All of the Jewish holidays have fabulous culinary traditions, and Hanukkah is no exception. During Hanukkah, we celebrate the miracle of lights with fried food. How is frying connected to Judaism? I’ll get to that in a minute. First, a few words about this apple fritter recipe, a spectacular Hanukkah dessert. Sweet rings of freshly sliced apple are dipped in a grain-free, nut-free batter made of coconut flour, arrowroot powder, and eggs, then deep fried until golden and crispy.
Fried foods play a large part in the celebration of Hanukkah. The story of this festival is an inspiring one for Jews everywhere, which calls forth our gratitude for our religion and its rich history. According to our tradition, the ancient temple in Jerusalem held the eternal flame which burned oil. The Jews survived an attack by the “superpower” of the day (this was over 2,000 years ago) and the desecration of the temple, due to a successful revolt by the Maccabees. After this battle, a one-day supply of oil remained. Miraculously, this small supply burned for eight days, enough time for more to arrive.
Although people tend to make a big deal out of it because it falls near Christmas, Hanukkah (or Chanukkah, Chanukah) is a festival, not a holy day. Unlike Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover (holy days in Judaism), Hanukkah is not mentioned in the Torah (the Jewish bible). It is briefly mentioned in the Talmud, a collection of Jewish oral law and tradition.
In honor of this miracle of light, we celebrate the festival of Hanukkah by lighting candles for eight nights. We also cook foods in oil (latkes, donuts, sufganiyot, and other fried foods) in observance of Hanukkah.
Apple Fritters
Ingredients
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup arrowroot powder
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 3 large eggs, whisked
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 apple, peeled, cored, and sliced into ¼ inch rings
- olive oil for frying
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine coconut flour, arrowroot, and salt
- Mix in eggs and maple syrup
- Dip apple rings in batter
- Heat 2 inches of oil in a frying pan or pot
- Fry in small batches, about 2 minutes per side
- Transfer to a paper towel lined tray
- Serve with ice cream and cinnamon sugar
Equipment
This grain-free apple fritter recipe is based on recipes by two of my favorite chefs –Claudia Roden
and Martha Stewart. As mentioned above, it is traditional at Hanukkah to fry foods in oil. While this may not seem healthy, it is party of our celebration of the miracle of lights.
In my family, the tradition is to fry in olive oil, and that’s what these apple fritters (to me they’re almost an apple latke) are fried in. I haven’t tried frying them in any other oil, so I’m not sure how they would turn out. If you do experiment with the oil in this recipe, or any other ingredients for that matter, please leave a comment below and let us know how your experiment turned out. As always, I don’t know the answer to your substitution questions, the only way to find out is to try, so go for it!
I don’t think deep fried foods are really, truly Paleo, however, if you are looking for something akin to a Paleo Hanukkah dessert, this might be as close as you’ll get! What is your favorite Hanukkah dessert?
Deborah De Groot says
baaaaaaaaaahhhhh!! I can’t WAIT to try these! Apple fritters are a HUGE part of my dutch heritage, for New Years :D
Deborah De Groot says
ohh, and i will most likely use grapeseed oil to fry them in :)
Bernadette says
Why would you use olive oil for frying when it doesn’t stand up well to higher heat? Why not coconut oil? I’m curious to know.
Sammie says
Just tried these out b/c I had a bunch of apples lying around! At first the batter was quite runny and it wasn’t holding to the apples, so I added more coconut flour (maybe a tbsp?) too much! That was my bad, I forgot a little coconut flour goes a long way. It still worked out okay though. My apples weren’t very large so I needed 2-3 and ended up making more like 10 rings plus some broken ones. Overall pretty simple and such a treat!
Gina says
I want you to know is I went looking online TODAY for paleo apple fritter recipes! Wow! So, I’m very happy to receive this one! Thank you!
Angela says
Thank you for all you lovely recipes. I have recently changed to the Paleo way of eating and love it and your recipes are something I look forward to getting. I have all the other ingredients in my cupboard don’t have any arrowroot flour so I will try it out with cornflour, I am slowly using up things that are not Paleo,. The fritters sound delicious.
I am not a Jew but I respect all religions, so have happy Hanukkah and God Bless you and your family.
christianne says
Oh I must try these! Clean and yummy! And Elana, Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukah to you and all of your family! Thank you for all you do (that we get to benefit from) and your generous giveaways during the year! XO
Lauren says
This sounds delicious! And I have all the ingredients, huzzah!
Anne says
Thanks for the history lesson, and your explanation of Torah v. Talmud. And as always, thanks for the recipe!
Nora (A Clean Bake) says
Delicious! I am grateful for a fritter recipe that doesn’t involve shredding the base. Happy Hanukkah!
Food Crafters (@FoodCrafters) says
Nice one! We love apple fritters at this time of the year, but never tried cooking with coconut flour (or arrowroot… for that matter). Definitely inspired us to get started :)
Akayla says
It turned out good but the dough got thick really quick and I had to pack it on the apples? Do other people have that problem?
Jade Dougan says
Yes! The batter was so thick I had to pack it on the apples. It wouldn’t hold to the Apple either so end result was clumpy battered apple and when I tried to fry it, it was too thick so cooked outside and not inside. I’m really disappointed. Any suggestions how to fix this next time?
Karen Evans says
I would cut down on the coconut flour and maybe increase the arrowroot. Coconut flour absorbs all the moisture after a few minutes.