 Well, it’s that time of year. Fair time…and in Oklahoma, as the song states over the radio, ♪♪ It’s a great state of a-fair! ♪♪ Okies look forward to the Oklahoma State Fair. Even in this hoity-toity, modern world, the exhibit buildings are still full of canning and garden entries, photography contests and the tasty baked goods from home cooks itching for a ribbon and winner cash. The barns overflow with show cattle, sheep, pigs and horses and the drone of announcers instructing showmen in the rings permeates the agriculture part of the fairgrounds. And of course, every tornado shelter company, shop building firm and hot tub emporium has a display of their particular pride and joy features, not to mention the thousands of home product hawkers housed in the fairgound’s numerous, spacious expanses of concrete and skylights. This year, Mr. Fix-It and I got to spend a day at the fair with the daughter, son-in-law and 9 month old granddaughter. Now THAT was a trip!! Watching my little grandbaby taking in all of the sights was pretty funny. And sights there were. Oh my goodness. I crawled out of my cave and noticed today’s fashions, evidently for the first time. I’ve decided that the fair is the excuse for any human being to leave home without ever looking in a mirror or even opening their eyes to judge their clothing before walking out the door. Older men and women in jeans obviously from a time when they were in high school and 200 lbs lighter, thought nothing of leaning over to expose bare buttocks and rotund waists. Lace shirts over brightly colored underwear and shorts with holes so big that I wanted to run to the rescue with a safety pin to help them avoid any humiliation – which they obviously felt none. We giggled at men with the dumbest hats, won at various arcades, and they wore them proudly to the chagrin of their wives or girlfriends. Of course, the callers at the arcades wore the same, dumb hats.  The strangest piece of clothing we saw came in the form of boots worn by a boatload of men. I’ve never seen them before. Back in “the day” here in the midwest, we used to have pointy-toed cowboy boats called, “Roach Killers” because one could trap a roach in a corner and squash it with the very pointed toe of the boot. But these new boots defy explanation, as the toes are so long that the longer worn, the more they curl back toward the ankle. We saw one pair of candy apple red and cream boots that curled so much, they looked like jester’s shoes. And I thought our 70’s fashions were weird!  The dirty little secret about going to the fair, though, is that inside every fair-goer’s heart is this lame excuse to go berserk over foods that no ordinary individual would consider logical, let alone healthy! And my daughter is the fair-goer food officianado. She enters the front gate, brushing past the ticket taker with a wave of her receipt and a single-minded purpose in her eyes – heading toward the various food shrines like a teenager preparing to pay homage to Lady GaGa. My daughter walks the entire length of kiosks that stretch for a 100 miles (it felt that way to my feet anyway), to assess what kind of damage can be done to one body in the form of calories, grease and salmonella. Then, she maticulously makes a list in her mind ordering which confection will be first and which will be last. Sweet always comes first and protein comes last.       One of the fair treats that is of lesser offense to the health conscious psyche is the funnel cake. The batter is very basic and if cooked in a healthy fat and dusted with just a little powdered sugar, one can share a fair-sized cake with nine or ten people and really feel smug over the idiot eating the chocolate bacon!   The batter is poured into a funnel and then evenly distributed in concentric rings into a deep vat of hot peanut oil to achieve the characteristic pile of crisp and tender bread dusted with powdered sugar. For extra money, the cooks will add fresh strawberries topped with whipped cream to make this confection so much more healthy. I said that it’s fruit, right?!! Well, funnel cakes are something that this cook has been making at home for years. The kids loved them and it was a treat that I could give them on occassion without having to fork over $100 for tickets to go have someone else make them at the fair. I thought that I’d share my recipe with you and that way, you can have your own fair experience at home, just in case you don’t make it to the real thing!! Ingredients: 2 cups milk 2 eggs 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp vanilla 1 tbsp melted butter 2 to 2 1/2 cups sifted flour Directions:  Add milk to eggs and beat until frothy. I use my small, electric hand mixer.  Add salt  And vanilla  In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of flour with baking powder.  Add the one cup of flour and baking powder, a little at a time, to the egg mixture and continue to beat.  Continue to add second cup of flour, slowly, until batter has the consistency of a thin pancake batter or pudding. Add more if needed, but do so slowly so as to not add too much.  Beat in melted butter  Pour batter into a medium sized funnel, keeping the tip of your finger over the funnel end to prevent any batter from running through.  Over a skillet of 1/2″ to 1″ oil – peanut or coconut oil is good – heated to 350º, remove finger from the end of the funnel and move the funnel around to create concentric circles in the hot oil. After getting the size cake you want, bring the batter back over the cake to add more circles.  Turn the funnel cake when browned and cook the other side.  Remove and drain on a paper towel. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, using a shaker or sifter. Serve hot. For an added tasty treat, put fresh, sliced and sweetened strawberries on top and a dollop of whipped cream. I hope the fair is coming near you!!  |
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Tags: batter, Fair Time, funnel cakes, Oklahoma State Fair, powdered sugar
What? No picture of the RED BOOTs!?! The other pictured pair are a little over the top, even here in Northern California.
I missed our county fair this year (too much goings on in the family) and I really wanted to try a deep fried snickers. I know, totally bad for me but I think one should experiance something like that in their lifetime. Don’t ya think? Hummm, a little thinker funnel cake batter might work. Might need to add a few snickers to the next shopping list. Thanks for the recipe. They look just like those at the fair. I’m sure they taste better too because of the fresher oil too.
Just wait till that little grandbaby gets a little older. Then the real fair fun will begin.
Yeah, the guy with the red boots was too close and I didn’t want him to think I was a creep taking pictures of his boots. 🙂 Ya know, I’m thinkin’ the snickers could be dipped in the funnel cake batter and deep fried. I am betting that’s what they do!! Hmmmm. It could be dangerous to he waist!!!
Mmmmmmm. I will have to try that. When choosing the fair to go to here, my boys check out to see who looks like they are going to have the best NYTPA tractor pull. Lots of fun. Thanks for sharing.
Jackie, boys + tractor pulls=Of Course!! 🙂 They will love the funnel cakes. Thanks for reading!!
thanks. cannot have gluten but love fair food. will try with alternate flour and hope.
deb harvey
Deb, I’d love to know if it is successful. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be. No yeast, no nothing. It should work fine!!
OH – now I get why they are called FUNNEL cakes. Because the batter goes through a FUNNEL. For some reason, I’d always missed that. (Batter in measuring cups? Batter in frosting bags?)
A great lightbulb has just switched on over my head.
Now if I can just survive this morning sickness that I’ve got, maybe I can make some of these in a few weeks! 🙂
By George, you’ve gawt it!! 🙂 And funnel cakes are just the thing for morning sickness, didn’t you know?