Amish Funnel Cakes

 

Ahhh Funnel Cakes.  Funnel Cakes are a regional type of deep fried pancake/donut/sweet food.  Originating  in Pennsylvania they are German Dutch in origin, and a staple at most summer county fairs.

I recently got a new cookbook, The Amish Community Cookbook.  I love Amish anything and so was keen to try one of the recipes from the book. 

 

After all of the snow of yesterday, I was feeling rather industrious and so I decided to make the Funnel Cakes. I was not sure how a funnel cake should look, or even how it should taste as I have never had one.

The above couple of photos are ones that I bought on my Shutterstock account.  I thought you should see what they are supposed to look like.

 

Try not to laugh too hard. This is what mine turned out like.  And this is the best of them.  

Most of them are way worse than this.  WAAAAY worse!  I tried!  However terrible they looked however they did taste good.  I think making them is an art form.  I didn't get the memo on how to perfect them when it was being handed out. 

 

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE AMISH FUNNEL CAKES

Really simple ingredients actually, which is what attracted me to them. I did cut the recipe down to only 1/4th of the recipe (glad that I did) so those measurements you will see in the brackets at the back of each ingredient.

• 4 large free range eggs (1)
• 3 cups (720ml) milk (3/4 cup/180ml)
• 1/4 cup (50g) sugar (1 TBS)
• 4 cups (560g) plain all purpose flour (1 cup/140g)
• 4 tsp baking powder (1 tsp)
• 2 tsp salt (1/2 tsp)
• vegetable oil for frying (I used canola)
• icing sugar to dust

 

I think it is really necessary, for continuity, to have an actual funnel to make these cakes. I didn't have one, but thought I could just pour the batter in a thin stream into the hot oil. 

I was wrong.  I must put  a funnel on my shopping list of things to eventually get for my kitchen.  The list keeps growing, although I finally did remember to get toothpicks.

 

HOW TO MAKE AMISH FUNNEL CAKES

It should be quite simple, but I discovered as simple as it sounds, it is really quite harder than you think.  At least if you want nice looking ones. I did cut the recipe down to 1/4th of its original size.

Beat the eggs in a bowl. Beat in the milk and the sugar.

 

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg mixture and beat well together with a wire whisk. Leave to sit for about 10 minutes. Whisk again.

Leaving it sit for that time helps to develop the gluten in the flour and gives you a smoother batter.

Heat some oil (about 1/2 inch) in a large deep skillet to 375*F/190*C. 

 

Pour 1/2 cup (120ml) of batter through a funnel into the heated oil. Fry for a couple of minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. 

Dust with icing sugar before serving. 

  

WHAT I FOUND CHALLENGING ABOUT MAKING FUNNEL CAKES

Of course much of this could be simply because I did not have a funnel, but for me the real challenge was having the batter come out uniformly for each cake,  and like long tubes.

The trick was to allow the batter to drizzle into the hot fat and not end up all on one spot like a lump. You want it to look like a tangled mass of yarn or a bundle of worms. (I know not appealing to think about.)

 

This is the closest that I came to it and as you can see it ended up as a long coil pretty much. It did look nice but here is where the second thing I found challenging came in.

It is incredibly difficult to turn them over.  I used two forks and a then a fork and a spatula.  I was really leery of burning myself with the hot fat. 

 

If there is a way of doing it and I discovered that you need to keep the batter constantly moving as you pour it into the hot oil, kind of zig zagging around in a circle, but crossing over back and forth.

Another thing is if you don't have a frying thermometer, and I don't, you might be a bit flummoxed when it comes to knowing when your oil is hot enough.

 

You can either dollop a tiny bit of the batter into the pan/hot oil. If it bubbles immediately you know that your oil is hot enough.

You can also use the end of the handle on a wooden spoon. If you stick that into the oil and the oil bubbles immediately around it, then you know your oil is hot enough.  A toothpick will also work. 

 

Mine did turn out quite light and crisp. With a lovely texture. They were cooked throughout, although I did leave a few of them in the oil a bit too long on one side. (That was my fear of flipping them.)

I am not sure however if I would ever attempt to make them again.   Not sure if the fat fry smell is worth it.  I was burning candles afterwards. In the summer I could have just opened a few windows and doors.

They were fun to try however and I do like trying new things.  I am a bit afraid of deep fat however, so that could have tempered my experience a tiny bit, and taken away a bit from the fun of it.

I have never felt truly comfortable frying things in deep fat. Not even when I was at college.  You can so easily be burned.  Full disclosure here.    I think I will leave these to the community fair experts and the Amish in the future, however tasty they may have been. 

 

Of course, not all of my funnel cakes turned out looking great. They say you have to ruin a few pancakes to get a good one. Haha. 

This is one of the ruined ones. One of the ones which came out looking not-so-good. I had more than a few of those.

Never mind, my loss was the bird's gain. I heard no complaints.  A few of them did look quite nice. The rest?  Well, we won't talk about that.  Sometimes you just have to be able to laugh at yourself eh?

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