January 2024 - Page 66 of 159 - CouRRier News Today

There are many types of apple fritters—the thick, doughnutty yeast-raised sort, or the lightly battered apple rings—but it’s the craggy, apple-chunk-studded, soft on the inside but crisp on the outside variety that I love. I’ve had trouble in the past with getting the right consistency and thickness for the batter, but I’m happy to report that the absolute best apple fritter is also the easiest. All you need to get fritterin’ is an apple and some pancake mix.

I once made yeast-raised apple fritters. It took several painstaking hours because of the proof time. The apples popped out every which way, and the finished fritters ended up so thick that the centers didn’t cook through. It was tragic. However, this pancake mix fritter experiment is a completely different story.

I decided to look into chemically raised flours (like baking powder) to get a lighter dough, and soon realized that all you need are ingredients typical to pancake mix. So why not make my life easier and just use pancake mix? The resulting apple fritter is pure fried-apple perfection. It’s crisp on the exterior and tender on the inside (but, thankfully, completely cooked through), and the simple vanilla glaze is just the nudge it needs to send it over into “special occasion treat” territory. The apple gods have given us a gift, my friends. Use it well.

This recipe uses the typical “complete” pancake mix that you can get at any grocery store, and the batter needs little else but apple chunks and water, which nearly eliminates the prep time. Mixing the batter happens faster than it takes to heat up a small pot of frying oil.

How to make quick apple fritters

1. Peel and chop an apple of your choosing

I used a Cortland apple because it was in my fridge. I usually use Fuji or Golden Delicious for baking pies, but frying happens so fast I think any apple you like will hold up well enough. Cut the apple chunks to be about a third of an inch. They don’t have to be precise, but cubes somewhere just under a half inch in size.

2. Mix the batter

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Add two inches of frying oil to a small pot, and heat it to 375°F. Add one cup of complete pancake mix to a medium mixing bowl. I used a Shoprite’s store brand pancake mix. Stir in a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Add the apples to the dry mixture and toss them around so they’re thoroughly coated. When the oil is up to temperature, add a half cup of cool water to the mixing bowl and stir until there are no more dry patches left and a thick batter has formed.

3. Fry the fritters

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Scoop large spoonfuls (about a heaping quarter cup) of batter into the oil and fry for one minute per side. Try to keep the oil’s temperature around 360°F to 375°F to keep the cooking time accurate and ensure the fritters don’t over brown or become heavy with oil. The fritters will puff dramatically, so be sure not to crowd the pot if you’re frying more than one at a time.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Dab the fritters dry on a paper towel (or use one of these alternative methods), and let them cool on a wire rack while you fry the rest of the batter. When you’re finished frying, make the glaze. A great fritter simply must have a thin veil of translucent, crackly sugar glaze.

4. Dunk them in vanilla glaze

Mix confectioner’s sugar, vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and water in a deep bowl until no lumps remain. The glaze should be thick but loose. Put one fritter in the bowl and use a spoon to scoop and drape the glaze over the top until it’s been completely coated. Lift the fritter out with a fork and return it to the wire rack to drip-dry. Repeat this with all the fritters.

The glaze dries out on top but once you take a bite you’ll get a parade of flavors and textures. A mixture of crisp and soft followed by a symphony of apple, cinnamon, vanilla, and malty fried dough. This recipe makes five four-inch apple fritters, but you can certainly double the recipe for a greater need.

Easy Apple Fritters With Pancake Mix

Ingredients:

1 cup complete pancake mix
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 medium apple, chopped (about 1 ¼ cups of chunks)
½ cup water
Oil for frying

For the icing glaze

2 cups confectioners sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup water

1. In a small pot, heat two inches of frying oil to 375°F. Place a wire cooling rack over a sheet tray.

2. Add the complete pancake mix to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Mix in the cinnamon. Add the chopped apple to the dry ingredients and toss until thoroughly coated. When the oil is ready, stir the water into the mixing bowl until no dry patches remain and a thick batter forms.

3. Scoop the batter into the frying oil, about quarter-cup scoops, and let each fritter fry for one minute on each side. They should become puffed and well-browned. Dab the excess oil off on a paper towel and let them dry on the wire rack. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

4. For the glaze, mix all of the ingredients together in a deep bowl until all the lumps dissolve. Add one apple fritter to the bowl at a time and use a spoon to help cover the top completely in icing. Scoop it out with a fork and allow excess icing to drip off briefly before returning it to the wire rack to dry. Repeat with the remaining fritters. Enjoy with a hot cup of tea for breakfast or a mug of glögg for a great night.

It’s not your imagination: From Dune to The Batman, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Oppenheimer, the biggest blockbuster movies really are getting longer. Maybe it’s due to directorial excess, or the need for everything to be filled with enough backstory to spin up a franchise, or simply because it’s harder to get people out to theaters so studios want to make it seem like every big film is an event. (Yes, some movies also really do need to be that long—but did No Time to Die really need to be that long?)

And sure, long movies are sometimes great, but length isn’t always (or even often) an arbiter of quality. Heck, some of the greatest films in history—across decades and a wide swath of genres—tell their stories very effectively in 90 minutes or less. What follows, in order of length, are 35 of the best, shortest movies ever, each one worth (not that much of) your time.

Detour (1945)

Running time: 68 minutes

It’s not a rule, exactly, but noir films seem to thrive at around 90 minutes—that being, perhaps, the approximate limit of our ability to watch a character descend into inescapable darkness. For a lot less time than that, Detour follows Al Roberts, a small-time piano player who comes into some cash and decides to hitchhike across the country in pursuit of his best girl, who ran off to Hollywood to be a star; unsurprisingly, he encounters some bumps along the road when someone who picks him up winds up dead and Al sorta accidentally assumes his identity.

The picture was made sloppily and on the cheap, but somehow became a classic in spite of all that. It’s now in the public domain and free on YouTube, though as it has recently been restored, you’re better off catching it on one of the big streamers.

Where to stream: Prime Video, The Criterion Channel, Tubi, Pluto TV

Frankenstein (1931)

Running time: 71 minutes

One of the earliest and nearly the best (second only to its sequel) of the Universal horror classics, Frankenstein squeezes enough iconic imagery into 71 minutes that it has remained fresh for almost a century.

Where to stream: Classix

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Running time: 71 minutes

A couple of friends heading out for a fishing trip pick up a passenger, one who just happens to be a thrill killer responsible for several earlier robberies and murders. That tense premise plays out perfectly under the careful eye of director Ida Lupino, an actress as well as one of the very few women directing American films during the ‘50s.

Where to stream: Prime Video, Vudu, Tubi, Pluto TV

The Set-Up (1949)

Running time: 72 minutes

The wildly eclectic Robert Wise (West Side Story, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Sound of Music, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, etc.) directed The Set-Up, with all of the grit and sweat required of a movie of its kind (that being a film noir sports drama), scraping off all the gloss of his prestige pictures. The result is one of the best boxing movies of all time, as well as one of the very best noirs.

Where to stream: Watch TCM

Petite Maman (2021)

Running time: 72 minutes

Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma took a hard left turn for her followup film, a gentle, poignant coming-of-age story. A young girl mourning the death of her beloved grandmother helps her parents clean out the family home. One day while playing in the woods, she meets another little girl exactly her age. I can’t really tell you more than that, except to say that the slow build to the reveal of who the girl is will have a shattering effect on anyone who has ever been a parent, or had one.

Where to stream: Hulu

Safety Last (1923)

Running time: 73 minutes

Buster Keaton was more daring, and Charlie Chaplin more poignant, but Harold Lloyd was more purely focused on laughs, and no less brilliant than his better-remembered contemporaries. Safety Last! is his most famous film (thanks to the memorable clock scene), and it’s also very nearly his best, with a lot more plot and gags than just the clock bit.

Where to stream: HBO Max, The Criterion Channel

Cat People (1942)

Running time: 73 minutes

Producer Val Lewton traded freedom for prestige early in his career, taking over RKO’s B-movie unit and making shorter movies for cheap. There were very few restrictions placed on him, except for the stipulation that the movies needed lurid titles to draw attention—and, so: Cat People, ostensibly about a new bride who turns into a panther, but really a beautifully shot psychosexual drama about sublimated desire.

Where to stream: The Criterion Channel

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Running time: 76 minutes

It took a while for ~~Tim Burton’s~~ Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas to catch on with audiences (and we can probably thank Hot Topic for transforming it into a cultural phenomenon), but those of us who saw it in theaters in 1993 knew it was an instant classic. A sweet and scary seasonal gem about what happens when the king of Halloween gets bored with his holiday and decides he can make Christmas better (or at least bring some severed heads into the mix), it’s likely a slim 76 minutes because of the complexities of stop motion animation, but it’s also the perfect length for an adaptation of the original Tim Burton illustrated poem.

Where to stream: Disney+

Nothing Sacred (1937)

Running time: 77 minutes

Comedy, like horror, often thrives at a shorter length, never getting a chance to wear out its welcome. Carole Lombard is great in this smart screwball, playing a hick from a nothing town in Vermont who’s brought to New York City by a cynical reporter (Fredric March) desperate for content. it seems she’s dying of radium poisoning, and the story about her poignant last night on earth will be a headline grabber. Except that she’s not dying—it’s all a scam, and a satire of both the manipulative tabloid press and our hunger for tragic tales that feels at least as relevant nearly 75 years later.

Where to stream: Prime Video, The Roku Channel, Tubi, Pluto TV

Primer (2004)

Running time: 77 minutes

Writer/director Shane Carruth spent basically nothing (allegedly $7,000) to make this impossibly complex sci-fi tale about two Bill Gates-style computer geniuses who hack together a functional time machine in their garage and proceed to use it to fuck up each other’s lives in profound ways. To say more would lessen the impact of this stone cold lo-fi classic.

Where to stream: Digital rental

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

Running time: 78 minutes

Superhero movies rarely clock in at anything under 6 hours (some of them feel that way, at least), but perhaps it’s not surprising that one of the best is much shorter… and a cartoon. A theatrical spin-off of the revered Batman animated series of the ‘90s, Phantasm sees an old flame reenter Bruce Wayne’s life even as a new vigilante arrives in Gotham. It’s tippy-top-tier Batman, cartoon or no.

Where to stream: HBO Max

Paris Is Burning (1991)

Running time: 78 minutes

This landmark queer documentary explores, with clear-eyed affection and occasionally brutal honesty, the heyday of so-called “ballroom culture” in NYC, when queer and trans performers, marginalized in their day to day lives, would glam up and cast off the prejudices of society and the grim reality of the AIDS crisis to strut down the catwalk and lip sync for their lives. It’s a celebration of found family, and a profile of a community and a cultural movement that would, decades later, find wider recognition in shows like Pose and RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Where to stream: HBO Max, The Criterion Channel

Rope (1948)

Running time: 80 minutes

Hitchcock’s great experiment almost had to be on the short side, given the constraint he placed upon the movie: the whole thing had to look as though it were filmed in one continuous take (in reality, it’s a series of ten-minute takes, if only because that was the most film the cameras of the day could hold). Snooty lovers played by John Dall and Farley Granger stage an elaborate dinner party while concealing the body of a former classmate in nearly plain sight—see if you can spot the culprit.

Where to stream: The Criterion Channel

Before Sunset (2004)

Running time: 80 minutes

Sequels are often longer than the original, so it’s a tribute to director Richard Linklater that he’s able to accomplish more in the followup to 1995’s swoonily romantic two-hander Before Sunrise even with a run time that’s 20 minutes shorter. It helps that the brisk film ends beautifully, memorably—and abruptly.

Where to stream: Digital rental

Run Lola Run (1998)

Running time: 80 minutes

This German import is more than two decades old, and yet I’m still hesitant to spoil the twist of the thematic engine that drives it, so I’ll just say Franke Potente never stops moving throughout its one hour and 20-minute runtime; it’s a thriller that kicks like a caffeine-addled late night video game binge, and if it was a minute longer, she (and the premise) would have collapsed from exhaustion.

Where to stream: Digital rental

Killer of Sheep (1978)

Running time: 80 minutes

Director Charles Burnett brought Italian-style neo-realism to Watts in the ‘70s in telling the story of Stan, who works long hours at an L.A. slaughterhouse. This portrait of a Black working class family is funny and frequently profound, and was only recently recovered and restored.

Where to stream: Kanopy

Toy Story (1995)

Running time: 81 minutes

Speaking of keeping animation short and sweet, Pixar used to be able to do it. These days many of their films approach (or exceed) two hours—it’s understandable, they’ve earned our patience—but it’s no accident that the shortest of the Toy Story films is still arguably the best, a perfect execution of an absolutely impeccable premise. (Yes, it’s likely only this short because it’s also the first all-CGI movie ever, but sometimes constraints aren’t weaknesses.)

Where to stream: Disney+

Rye Lane (2022)

Running time: 82 minutes

Imagine Trainspotting-era Danny Boyle making an Elizabethtown-style romcom, except it’s actually good, and you’ll have a fairly accurate idea of what to expect from the charming debut film from director Raine Allen-Miller. Two mid-20s South Londoners meet shortly after each has suffered a bad breakup; they proceed to help one another get over their respective exes, and I’m sure you see where this is going, but you’ll be smiling the entire way.

Where to stream: Hulu

She’s Gotta Have It (1986)

Running time: 84 minutes

Spike Lee’s first feature film launched his career with the story of a woman (Tracy Camilla Johns) enjoying the type of sexual freedom typically granted to men. It’s smart, funny, and surprisingly sex positive, if a little problematic by modern standards.

Where to stream: Digital rental

High Noon (1952)

Running time: 85 minutes

Though it seems subtle today, High Noon’s anti-blacklist, anti-witchhunt politics were so clear to audiences at the time that John Wayne called it “the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” Any movie that pissed off John Wayne that much is fine by me. He made the much-longer Rio Bravo in response and… well, that movie’s also a classic, but it’s 2 hours and 21 minutes long. High Noon does much more with less, and holds up much better.

Where to stream: Prime Video, Paramount+, MGM+

Fruitvale Station (2013)

Running time: 85 minutes

Dramas based on real events tend to be drawn out, but it’s the straightforward efficiency of Ryan Coogler’s first feature, based on the real-life killing by police of a young, unarmed Black man in Oakland, that makes it so beautiful, and so harrowing.

Where to stream: Freevee, The Roku Channel

Evil Dead (1981)

Running time: 85 minutes

Some movies are on the short side simply because it’s cheaper that way. That may or may not be the case with Sam Raimi’s horror comedy cult favorite, but Evil Dead doesn’t suffer one bit from its truncated runtime. In fact, every movie in the eventual franchise comes in at around the 90-minute mark, give or take, this one having established the perfect length for gross-out practical horror.

Where to stream: AMC+

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Running time: 85 minutes

A New Zealand horror mockumentary that launched an unlikely franchise, this movie packs a lot of jokes into 85 minutes.

Where to stream: Digital rental

My Neighbor Totoro (1986)

Running time: 86 minutes

Animation being a complicated and sometimes expensive proposition, films in the medium tend to run shorter than live-action features. Surprisingly, director Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved Studio Ghibli movies tend to run closer to the two-hour range (he can take as long as he wants, really), but an exception is the classic My Neighbor Totoro, about two girls and their adventures with wood sprites in rural Japan. It’s pretty much a perfect movie from the first frame to the last.

Where to stream: HBO Max

Polyester (1981)

Running time: 86 minutes

Even at a brisk 86 minutes, John Waters manages to pack a lot of raunchy laughs into this, his best, if not his most outrageous, movie. It doesn’t matter if you catch that the story of beleaguered suburban housewife Francine Fishpaw (played gloriously by the iconic Devine), who watches as her seemingly picture perfect family falls prey to sex and depravity, is a pitch-perfect parody of Douglas Sirk melodramas; it’s still gloriously, subversively hilarious throughout (and even better in Odorama).

Where to stream: Digital rental

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Running time: 88 minutes

Claudette Colbert is on the lookout for a rich husband, though she’s already married to an inventor played by Joel McCrea. No matter—they love each other, but could use the money that a second husband could bring in. This could have been a dark satire, but as directed by Preston Sturges, it’s as big-hearted as it is silly.

Where to stream: Digital rental

Rashomon (1950)

Running time: 88 minutes

You could tell me that Akira Kurosawa’s much-imitated rumination on the nature of justice and the frailty of memory is only 88 minutes long, but I’m pretty sure I remember it differently. Consider this proof that an all-time classic doesn’t need to take all night to sit through.

Where to stream: HBO Max, The Criterion Channel

Videodrome (1983)

Running time: 88 minutes

All hail the new flesh! David Cronenberg’s legendarily weird horror classic has all the slick (literally) body horror imagery that is the director’s calling card, but it’s also a sly commentary on the subversive power of media in the analogue age, following an amoral TV producer (James Woods, rarely better) as he searches for the secret behind Videodrome, a pirate broadcast of explicit violent and sexual imagery that might actually be more than mere fiction. Debbie Harry costars, looking hot as hell (obviously).

Where to stream: Digital rental

Airplane! (1980)

Running time: 88 minutes

There are so many memorable moments and lines here, and they come at such an incredibly fast clip. It’s maybe not the greatest slapstick comedy of all time, but it “shirley” has one of the highest hit-to-miss ratios—even some of its doofiest gags are still good for a chuckle, 41 years later.

Where to stream: Prime Video

Crank (2006)

Running time: 88 minutes

There’s such an effective high-concept here, it is 100% possible, and very much advised, to look past any of the film’s inherent silliness and just admire it on that merit. Jason Statham plays Chev Chelios, a man poisoned in such a way that he needs to keep his adrenaline levels at a constant maximum, or he’ll die. How he keeps ramping himself up, well, that’s the fun part. It’s loud and gleefully over-the-top, and it would totally collapse if it was even a few minutes longer.

Where to stream: Peacock

Attack the Block (2011)

Running time: 88 minutes

The movie that teamed John Boyega with future Doctor Who Jodie Whitaker is unique in spotlighting a British street gang living on a council estate who also happen to be the only hope against brilliantly designed alien invaders. It’s too much madness for more than 90 minutes.

Where to stream: Paramount+

Stand By Me (1986)

Running time: 89 minutes

Stand By Me doesn’t feel short and, in this case, that’s not an insult. The unlikely Stephen King adaptation doesn’t waste a second of its runtime, with director Rob Reiner crafting one indelible, nostalgia-for-childhood drenched scene after another as he tells the story of a group of friends who head out into the woods in pursuit of rumors there’s a dead body to be gawked at.

Where to stream: Netflix, AMC+

The Thin Man (1934)

Running time: 90 minutes

The onscreen couple that set the template for some of the best relationships (without really being bested) in film history began here. I’ve seen this movie multiple times and I couldn’t tell you a thing about the central mystery—only because the boozy chemistry between Myrna Loy and William Powell is the real draw.

Where to stream: Digital rental

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Running time: 90 minutes

Time has lent some class to this French classic, praised and derided equally upon its release for its gross-out effects (which are incredibly tame by today’s standards). When able to see past the horror elements, the film plays more like a dark fairy tale, brutal, but weirdly poetic and beautiful.

Where to stream: HBO Max, The Criterion Channel

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2022)

Running time: 90 minutes

Ninety minutes might sound like too long for a movie adaptation of a series of 5-minute YouTube shorts, but I’d be happy to spend a lot longer with Marcel, who is indeed a shell with shoes on, and just the sweetest little sentient mollusk casing you’ve ever met. This faux-documentary follows Marcel as he searches for his missing family, and I’m not kidding when I say that Isabella Rossellini gives an award-caliber performance as his grandmother. Who is also a shell.

Where to stream: Paramount+

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How to make quick apple fritters

1. Peel and chop an apple of your choosing

2. Mix the batter

3. Fry the fritters

4. Dunk them in vanilla glaze

Easy Apple Fritters With Pancake Mix

Detour (1945)

Frankenstein (1931)

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

The Set-Up (1949)

Petite Maman (2021)

Safety Last (1923)

Cat People (1942)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Nothing Sacred (1937)

Primer (2004)

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

Paris Is Burning (1991)

Rope (1948)

Before Sunset (2004)

Run Lola Run (1998)

Killer of Sheep (1978)

Toy Story (1995)

Rye Lane (2022)

She’s Gotta Have It (1986)

High Noon (1952)

Fruitvale Station (2013)

Evil Dead (1981)

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

My Neighbor Totoro (1986)

Polyester (1981)

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Rashomon (1950)

Videodrome (1983)

Airplane! (1980)

Crank (2006)

Attack the Block (2011)

Stand By Me (1986)

The Thin Man (1934)

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2022)