Funnel Cake

[cougars_catnip]

Woke up this morning with a hankering for fried dough.

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 3/4 stick butter (6 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup eggs, about 4 large eggs and 2 whites
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• Powdered sugar, for topping

Directions

Boil water, butter, sugar, and salt together in a saucepan. Add flour and work it in until it is all incorporated and dough forms a ball. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a standing mixer and let cool for 3 to 4 minutes. With mixer lowest speed, add eggs, 1 at a time, making sure the first egg is completely incorporated before continuing. Once all eggs have been added and mixture is smooth, put dough in a piping bag fitted with a number 12 tip. Heat about 1 1/2 inches of oil in a heavy pan. Pipe dough into oil, making a free-form lattice pattern; cook until browned, flipping once. Remove cake from oil, drain on paper towels, and top with powdered sugar. Continue until all of the batter is used.

 

The more traditional way of doing funnel; cakes is this..........

 

Ingredients:

1 egg
2/3 cup milk
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Beat egg and milk. Mix all other ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly add to the egg mixture, beating until smooth.

 (You can use a gallon sized freezer bag instead of a funnel by pouring the batter into the bag, snipping off a small corner of it, and squeezing the batter into the oil.)

In a deep wide pan, heat frying oil top 375 degrees F. Hold your finger over the bottom of the funnel or use a funnel cake dropper and fill it with the batter. Hold the funnel over the hot oil and remove your finger then immediately start drizzling the batter into the oil, moving the funnel around to make a criss-cross or scribbly design. Fry until golden brown on one side then flip it over to fry the other side. Remove the funnel cake from the oil with a slotted spoon or spatula and drain on a paper towel. Sprinkle with powdered sugar  or  mix the sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle the funnel cakes heavily with it.

Serve immediately.  you can also serve this with various dips such as strawberry sauce or chocolate or honey.  I am a purist and prefer the simple cloud of powdered sugar ( even if I do end up wearing the damn stuff. )

Comments

[jumpuphigh]

I have been wanting funnel cakes for a few weeks now. Thanks for the recipe!

[cougars_catnip]

Welcome. :) and of course you have. Funnel cakes are an essential part of summer! :)

Enjoy
CC

[acelightning]

Ooh, I never thought of using a very loose cream-puff mixture for funnel cakes! Beignets of fried cream-puff dough, whether sweet or savory, are absolutely delicious, and by making the mixture wetter, you get that flavor plus the fun shape of funnel cakes. (Hmmm... savory funnel cakes... which you could do equally well with the traditional type of batter, of course...)

And, of course, summer is the season for state fairs, street festivals, and other celebrations where every imaginable type of fried dough can be found. Zeppoles and "fried pies" are made with yeast dough (although there are also "fried pies" that use actual pie-crust dough), funnel cakes and Indian fry bread are leavened with baking powder, and then it starts getting strange, with fried Oreos, fried Twinkies, fried Coke, fried ice cream, fried dill pickles, fried butter, fried bacon...

[cougars_catnip]

:) yes indeed. I sent my writers group 8 different types of fried breads this morning. :)

Cream puff dough is also the dough of choice for making churros. Pipe into hot oil and fry until puffed and golden brown then roll in cinnamon sugar. Yummm!

I grew up in the deep south so fried pickles doesn't seem strange to me at all. :) Just good eats.

[acelightning]

Most of the churros I've had in the New York metropolitan area have been more of a baking-powder type of dough/batter - it's the piping in a long thin shape, and of course the sugar-and-cinnamon, that makes them special.

What I haven't seen at local street fairs (yet) is fried Twinkies. (I had fried Oreos last year, and I was disappointed.) I'm always fascinated by the new state-fair foods that are invented every year, in the category of "if it ain't fried, it ain't food!" ;-)

[cougars_catnip]

I've had both for churros but the pate choux type have a texture that can't be beat. :D

I haven't had the fried Twinkies or Oreos either.

[acelightning]

Well, of course I've made beignets... but I either dusted them with powdered sugar, or dunked them in hot fudge sauce. I never thought of rolling them in cinnamon sugar. Gotta buy more eggs today, so I can make cream puff dough :-)

[cougars_catnip]

MMM that sounds good. It's been a long time since I made any, and now I am thinking sour cream chicken enchiladas,rice and beans and churros for dessert. YUMMM. :D

Almond Milk?

[celtic_maenad]

Would this kind of recipe work if one used almond or soy 'milk'? My household doesn't keep anything but almond milk in the house, and we wouldn't use real milk quickly enough to keep it from going bad. Alternately, we do have powdered buttermilk if that might work as a substitute for the milk...

What do you think?

Thanks!

Re: Almond Milk?

[cougars_catnip]

Yes you can substitute almond milk for regular milk.
The powdered buttermilk will work just fine.

You can also make an acceptable substitute for buttermilk. You will need to add one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice per cup of soymilk or almond milk and mix well. It's not quite as robust as buttermilk, but will have a similar flavor.

The acid in the buttermilk helps activate the baking soda and baking powder to give rise to the dough.