Strawberry Fritters

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook attachment, add yeast, warm milk and sugar. Since this is instant yeast, you don’t need to let the mixture sit or activate, but I personally like to let the mixture sit for 2-3 minutes, just to make sure the yeast is working. The mixture should smell yeasty and the surface should appear frothy.

Add in the flour, eggs, softened butter, salt and vanilla extract. Knead on medium-low speed for 5 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl. Spray the top of the dough with nonstick cooking spray, or drizzle with olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

2. Allow the dough to rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

3. While the dough rises, make the strawberry filling. In a medium size saucepan, add the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, JUST until the sugar dissolves, stirring frequently.

In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Pour the cornstarch mixture into the strawberry mixture. Cook for a couple minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened.

Remove from heat and pour into one or two shallow bowls. Place the mixture in the refrigerator to cool while the dough rises. You need the strawberry mixture to be cooled to room temperature.

4. After the dough is done rising, punch dough down and roll out into a 12×18 inch rectangle. Spread the cooled strawberry filling over the dough, reserving 3 tablespoons of the strawberry glaze. Fold the dough up into 1/3s, folding the bottom up 1/3 of the way, then fold the top of the dough down over top of the bottom half that you folded up.

Use a bench knife or large knife to cut the dough into rough 1 – 2 inch rectangles.

5. Divide the dough into 10 roughly equal fritters. The fritters will be made up of the roughly chopped up dough pieces. At this point the dough is messy and doesn’t stick together the best, due to the strawberry filling.

Working with one fritter at a time, place ¼ cup of flour on the counter surface. Roll the fritter through the flour. It will not absorb all of the flour, most likely. Roll the fritter through the flour, then working with your hands press the dough together into a ball until it sticks together.

Rolling the fritter through the flour at this point allows for the fritter to get sticky and stick together, which is what you want. Otherwise, the fritter will fall apart when you fry it in the hot oil.

Place the fritter on a greased square of parchment paper. Gently flatten the fritter.

Repeat with the remaining fritters.

6. Heat a large heavy bottomed pot with vegetable oil that is 2-3 inches deep, up to 350F. Once the oil has come up to temperature, very carefully, grabbing opposite corners of the parchment paper, drop the parchment paper into the hot oil with the fritter oil on top. Fry two fritters at a time.

After a minute or so, use tongs to pull the parchment paper out from underneath the fritter. Continue to fry the fritter until golden brown, then flip and continue frying the other side until golden brown, roughly 1 to 3 minutes per side. I like the flip the fritters a few times to get even browning.

7. Make the icing. In a large bowl, add powdered sugar, and strawberry glaze. Stir to combine. Add 2-4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream as needed to thin out the glaze.

Dip the fritters in the glaze.

8. Serve and enjoy warm!