Fruit Fritters in a Spice & Citrus Caramel

Fruit Fritters in a Spice & Citrus  Caramel 

Hi guys ,

For this  great  recipe , we keep on exploring the Famous chef's  Techniques and this time  you'll be shown how to elaborate yummy fresh fruit Fritters and a citrus caramel sauce .
It really tastes great but definitely not for an every day food or if you are on a diet because we are dealing about  calorie plus plus plus recipe but ..... once more so good and easy!

The recipe is very versatile recipe because you can use almost all the available fruits  you can have.


Your two new cooking weapons  will be :

Dough 14 : Frying dough  **
Pastry basics 11: Caramel sauce *

Dough 14 : Frying dough  **

Actually , nothing so hard in this basic dough if you followed our previous posts . To simplify as much as possible , frying dough is a thick pancake dough mixed with whipped egg whites (have a look at the warm Rum & Vanilla soufflé recipe to clearly master egg white whipping ).

INGREDIENTS for 8 pax

• Flour                     150 GR  -  5 OZ
• egg yolk                 1 piece
• egg white                3 pieces
• salt                          1 pinch
• ale beer                    15 CL   -   0,3 PINT
• Vanilla extract or orange flower water   1 dash

Technique:

1. Sieve flour and form a well in a large mixing bowl 
2. Add egg yolk , salt and Vanilla ( or orange water)
3. start stirring  and slowwwwly add the beer  ( to avoid ugly lumps)
4. Stir until you have a smooth dough 
5. Keep the dough in a cool place and we 'll just need to whip the egg whites at  the last moment to finish our dough.. Not to hard .....

Second step: Preparing and marinating the fruits

   The fruits are the main ingredients of this recipe  ; you 'll need about  1kg - 2 lbs  of mixed fruits.

I suggest you to avoid berries  ; due to their high  degree of water  composition, they do not lead to a great result and watery  items in a fryer may cause you  small burns  due to oil  splashes......

As an easy sample to test ; those ones are great:

• bananas
• golden apples
• pineapples
• pears

So  now ,  wash and peel your fruits  . 

Cut them  at a bite in the shape you wish to have  in your plate  (Too big pieces of apples especially would lead t o uncooked fritters in the middle).

Marinate the fruits separately  with lemon juice  and according to your mood:   chopped mint, cinnamon, cardamomn, nutmeg, vanilla seeds, rum..............

Leave your fruits in the fridge for at least an hour to get maximum flavor...

Your ready for the Caramel Sauce now.

Spice  & Citrus  Caramel sauce

This sauce is one of my favorite to match with all kinds of sweets , i love it so much...This will be the occasion to use all the forgotten spices  from your cupboard! You know what i mean?

Ingredients:

• Caster Sugar   500 gr
• Orange/ grapefruit/ Tangerine juice    25 cl
• lemon juice      5 cl 
• spices (as a sample): cumin seed, coriander seeds, cinnamon stick, black or white pepper , ginger stem, cardamomn seed, nutmeg shred..........

Recipe :

1. Pour the sugar in a very clean pan ( copper  pot is the best), add a dash of water and bring to boil
2. When the syrup starts to boil , skim the corners of the pot with a wet cooking brush and leave on the stove until you get a light brown caramel.
3. At this stage , the sugar is damn hot and you have to be very careful...
4. Turn stove off and leave caramel on the side , it will darken a bit more  itself...
5. Drop the pot's bottom in cool water to stop the coloring process  at desired shade of dark blond ... Avoid dark colors which give bitter taste to your caramel.
6. Add 3/4 of citrus juice and bring to boil again.
7. When the sauce start to boil , add spices and leave simmering for 5 minutes
8. Let cool the sauce .
9. when the citrus caramel is cool , you will discover its real consistancy...If too thick add the rest of citrus juice and leave the caramel for few hours to get the maximum flavors out of the spices( Prepare the sauce the day before for best taste).

Last steps..............Hurry up , we're hungry!

We are almost done , we need to finalize the frying dough ...

As shown in the Rum and Vanilla Soufflé , you 'll need to whip the egg whites and add them carefully to your dough . You have to get a smooth dough before frying . 

• Heat your fryer up to 160°C  -   320°F  and then dip your marinated fruit pieces( with ice cube tongs is the most convenient) in the dough  and slowly lay in the fryer.
•  Leave  in oil until light brown and crispy.....
• When ready , leave the fritter on  tissue paper to avoir oil excess ( if your fritters look too oily, that means oil t°C is too low )
• Sprinkle your fritters with icing sugar and ...... Eat them all , dipped in your marvelous Citrus & Spices Caramel Sauce....

I swear , it really tastes great!