Funnel Cake

Today marks the beginning of my new diet. Well technically its an old diet that I've started and stopped multiple times. But we're just going to call it my new diet.

Over the 5 years that I've been an undergraduate student, I have changed (what I consider) drastically. I'm not going to go into details about everything I want to change about myself but I WILL say that I'm on a determined mission to live a healthier lifestyle full of exercise, nutritious food, and good rest.

Obviously this is a pretty hefty goal. I live on Mr. Noodles and soda, sleep at 3 in the morning and wake up at 12, and the most exercise I get is walking to the bus stop which is 1 min from my door.

Thus my back up plan is to fatten all those around me so that I look good.

KIDDING!

About the fattening others part....not about the healthy living part.

But the title of this post is funnel cake and that is what we are going to talk about.

Gimme a break this one time and I'll try not to put up anymore posts that will clog your arteries. No promises though.

I tried out a recipe I found at this site which has some beyoooootiful pictures of food. Seriously. Compared to those pictures, mine look like they were taken on a polaroid.

I love this recipe because it is super simple. There isn't a whole lot of ingredients and you can find almost everything you need already in your pantry....if you have a pantry that is.

What I don't love is that it calls for deep frying. Deep frying always makes me cringe because I KNOW it will taste sooooo good but I KNOW that its sooooo bad....INTERNAL CONFLICT! Who am I kidding? There's not conflict. Deep frying FTW!

Here's what you'll need

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup powdered sugar for garnish
A squeeze bottle


The original recipe also called for 1/4 tsp lemon zest but I didn't have any. I also assumed that the powdered sugar was for garnish...it wasn't super clear on the original recipe...or maybe I'm being a total idiot and I should have added the sugar. Either way....it tasted fine without the sugar.

Here's what you should do

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a container with a spout. You will be pouring the batter out of this container so it's easier if it has a spout.

In another bowl, whisk the egg and then add milk, vanilla, and lemon zest and whisk some more.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until well combined. The batter should be pretty thick.

Pour batter into the squeeze bottle. I tried to use the Wilton bottles but I found the tips to be too small and the funnel came out crispy and thin. I changed to a piping bag which made a really big funnel which I also didn't like too much but my taste testers loved. Try to find a bottle with an opening thats not too big or too small. I suck at math so I'm not going to bother giving you a diameter or a measurement. I will say that the squeeze bottle is MUCH easier to manage than a piping bag.

Place a metal ring into a pan with oil. This will act as a guide if you want perfectly same sized funnel cakes. I didn't have a metal ring so I just eyeballed it. They turned out fine.

Once the oil is hot enough, squeeze the batter into the oil making a ring and then criss crossing everywhere to achieve a funnel cake look.

Cook for about 1 min and flip. Once it is evenly golden brown, remove from oil and place onto paper towels or something that will absorb all the excess oil.

Top immediately with tonnes of powdered sugar and add whatever else your little heart desires. I used whipped cream, strawberry jam (which I melted because I didn't have strawberry sauce), and chocolate sauce.

NOM NOM NOM

Happy baking...err...frying!!

Creme Brulaylay

Do you ever have those days when you're sitting in class at 9:30 in the morning thinking about a really yummy dish you had a while ago? I mean yeah your obviously paying attention to the lecture and studiously taking notes. But your also drooling over a big fat piece of pie or a creamy dessert...like creme brûlée.

Well that's what I was doing last week and then had the opportunity to put my dreaming into action.
Recently, my roommates and I had a girls night and I decided to whip up some creme brûlée...obviously I can use phrases like 'whip up' and 'throw together' because I'm such an expert...duhh.

It was surprisingly easy. There weren't too many ingredients and I found a really good video showing the process...and the cook was French....with a French accent. The accent proves his expertness so I went with his video. I'm sure there are many other variations and ways to do it.


Here's the link to the video. The ingredients are also listed on there.

I didn't have a flamethrower...I mean blowtorch so I set the oven to broil and carefully put the ramekins in and watched them with hawk eyes. I wish I had the blowtorch though. It would have been cooler.

They tasted really good. They were a little warm and more liquidy since I put them in the oven instead of torching them. All in all, very fattening and yummy.