Sourdough Apple Fritters

Sourdough Apple Fritters

Okay guys. So, my husband loves apple fritters… personally, I’m indifferent to them, but I wanted to make them for him. So I started searching for recipes online. I found several, but they were all so wildly different I couldn’t decide which one to use… so I just decided to make up my own recipe. I’ll get right into the recipe, and I’ll give my critiques at the end on how I would tweak it.

Ingredients:
Batter:
1/3 cup of melted butter (cooled to room temperature)
1 cup of milk
1 cup of sourdough starter
2 teaspoons of yeast
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 eggs (room temperature)
3 tablespoons of apple sauce (room temperature)
2 1/2 cups of flour
2 cups of apples (diced)

Glaze:
3 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 cup of hot water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
pinch of salt

oil for frying

Instructions:
Combine butter, milk, sourdough starter, yeast and sugar in stand mixer with dough hook. After combining let sit for five minutes. Add eggs and apple sauce, mix until smooth. Add salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, mix until smooth. Add flour. Once combined and smooth add apples. Let dough sit covered for 30 minutes. The dough is VERY sticky!

While dough is resting mix glaze ingredients in a bowl until smooth.

Heat oil (I don’t have a candy thermometer — a fact I regret every time I have to fry something or make caramel — so I can’t tell you what temperature to fry the dough at, but I’ve seen 375F on other recipes). You want to make sure the oil is hot enough, if it’s too cool the dough will soak up too much oil. I used a cast iron skillet, but you could probably use something else.

I used a 1/3 cup to scoop the dough into the oil. For the temperature I got my oil to, I cooked the fritters for 2.5 minutes per side. After frying, place fritters on a paper towel-lined cooling rack. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes. I was able to cook two fritters at a time without cooling the oil too much. After cooling about 10 minutes dip the fritters in the glaze and place on a cool rack to set. This recipe made about a dozen fritters.

Things I would tweak:
2 teaspoons of salt instead of 1
2 teaspoons of cinnamon instead of 1
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg instead of 1/4
3 tablespoons of maple syrup instead of 2

Despite needing these tweaks, they came out pretty good. My husband loved them at least. Let me know if you try them out and how you like them if you do!

“Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be” by Rachel Hollis (audiobook)

“Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be” by Rachel Hollis (audiobook)

Wow. That is such a long title.

Anyway, I have had this one on my TBR pile for two years. I think someone recommended it to me, since (as my previous blog posts have stated so very clearly) this is not my favorite genre of book, it’s not one I would necessarily choose on my own. I can’t remember who recommended it, but I’m glad that they did.

I think the author writes how she speaks (which I totally get, I write how I speak… I don’t know how to do otherwise), but it seemed a little disingenuous, a little contrived… like she was trying to be something she isn’t. But, she is engaging. She’s vulnerable. She’s relatable. She’s funny.

The author lays out 20 “Lies” that we tell ourselves; and they are lies that keep us from living up to our full potential. The 20 lies are as follows:

1. Something Else Will Make Me Happy
2. I’ll Start Tomorrow [we’ve all been here, right?]
3. I’m Not Good Enough
4. I’m Better Than You
5. Loving Him is Enough for Me
6. No is the Final Answer
7. I’m Bad at Sex
8. I Don’t Know How to be a Good Mom
9. I’m Not a Good Mom
10. I Should be Further Along by Now
11. Other People’s Kids are so Much Cleaner/Better Organized/More Polite
12. I Need to Make Myself Smaller
13. I’m Going to Marry Matt Damon
14. I’m a Terrible Writer
15. I Will Never Get Past This
16. I Can’t Tell the Truth
17. I Am Defined by My Weight
18. I Need a Drink
19. There’s Only One Right Way to Be
20. I Need a Hero

Usually I’m bored by self-help type books, they’re just warmed-over cliches. And yes, you will find some cliches in this book, but they’re told in such a relatable way that they’re less grating. And she has some unexpected lessons. Things that make sense, things that hit close to home. I definitely recommend this book. I’m not a mom, so there are many chapters that aren’t geared directly toward those that are childless, but there are still lessons to be gleaned from them.

4.5/5 stars

https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B072TMB75T&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_7JX9BX2V3MK5TA6CZDRG

“10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn’t Help” by Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D. (Audiobook)

“10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn’t Help” by Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D. (Audiobook)

Full disclosure, I have very little experience/knowledge of philosophy. I mean, I took a class in college, but I hated it, and was quite happy to never take another philosophy class.

I chose to listen to this book simply because the title was intriguing to me… I had no idea it was a philosophy book, but really, I don’t think that’s an accurate description. This is really just an anthology of book reports. Which was kind of great. I haven’t actually read many of the books on the list (I think two of them, and even those not since college or high school).

It seems silly to write a summary of a summary, so I won’t. So I’ll just list the books that he reviewed and discuss his ultimate conclusions.

Dr. Wiker discusses the following books: “The Prince,” “Discourse on Method,” “Leviathan (The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil),” “Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality Among Men,” “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” “Utilitarianism,” “The Descent of Man,” “Beyond Good and Evil,” “The State and Revolution,” “The Pivot of Civilization,” “Mein Kampf,” “The Futur of an Illusion,” “Coming of Age in Somoa,” “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male,” and “The Feminine Mystique.”

Before delving into these books Dr. Wiker makes the case that ideas have consequences and that many of the ideas presented in these books influenced later ideas and books. And too often the result of the ideas presented in these books was violence and suffering; even if the books themselves don’t advocate for violence.

And he makes a solid case against each of the books; and in the body of the text he does so from the perspective of a humanistic moral position. It isn’t until the end of the book that he makes an overtly Christian claim against these books. I’m a Christian, so I’m fine with comparing these books against the morality of the Bible.

I think Dr. Wiker is a good writer; he’s eloquent and obviously well-read. And he makes a solid case against the books listed.

3.5/5 stars

https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B0019IB0EW&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_KHPAC61PHY35NFY61WHM