A traditional Mississippi Gulf Coast Christmas treat, this is my small batch version of pusharatas - a heavily spiced, drop fritter, made with apple, orange and lemon, raisins and pecans, and deep fried and finished with a dip in a thick powdered sugar glaze.
Small Batch Pusharatas
I love pusharatas. Love. Love. Love. But, because of their history here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the best recipes are mostly huge batches, making hundreds! That is excellent when you are giving them away as gifts, of course, but sometimes you just want enough for your own cookie trays, so this year I wrote a smaller batch recipe.
Most of the older recipes call for grinding up the apples, lemons and oranges completely whole - skin, pith and all, but I feel it makes the batter a little bitter and who wants bitter batter? I prefer to zest the citrus and peel and core the apples myself.
Whisk together the flour with 1/2 cup of the sugar and the baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon. Zest the orange and lemon and add the zest to flour; toss and set aside.
Peel and core the apple and peel and seed the citrus. I had some smaller local satsumas, so that's what I used.
I do pulse them in my food processor (or my Ninja {affil link} these days) but don't puree them into juice, just pulse to chop. There's the apple peeler {affil link} I love!
Add the remaining sugar, stir to dissolve, taste and add more sugar if needed. Add mixture to the flour.
Add the raisins, pecans, whiskey, vanilla and only enough milk to form a thick batter. How much milk you'll add will depend entirely on how juicy your fruit was, but the consistency you're looking for is one of thick, cooked oatmeal. Let batter rest for 15 minutes.
Heat oil in a deep fryer or a heavy deep pot to 350 degrees F. Use a small cookie scoop to drop small balls and fry, in batches, turning once until browned on both sides. Don't overcrowd the fryer. Drain on a baking sheet topped with a rack and let cool.
You will need at least 2 pounds of powdered sugar for glazing, maybe even more. I know that seems a lot, but the glaze on these should be very thick. It's a bit of a messy job - the ladies at the Lodge wear food grade plastic gloves {affil link} for dipping so that they can work through the batches quickly. This is why having help is handy, with one person frying and draining, another glazing.
Dip the pusharatas in the glaze, rolling to cover, lift and let excess drip off and return to the rack to dry.
I prefer to do the powdered sugar in batches rather than all at once. Small pieces tend to fall off as you're glazing and invades the smoothness of the glaze, so I make up a batch, dip as many as I can, rinse the bowl and make up another batch. If you place the drying rack over a sheet pan, you can scrape off the dripping back into a bowl and reconstitute it also.
This batch should give you somewhere between 3 to 4 dozen balls, depending on how big you drop them. Pusharatas are best when freshly made and like any other doughnut, do not keep well for long, so never make pusharatas too far in advance. Although they may be frozen, they really are best when freshly made.
I allow my pusharatas to sit, uncovered, overnight until thoroughly dry. Also, do not store them in a tightly covered container. They need to be only loosely covered, or presented in a simple paper bag, or a box, placed in individual paper cups. Covering them in an airtight container will soften your glaze and make them mushy. Here's how to make them.
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