Funnel Cake – Delicacy of Fairs and Festivities

Funnel cake has its origin in North America through the Pennsylvania Dutch of German origin. This delicacy is a favourite mostly at all carnivals, fairs, ball parks, sporting events, and festivals. Funnel cake is made of batter which is deep fried and served as desserts. There are many other recipes similar to this dessert or pastry such as strauben found in Austria, fried dough, tippaleipa found in Finland, in Slovenia it is called flancati and its pronunciation is “flan-tsa-tee”, elephant ears, among many others. Funnel cakes have been known by various names down the history lane. The Spanish eat a similar dish at breakfast with coffee which goes by the name ‘churros’.

Many cookery historians think that this dish has been wrong fully attributed to the twentieth century as this was known as early as in 1879 to the Germans. The first English recipe goes back to a cookbook in 1935. Cookery historians claim that the name funnel cake and the recipe long predate its accepted name. The ingredients in a funnel cake are quite are quite the same to the ubiquitous doughnuts, cryspes and fritters.

Preparation Time: Five minutes

Total Time: Twenty minutes which is inclusive of fifteen minutes of cooking time.

Nutritional Value: A six inch funnel cake has Fat content of 143.43 g. (22%), Cholesterol 62.78mg. (21%), Carbohydrates 29.16g. (10%), and Protein 7.35g. (15%). The total caloric count is 277.04

Main Ingredients Required:

• Three eggs
• Two cups milk
• Three cups sifted flour
• Half a teaspoon salt
• One teaspoon baking powder
• Two cups vegetable or cooking oil
• Quarter cup powdered sugar or as per your taste

Preparation or Method:

1. Beat the sugar and eggs together in a mixing bowl, adding the milk slowly to it and keep on beating.
2. Add to this the flour, baking soda and salt and beat it till it has smooth and creamy consistency.
3. In a deep skillet or wok heat the oil to about 360 degrees.
4. Now pour the batter into a funnel and plug the hole in the spot with your finger.
5. Now release the finger from the spout hole and move your hand in a circular movement, in a spiral motion beginning at the centre and moving out, over the heated oil and pour the batter into making various kinds of design.
6. Fry it until it turns golden; this will take about three minutes.
7. Turn it over slowly to avoid splattering of the oil, and cook for a further one minute. Be careful and avoid burning yourself.
8. Remove from the oil on a paper towel that will soak up the extra oil from it.
9. You can top this with a variety of different toppings of your choice.

Any Possible Variations:

For preparing the batter, if you do not have the time or the energy to prepare the batter yourself you can use a readymade pancake mix batter. If you do not have a special funnel for pouring the batter you can take a resealable plastic bag and make a quarter inch hole in one corner of the bag and now you have an easy to make funnel. Instead of using baking powder or baking soda (yeast is never used in this recipe) you can use self rising flour. Even a bit of lemon or vanilla extract would give a different flavour to this all time favourite.

How to Garnish and Serve:

For the toppings you can use a variety of them such as the plain powdered sugar which you can dust on it after the funnel cakes are prepared. Instead of powdered sugar you can also use brown sugar or cinnamon sugar, or honey or butter and syrup. It goes even well with spiced apple slices, or strawberries or chocolate syrup or a topping of berry sauce. You know what would make a yummy topping whipped cream or a blob of ice cream of your choice.

How to store the Funnel cakes:

Storing a funnel cake is easy as you can store the cooked funnel cake in your freezer. After removing them from the oil cool them on a wire mesh for about five minutes. Take a gallon big plastic sealable bag which can be used in the freezer. Put the funnel cakes in the bag, separating each with butter paper. Try and squeeze out as much air as possible from the bag before zip-locking it. You can now place this bag in the freezer and it will stay for at least six months. When you want to use the funnel cakes again heat cooking oil in a skillet to about three hundred and fifty degrees and dip them in it for about one and a half minutes and they are absolutely ready to eat with the toppings of your choice.

Related Information:

Funnel cakes are best served with a variety of toppings and one of the toppings that it can be enjoyed with is berry sauce. This is a recipe which is made simply and goes as an excellent topping for the funnel cake. It just takes fifteen minutes to cook and requires two to three cups of blueberries or blackberries and ½ a cup of sugar.

Preparation Method

1. The berry toppings made by this method makes about 2 cups. Wash them thoroughly after removing the stems.
2. In a medium sized pan add the washed berries and pour the  sugar over the pan
3. Heat the pan over a medium heat and keep on mixing the combination of berries and sugar to avoid it sticking to the bottom and getting burnt.
4. Soon the berries will give off their juices.
5. Stir the mixture continuously and lessen the heat.
6. Simmer the sauce until the fruit is cooked and the juice becomes thick.
7. This process will take up to 15 minutes, but this also depends on the fruit.
8. Shut the stove and put the sauce aside to cool it. You can refrigerate or freeze it till you want to use it with the funnel cake. This sauce also goes well with a variety of toppings.

#Hints:

To avoid getting burnt use a long handle skimmer to turn and take out the funnel cakes from the oil. The skimmer is made out of mesh wire and is usually used for deep frying multiple kind of dishes.