Pear fritters

I find her exaggerated, bizarre and creepy, but have to admit it: whoever chose her stage name had a brilliant idea. :)

Here’s another brilliant idea: involving fruit slices in batter, frying them and then dusting with cinnamon sugar. Yum!

Pears were delicious, and I’m guessing apples would be wonderful, too – you can find the original recipe here, but I’ve adapted it to avoid having too much batter left. If there’s some, fry in small portions, by spoonfuls, and dust in cinnamon sugar as well:

Pear fritters
from Donna Hay magazine

1 cup (200g) caster sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) self-rising flour
1 egg
2/3 cup (160ml) milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon caster sugar, extra
vegetable oil, for deep frying
2 Williams' pears, thinly sliced, seeds removed
all-purpose flour, for dusting

Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Set aside.
Place the flour, egg, milk, vanilla and extra sugar in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Heat the oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium heat until hot. Dust the pear slices with plain flour and dip in the batter – you might want to use the back of a spoon to make sure the batter sticks to the pear slices. Deep-fry, in batches, for 2–3 minutes or until golden and crisp on both sides. Remove from the oil and place over some paper towels to remove excess oil.
Toss the hot pear fritters in the cinnamon sugar to coat and serve.

Makes about 20