Raspberry Fritters

The granny excursion to the u-pick farm left me with loads of fresh fruit. In looking for ways to use the fruit I decided to experiment with a recipe from my 1942 American Woman's Cook Book. I had a lot of raspberries and have never fried before, but decided to take a whirl at it and make Raspberry Fritters. I'm glad I did. The process was a little kooky, but after a few sacrificial fritters I got the whole frying until it is a fluffy cloud of pastry goodness perfected. Here is a scan of the recipe (click fro larger):

Here is what I discovered is the best way to mix this thing, and its not according to the instructions! Add the water last. Gently mix the dry ingredients, do not completely mix them, you want them to be still crumbly. The beaten egg whites are going to add a lot of moisture to the mix and it will help everything to come together. If you find, after you add the whites, that it could still be a little thinner, then add the water. I made the mistake of mixing my dry ingredients. and water into such a great little dough ball that it just would not accept my whites. I had to add more flour and sugar to get it going again. Even with this little hiccup, the fritters tasted excellent. They definitely need confectioner's sugar dusted on top, but if you don't have any, you can always whip up some sugar glaze to make pseudo donuts or even just sprinkle regular sugar.

Since I never fried before and don't own a fryer I followed the frying instructions in the book. I ended up using a small sauce pan with high walls to fry. This gave me a small fry space, but made it tall enough that I reduced the oil splatter. One key note in the frying instructions below, Mrs. Berolzheimer points out to only put a small amount of food to fry at a time. If you put to many, the oil cool, the food takes longer to cook, the food absorbs too much fat and you end up with a greasy, soggy fritter. The directions for frying are below, click for readable/printable images:

  

  

I'm amazed at how comprehensive this cook book is. If a new 1940s bride got this as a wedding present, this would be the last cookbook she would need. I'm going to try to do some more recipes from it this summer, I'll make sure to report back on my experiments. Oh, and a little note on sugar dusting, I use a little broken tea ball filled with confectioner's sugar to dust my baked goods. Best way to do it.

Comments

[Azadeh]

Brilliant and very helpful post! I adore grandmotherly endeavors and your delightful blog (as well as recommendations for old time radio). Keep it coming!

[Debbie]

Just a note. Your blog post and pictures appear in the Cooks Source July 2010 issue under the name "Dianne Weston". As the magazine basically steals material from the Internet as a matter of course, you may not have been asked for permission.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=406245696748

[Kathy Zadrozny]

Thanks Debbie! I was informed about this lovely plagiarism by a journalist, Edward Champion, yesterday. I appreciate your comment; it links a record of the incident to this post.
Thanks again -Kathy

[Jean K.]

Oh my gosh this looks like the recipe I lost in our house fire...5 years ago. I loved these fritters. Thanks so much for sharing. Fritters for dessert tonight!