the fire to dry, and serve with a little powdered sugar sprinkled over them. The custard may be flavoured with kirsch, or vanilla.