Individual dishes of fried apples with whipped cream
FOOD NEWS
Skillet Southern Fried Apples Are The Warming, Sweet Treat To Eat This Season
BY JULIA HOLLAND
Apples are an iconic ingredient in fall recipes, and skillet fried apples are a treat from the American South that's comforting, delicious, and more exciting than apple pie.
Apple-centric dishes are ingrained in Southern cuisine, but the cider apples native to the area are bitter and sour, meaning they must be cooked to enhance their sweetness.
Start by slicing and peeling apples, then fry them in butter, sugar, and spices like cinnamon. The dish is sweet, tender, and warm, and was traditionally eaten for breakfast.
Today, the dish is more often enjoyed as a dessert. It rivals classic apple pie, especially since it takes only 15 minutes to make and doesn’t require a crust or oven.
The best apples for the dish are sour and firm, as they’ll soften up without turning mushy when fried. The butter, sugar, and seasonings balance out the tartness.
The dish is traditionally spooned over flaky biscuits with whipped butter, but you can eat it with ice cream, whipped cream, or even atop crumbled cookies as a makeshift crust.