They say that scents are the strongest and most direct contact with our memories: nothing could be truer for me, especially when I smell the scent of apple fritters!
For me, the most extraordinary thing about this preparation is that my grandmother used to make them “as a surprise”. Not on Sundays, not on holidays, not for birthdays, but simply when she wanted to give me and my cousins something nice. After school we all met at her house, more or less at the same time, and it was enough to cross the threshold of the building to know that our grandmother had made apple fritters!
We also used to buy them at village festivals, but we knew that we would be disappointed because grandmother’s apple fritters were absolutely inimitable!
She used to call them “apple clouds”, because her magic was precisely being able to make them very soft. To those who asked her how she managed to make them like that, she used to say that it was thanks to happy thoughts. I think this was true, because my grandmother used to always sing when she cooked, but perhaps that pinch of yeast she put in the mixture also helped!
When she could find them, she preferred to use Renetta apples, which are sweet but also have that hint of sourness that goes perfectly with fried food! If she used Golden apples instead, which are a little sweeter, then she would slightly decrease the amount of sugar she used.
I never decided if they were better eaten hot, almost burning myself, or left to cool. I only know that my happiest memories are those of my grandmother’s “apple clouds”!
