One of the most delightful pastries to serve for breakfast is the fritter. In fact, at this point in time, making Fritters for breakfast is considered a favorite pastime among chefs. This is undoubtedly due to the simplicity of the formula. This, of course, does not mean the food isn't robust. Like many other types of pastries, fritters have countless variants ranging from sweet to savory.

Today's recipe is some simple coconut flavored fritters accompanied by a very nice vanilla sauce. The latter takes a little more work but is guaranteed to go over well with the pastry.

What makes a fritter so simple?

Fritters are pretty simple to make mostly due to the formula for the batter. Usually, the mix only requires three ingredients, though more can be added to spice things up. The three basic ingredients are flour, liquid, and eggs in the order of a 2:2:1 ratio. For example, 8 oz of flour to 8 fl oz of milk to 4 fl oz of eggs. Fritters are fried in oil or butter on a skillet or griddle.

As for those other ingredients, chemical leaveners like baking powder can be added for lift. Cornstarch is also substituted for some of the flour to thicken the fritters, and various flavors can be used to make variants.

What makes a vanilla sauce so hard?

Now for the somewhat challenging part.

The vanilla sauce that will be accompanying the fritters in this recipe is pretty much a custard. This has already been covered here, but for the short version, this is a dessert sauce that is cooked. The vanilla custard is made by boiling milk/cream over a stove, then thicken it with egg yolks and flavoring it with sugar and vanilla.

Given the description, the sauce seems complicated but is actually fairly easy to make as long as its formula is followed to the letter. Below is the recipe that breaks down both the sauce and the fritters easily.

Fritter and sauce recipes

Fritter ingredients:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup shredded coconut, toasted (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 pinch salt
  • Canola oil as needed

Sauce ingredients:

  • 2 cups of milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 8 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Fritter directions:

  1. Separate the dry ingredients from the wet ingredients. In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar and baking soda with a spoon. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and eggs by whisking.
  2. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and pour the liquid mixture into the center. Combine all the ingredients together using a spoon.
  3. Heat the canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Using a springform ice cream scoop, deposit four equal quantities of the fritter batter into the skillet in a clockwise formation. Do not fill the skillet with fritters to avoid uneven frying. Do this in sequence with the remaining batter. Fry the fritters for 2-3 minutes on each side or until they turn golden brown.
  4. Place the shredded coconut on an unlined baking sheet. Place the sheet in an oven preheated at 180ºC and toast for 15 minutes. Remove and spread on top of the fritters.

Sauce directions:

  1. In a large non-reactive saucepan, bring the milk, vanilla extract and 4 tbsp of sugar to a boil.
  2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks, cornstarch, and remaining sugar together. This is your sabayon
  3. Temper the sabayon by whisking in one-quarter of the boiling milk. Return the sabayon to the pan and whisk while cooking until the liquid is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
  4. Remove the sauce from the heat and quickly pour into a clean bowl over an ice bath to cool.
  5. Serve immediately with the fritters

Serves 12.
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