Cardamom and Vanilla Ricotta Fritters

I hope all of you had a wonderful and thankful Thanksgiving holiday with family, friends, and pets and didn't do too much damage when it came to food consumption or black Friday shopping!

What was your favorite Thanksgiving memory, eats, or buy this year?  Did you maybe get some good news this Thanksgiving?  Did your mom/grandmother/sister/cousin/great great great aunt blow your mind with their pecan/pumpkin pie?  Did you score your dream TV because you camped out a week before and had your Thanksgiving meal on the concrete outside of Best Buy?  Do share!

My favorite moment this Thanksgiving had to be the morning of.  My baby sister, she's 7, stayed the night with me and my husband, so when we woke up, we stayed in our pjs, grabbed doughnuts, hunted down the newspapers (took 3 gas stations and an HEB before we found one), and picked up our favorite Starbucks drinks and headed home to watch the parade on TV.  Best morning ever.  Nothing like seeing your cutie pie of a sister sipping on her hot chocolate and reading the comics under a blanket.

And then I had to bake a few loaves of bread, a cake, and stuffing. Morning over.

Well, speaking of food (as always)...considering I'm an obsessive dessert lover, I've noticed I haven't shared many dessert recipes through my blog.  I mean I'm the girl who eats dessert before my main course; who scopes out the dessert menu before looking at the food menu in a restaurant; who will STILL have dessert even though I have just gotten through one of my husband's anti-dessert lectures; and I'm also the one who almost always brings the dessert to the party.  People NEED dessert as a part of their lives. And I am happy to provide it! 

SOOOOO...

Make these fritters today. Seriously, it's super quick to throw together and just melt in your mouth AMAZING-ness.  The basic recipe (minus cardamom) is so versatile!  You could literally make them so many ways: lemon fritters, chocolate fritters, plain vanilla fritters, vanilla bean fritters, pumpkin spice fritters, and I could go on....GET CREATIVE!  These are great as an after dinner treat, but also really great for Sunday breakfast!  They're basically really rich amped up doughnuts perfect with your favorite cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

Cardamom and Vanilla Ricotta Fritters:

2 cups oil
3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole milk ricotta
1 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cardamom powder

1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
powder sugar/cocoa powder, for dusting

Heat 2 cups oil over medium heat.  I used a dutch oven which worked great.

Whisk the eggs, sugar, and vanilla.  Add the ricotta and mix until smooth.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and cardamom powder.

Add the flour to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.

Use an ice cream scooper or 2 spoons to drop balls into the hot oil.

Have a plate with the sugar and cinnamon mixed up.  Once the fritters are golden on both sides, drain on a paper towel and then toss them in the sugar cinnamon mixture.

Once all of the fritters have been tossed in the sugar cinnamon mixture you can dust them with powdered sugar and/or cocoa. 

Devour immediately! Preferably with someone you love. Or at least like :)