Connaissiez-vous l’existence de ces desserts frits et beignets ?
The weather’s cold so we’re thinking of deep-fried desserts. A specific dessert that’s very easy to eat this time of year is the humble fritter. Traditionally made with fruit, vegetables, or meat, today we’ll explore what sweet options are available near you. We’ll even include a quick word on that infamous fritter from Scotland…
For the western world, people would forgive you for thinking about corn and zucchini fritters before anything else. However, by definition, we make fritters by deep-frying or pan-frying any choux pastry or yeast dough concoction. Though French beignets français, les bigne italiens et les lokmas grecs fassent partie de cette famille, nous allons explorer dans ce billet les beignets aux fruits comme les beignets aux pommes. These seem to marry the doughnut to the apple pie!
The filling can really be any fruit you desire, and you can incorporate it into the batter as solid chunks or minced and mashed up as paste. Once the frying is done, we can then cover any sweet fritter in sugar, molasses, syrup, or honey. We might add though, that we don’t always need to dice up the star ingredient. The batter can sometimes actually surround it. One well-known example is the mighty deep-fried barre Mars frite à l’écossaise !
Yes, you read correctly. A whole candy bar, like a Mars bar, that you batter and deep-fry actually constitutes a barre Mars. If you don’t know, John Davie, a Scottish gentleman living just south of Aberdeen, made it famous in the mid-90s. He’d chill the bars first (to prevent them from melting in the fryer), coat them in batter, then drop them into the hot oil. The result: Heaven.
Cette pratique a donné lieu à la fabrication de beignets pour d'autres confiseries comme les barres Creme Egg et Snickers, et jusqu'au sud de la Nouvelle-Zélande, on pouvait même trouver des gens qui faisaient frire des barres Moro. Même Nigella Lawson, une célèbre écrivaine culinaire anglaise, faisait frire des barres à la noix de coco avec de l'ananas.
Desserts frits à travers le monde
When traveling around the world, we see in South Africa pumpkin fritters served with cinnamon sugar. Further to this in Malaysia we have fritters made with bananas. In British fish’n’chip shops we have simple deep-fried pineapple rings passing for fritters! Originally thought to be a type of cake, these days we can enjoy the deep-fried goodies for breakfast, dessert, and as a snack in between. Appealing to anyone who enjoys a doughnut, fritters can also be served hot or cold, with various glazes, dustings, and dips!
La prochaine fois que vous serez en déplacement, jetez un coup d'œil aux desserts frits que vous pourriez avoir sous la main. Qui sait, vous pourriez même trouver votre barre de chocolat préférée cachée dans un beignet doré
