Chocolate Berry Fritters – Chocolate yeast donuts are loaded with three kinds of berries and then covered in sweet icing.
And the chocolate desserts keep on coming! Today’s recipe is my third chocolate recipe in a row so I’m officially on a roll. I need to make sure you guys have plenty of options as VDay approaches!
A couple weeks ago, I started off this trend with my chocolate raspberry cake roll. Last week, I gave you this ultra-rich and gooey triple chocolate skillet cookie. Today, it’s all about the chocolate and berries again. But this time, the recipe can easily pass for breakfast or dessert.
Here are my Chocolate Berry Fritters!
What is a fritter?
Fritters are a fried dough or batter with some sort of fruit or vegetable. I’ve seen corn fritters, apple fritters, and even peach fritters. The base of the fritter can be a wet batter or a yeast dough. These fritters are made with a yeast dough and are very similar to apple fritters, if you’ve had them.
How are these fritters made
There are three main part to making these fritters:
- Making the dough
- Frying the dough with the berries to make fritters
- Coating the fritters in icing
Let’s talk about each step of the process.
Chocolate yeast dough
Making the chocolate yeast dough is very similar to any sweet dough recipe. In fact, I used my sweet yeast dough recipe from these Nutella pull-apart muffins and my apple cinnamon monkey bread. I made a few tweaks to it to make it just right for the added chocolate.
First I added in solid chocolate and unsweetened cocoa. I added both so that I had enough chocolate flavor without messing with the texture of the dough. Then, I switched out the canola oil with butter to add extra flavor. And finally, I added a little more sugar to balance out the unsweetened cocoa that we added in.
Once the dough is made, you continue on like you would with any other yeast dough: knead it, let it rise, and then roll it out. Once it’s rolled out, the berries are added to one half of the dough and then the other half of the dough is folded over to make what looks like a calzone.
Once the calzone is formed, you’re going to cut it into 12 short strips and then each strip is cut into 4 pieces and formed into a ball to make the fritter. Make sure to tuck in the berries as much as possible so they don’t fall out during frying.
Frying
Before frying, each ball of dough is flatten into a disk. Then, each disk is dropped into the hot oil and fried until puffed up and cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Drain each fried fritter over paper towels before dipping in icing.
Coating in icing
Once the fritters have cooled and drained off the excess oil, it’s time for coating them in icing. Mix all the icing ingredients together until smooth. Dip the tops of each fritter into icing and sit onto baking sheet. Let the excess drizzle down the doughnut.
Tips & Tricks
- When making dough, it is very important that you take the time to knead it properly. You can either knead with a stand mixer or by hand. I like to knead by hand so I can tell how the gluten is developing. You’ll know when you’ve kneaded enough when the dough is soft and elastic, about 6 minutes.
- Do not skimp on rising time! In order for these fritters to get nice and fluffy, they need time to rise. So don’t go cutting corners and thinking you use the dough after it’s only half-risen. Trust me.
- Invest in a candy thermometer to monitor the hot oil. Oil temperature is super important when frying – too cold and the food will get greasy and fail to get browned and too hot and the food will brown on the outside but not cook all the way in the center.
- The fritters may separate while frying. Don’t freak out. The fritters will taste incredible whether they stay in one large, round fritter or break off into smaller pieces. However, if this still bothers you, try to pinch the dough pieces together before frying and make sure to seal the berries in the center.
Chocolate Berry Fritters
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons butter salt
- 3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chopped
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- 3 ½ - 4 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup mixed berries chopped
- 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
For the icing:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup milk
Instructions
- First we will begin making the dough. Heat up milk in a small sauce pan until it begins to simmer. Remove from heat and add butter, chopped chocolate, sugar and salt and stir. Let it cool down to lukewarm to the touch. Stir milk to combine with chocolate. While milk is cooling, proof the yeast by adding the warm water and yeast in a small bowl and stirring together. Let it activate by setting it aside for 10 minutes.
- Once milk is cool, add to a large bowl, along with 3 ¼ cups of the flour, cocoa powder, eggs, and yeast mixture. Stir together with a wooden spoon until combined. The dough will be very thick but still pretty wet and sticky.
- Place ½ cup of flour on the surface of your counter. Place dough on top of it and begin kneading the dough with the flour until all the flour is mixed into the dough. Keep kneading for about 4-5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it starts to stick to the counter, add a little more flour. Once you finish kneading, shape into a ball. Lightly grease another large bowl and place the ball of dough into bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it
rise for 2 hours, where it will be double the size. I like to place mine in the microwave to keep it away from any cool draft from the A/C. - Once dough has risen, punch it down with your fist and remove from the bowl. Lightly dust your counter with flour and place the dough on top. Roll out dough into a large rectangle, 16 inches x 24 inches. Sprinkle chopped berries along the bottom half of the long edge of the rectangle. Fold dough in half and seal all the edges together. Cut dough into 12 short strips. Cut each strip into 4 pieces. Take one strip of three pieces and gather together in to a ball,
tucking the berries into the center and making sure none are exposed. If the berries release a lot of juice, add flour to your hands and press into the fritters to help absorb the extra juice while your form the fritter. Flatten into a round fritter. If you can see the berries, they'll probably escape while frying. Place onto baking sheet. Repeat with the other sets of strips. set fritters aside while we heat up the oil. - Place all vegetable oil into a Dutch oven. Heat over medium until oil reaches 350 degrees. Use a candy thermometer to watch temperature. Once oil is hot enough, add two fritters to oil. Cook for 2 minutes on each side and then remove. The fritters may separate into pieces but don't worry - they'll still taste amazing! If this bothers you, make sure to pinch the dough together and seal in the berries before frying. Drain fried fritters on paper towels and repeat with other fritters. Do not cook more than 2 at a time.
- Once all the fritters are done frying and have cooled for at least 5 minutes, it's time to dip into icing. Mix powdered sugar, milk and salt together to form icing. Add more milk if it's too thick. Dip each fritter into ice and let excess drain off. Icing will dry in about 30 minutes. Serve immediately and within 24 hours.
Pin for later:
More recipes you’ll love:
Chocolate Berry Cups
Chocolate Raspberry Mousse
Chocolate Raspberry Cake Roll
I had pinned this recipe to make it for Valentine’s day but I just couldn’t wait another week and made it over the weekend ahahaha They were soooooooooooooo amazing!!!! Thank you!!
Oh wow, this recipe sounds so delicious. Looks amazing too! I just saved it and will make it for Valentines for my boys. This will be such a treat fro them.
I have come across so many varieties of fritters, but not berry fritters! This is brilliant idea! I love how delicious and decadent those fritters looks. Would be perfect treat for Valentines Day celebrations
This actually had me drooling! I had these on the list as a possible valentine’s day gift bake but it might not make it that long… it’s like a combination of all the best things with chocolate on a plate!
I adore fritters but never thought about your flavor combination. These chocolate berry fritters sounds amazing!! I will be trying these soon and can not wait !!
wow! These look SO great and who doesn’t love chocolate and cherry? I love how you have it served with fresh berries too!
WOW! I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Making them chocolate instead of plain plus adding those delicious berries is quite unique. What a great dessert everyone will love. I will certainly make this as soon as I get my berries.
Chocolate and berry is one of my favourite combo. This fritter looks mouth watering.
Chocolate and berry are my favorite combo! These fritters look mouthwatering and cannot wait to try!
Such a unique and delicious recipe. Best for my sweet tooth cravings. Looks yum.
These look so AMAZING!!! They would be perfect for Valentine’s Day…YUM!!!
Get in my belly! These look absolutely delicious!
Oh these look delicious and I’m also sure they taste good. Will try this recipe x
Oh these look delicious and I bet they also taste good. Will try this recipe x
These look amazing! You can’t go wrong with berries and chocolate.
Frying anything always scares me. My sister got burned by hot oil, and ever since I am terrified!! But this looks so good, I might even look past my fear and try it!
Love that you made fritters chocolate – what a great Valentine’s Day treat!
These fritters look amazing!!
These look delicious! Berries and chocolate are tasty together and I can just imagine what a great treat these are.
Oh my goodness, my mouth is watering over these. They look incredible!
Yes please, these look incredible! I just LOVE chocolate treats. I am so excited to try these.