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Cream Fritters
989. Take four eggs well beaten, two ounces of fine sugar, a little cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt, half a pound of sponge biscuits grated , or, if you prefer stale bread-crumbs, more sugar must be used. Mix this with a pint of cream and flour, or bread crumbs, enough to make it thicker than batter for pancakes. Fill the frying-pan with lard, and when it boils throw in the fritters with a knife from a plate. Sift sugar over them and serve in a napkin, or squeeze orange juice upon the sugar over them, and pile them, on a dish without the napkin.
A spoon-dropped fritter batter, closer to a rich bread-and-butter pudding than to a coated fritter. The whole thing turns on batter consistency: too loose and it disperses in the fat, too stiff and the centre stays raw.
- The pint of creamA British imperial pint is 20 fl oz, or 2½ cups. Single cream (about 18% fat) is the closest match; double cream will make the batter heavy and greasy.
- Sponge biscuitsThese are savoiardi or ladyfingers — dry, eggy, faintly sweet. Half a pound is 8 oz. Grate or crush them fine.
- If you use breadcrumbs insteadThe instruction to add more sugar is not optional: stale bread has none of the sweetness the biscuits carry. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons beyond the two ounces.
- "When it boils"Lard does not boil; the phrase means the fat has stopped bubbling with moisture and is shimmering. Aim for 350–360°F, checked with a thermometer. Above 375°F the outsides colour before the batter sets.
- Depth of fat"Fill the frying-pan" is not literal. An inch to an inch and a half in a deep, heavy pan gives room for the fritters to turn without the fat welling over.
- Batter consistencyThicker than pancake batter means it should hold a soft mound on the spoon and slide off reluctantly. Let it stand ten minutes so the crumbs swell, then judge — the biscuits keep absorbing liquid and it will stiffen on its own.
- Dropping from a plate with a knifeTip a spoonful onto a small plate and push it into the fat with the back of a knife, as the recipe directs.
- Serving in a napkinA folded linen napkin laid in the serving dish, with the fritters piled on it, absorbs surplus fat. The recipe omits the napkin when the sugar is wetted with orange juice.
- YieldRoughly twenty or so fritters, though the recipe gives no number; enough for six. Fry in batches and send them out as they come.
Cream fritters belong to a long English line of sweet fried batters that runs back through the medieval fritour. Sponge biscuits were widely used in nineteenth-century sweet cookery, in trifles, charlottes and puddings. The recipe offers two finishes: sifted sugar with a napkin, or sugar wetted with orange juice.