Orlando Orange Fritters

Memorial Day. The annual ribs, the dry rub applied Thursday night, the yard filling with the noise of summer beginning. This year the gathering has a different quality — not smaller or larger, but more layered. CJ and Shanice came with Caleb, who is nine and a half months old and used the lawn for the first time: sitting on a blanket in the grass, looking at the yard, touching everything he could reach with an expression of scientific inquiry that is already specific to him. He is already a particular person. Nine months of him and there is already a Caleb-ness to the way he does things.

Travis and his grill. Destiny with the beignets. Odalys and her husband. Clara and Kezia. Deontay with his mother. The table long enough, the food plentiful, the yard full. I stood at the back porch railing for a few minutes in the middle of the afternoon and looked at the whole of it: all these people who came from different directions and found this table, some of them family by blood and some by choice and some by something that doesn't have a name but that I can only call belonging.

Caleb reached up from his blanket and grabbed a fistful of grass and looked at it like it was the most interesting thing he had ever held, which for him it was. He looked up at me holding the grass and I said: that's your great-grandmother's yard. She planted those flowers. This grass grew from seeds she scattered. He looked back at the grass. He might have understood some of it. He understood the grass.

Destiny always brings the beignets, and they are always gone before anyone has finished their first plate of ribs — that’s just the law of our table. This year, watching Caleb sit in the grass and hold the world in his little fist, I wanted to carry some of that lightness into the recipe I’d share here, something golden and dusted and celebratory. These Orlando Orange Fritters are the closest thing I know to that feeling: a little crisp on the outside, soft and bright inside, the kind of thing you eat standing up at the edge of the yard while the afternoon is still warm.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 12 fritters

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 large egg, beaten
1/3 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for frying (about 2 inches deep)
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, and cinnamon until evenly combined.
Combine wet ingredients. In a separate small bowl, whisk the beaten egg, orange juice, orange zest, milk, and melted butter together.
Make the batter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined — a few lumps are fine. Do not overmix or the fritters will be tough.
Heat the oil. Pour vegetable oil into a heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven to about 2 inches deep. Heat over medium to 350°F. Test readiness by dropping a small bit of batter in — it should sizzle immediately and rise to the surface.
Fry the fritters. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter into the hot oil, working in batches of 3–4 to avoid crowding. Fry 2–3 minutes per side, turning once, until deep golden brown on both sides.
Drain and dust. Remove fritters with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel-lined plate. While still warm, dust generously with powdered sugar.
Serve immediately. Fritters are best served warm, within minutes of frying, while the outside is still crisp and the center is soft and citrus-bright.

Nutrition (per serving)

Orlando Orange Fritters — The Sweet End to a Memorial Day That Meant Everything