My Mom recently turned me on to the King Arthur website. It’s my new favorite! So when my daughter had a friend stay the night I had a good excuse to make something wonderful for breakfast. Not that I wouldn’t make something wonderful for my kids alone. But it gave me another excuse to make something delicious and not so healthy for breakfast. Does that make sense? Just go with it. I’m tired.
My daughter’s friend asked if I could make elephant ears. I looked at her like “duh” and then quickly went online for a recipe. I found a lot that used yeast but because I procrastinated and didn’t want to take the time to let the dough rise for an hour I searched for a non-yeast dough. I went to King Arthur (knowing my new best friend wouldn’t disappoint me) and found this recipe for County Fair Fried Dough. It was the “fried” that got me. It’s like a magnet and it pulled me in.
Elephant Ears or County Fair Fried Dough
Source: King Arthur Flour
* 2 cups flour
* 2 tsp. baking powder
* 3/4 tsp. salt
* 2 Tbsp. unsalted cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
* 3/4 cup lukewarm water
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
Work in the cold butter using a pastry blender, your fingers or a blender.
Stir in the warm water to make a soft dough. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.
Divide dough into 8 pieces.
Roll out into thin 5′ rounds about 3/4 inch thick.
In an electric skillet or frying pan bring about 2 cups (about 3/8″) vegetable oil to 375 degrees.
Fry dough one at a time in hot oil. They take about 60 seconds on each side. You want them golden brown. Not too brown or else they will be too crispy.
Place on a paper towel. You can place them in a 200 degree oven to keep warm while you are cooking the others.
Some of them were pretty puffed up but my son thought that was totally cool. They were hollow inside. I had visions of a delicious custard in there =o)
Serve warm with whatever topping you like. The girls wanted maple frosting on theirs.
My son wanted cinnamon and sugar.
They were just like the ones you buy at the Fair except I didn’t pay $4.50 a piece for them. Even better!
Do you love County Fair food? Then check out our Funnel Cake post too.
Enjoy!
I’m linking to the parties on my sidebar.
Oh, I love fried dough!! Thanks for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
I always make a little more effort when the kids have friends over for breakfast, I don’t know why. It makes me feel better that you do that too. 😀
Thank you for this recipe. I am just twelve and wanted to make something nice for my family.
Tbh the ones I made tasted like bannock. I think I didn’t put enough baking powder in it. It was still good though.
So sorry yours didn’t turn out great. Try again! Definitely worth it!
I was wondering if you could use margarine instead of butter
You sure could try. I like the taste of butter better so I always use butter when baking.
Can the dough be rolled out and then refrigerated until I am ready to use it? I want to make them for company, but don’t want the baking mess while guests are there.
Thanks
I’ve never done that before but I would think that would be okay. Let me know if you try it and how it works. That would be great to make in advance!