Funnel Cake
Ingredients:
The Batter:
There are a few different recipes for funnel cakes, but they all share one crucial ingredient: FUN! Seriously, you and your loved ones will have a blast making these cakes. You will need a deep fryer to properly make these treats.
2 Cups of milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 Cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
½ stick of butter, melted
Directions:
Combine milk, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, and sugar and gradually add to wet ingredients. Beat with a mixer until a smooth batter forms. Fold in melted butter. Pour batter into a funnel or squeeze bottle while using your index finger to stop the flow of the batter. Bring the funnel over the hot oil and release your finger to start a stream of batter while moving the funnel in a circular motion to create spiral-like shapes. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown and fluffy.
The Toppings:
The traditional topping for funnel cake is plain ‘ol powdered sugar. But if you’re going to make these treats from scratch, you may as well up the ante and top them with some holiday cheer. Here are a few ideas for some toppings:
Caramel Topping:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Combine sugar and syrup. Cook until soft ball stage. Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Pour over funnel cake.
Cranberry Topping:
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 16-oz can organic whole-berry cranberry sauce
Directions:
In a small saucepan whisk together the cornstarch and orange juice to combine, making sure there are no large clumps. Pour in cranberry sauce, stir, and bring mixture to a boil over medium to medium-high heat for one minute. Cool for 10 minutes. Pour over funnel cake.
Cinnamon Apple Topping:
2 tbsp. bottle lemon juice
1/3 c. water
7 c. thinly sliced, peeled, Granny Smith apples
3 c. sugar
3/4 tsp. Cinnamon
Directions:
In a 6-8 quart saucepan, heat lemon juice for 1 minute over medium – high heat. Add water, apples, sugar and cinnamon. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Spoon out over funnel cake.
Note:
*If you don't have a deep fryer, you can make them in a cast iron skillet...one of the deeper ones like a chicken fryer. You can also do it in a dutch oven. It doesn't matter as long as you can put about 3" of oil in the pan and that it's wide so the batter has room to spread out. Also, you can put the ingredients in a zip bag and knead it until the batter is smooth. Then cut the corner off the bag and pour into the pan. I found it easier to control than a funnel. It seemed the opening in the funnel was too big and the batter came out too fast. We made them at our ballpark one year and didn't have a mixer.
