Aside from the ridiculous heat that hits southern California, a few things make me think of Summer: The County Fair and the 4th of July. I didn't have the chance to make it out to the fair this year but plenty of my friends were able to. Plenty of fair check ins and pictures of fair food have been flooding my social media feed, making me extremely jealous! Since I couldn't make it out there, I just have to bring it to my house.
One of my favorite fair foods is funnel cake. To be honest with you, I don't even know where else you can find funnel cake other than the fair or maybe at a theme park. So one time a year, whoever I go to the fair with, I end up conning convincing them to buy one so I can just get a few bites of the deep fried confection covered in powdered sugar. When I heard that you could actually make a baked version of it, I was all over it (not that I'm anti the occasional deep fried food....me and the deep fryer just do not get along! Angry oil scares the heck out of me!) Since the 4th is this week, I decided to give my funnel cakes a patriotic twist.
Patriotic Sugar Free Baked Funnel Cakes
adapted from DiabeticLivingOnline.com
1 cup of water
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
4 eggs
2 cups of berries (strawberries & blueberries for the colors)
1 cup vanilla ice cream
large freezer/storage bag
Preheat oven to 400*F. Cover a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray with a non-stick spray. Set aside.
In a medium sized saucepan, bring water, butter, and salt to a boil. Once the butter is completely melted, stir in the flour and incorporate until the dough forms a ball.
Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Vigorously mix in one egg at a time until fully mixed and smooth. Spoon dough into the storage bag. Snip a tiny portion of the bottom corner of the bag. Pipe the dough onto the cookie sheet either in a star shape (repeating the layered pattern twice) or in the traditional round shape with several crisscrossed patterns.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until puffy and light golden brown. Remove from the pan. Serve warm with the berries and vanilla ice cream.
Sueshine Notes
Recipe yields about 12 mini cakes
As there is no sugar in this recipe, the dough is not sweet at all. You have to depend on your topping choices to sweeten up this traditional treat. Suggestions?
-Traditionally its served warm and topped with a dusting of powdered sugar. -Another option that is usually available at the San Diego County Fair is to roll it in cinnamon sugar to make it similar to a churro or "Mexican Funnel Cake."
-Fruit or chocolate sauce
-Whipped cream
-Whatever you please because it's just damn tasty and much healthier than the deep fried version. You have room to indulge in the toppings just a tiny bit!
Even though I know it's going to be an extremely hot summer in east San Diego, causing the temperature in my lil red kitchen to sky rocket, this is the first post of what I hope to be a "Taste of Summer" series. I know I'm mainly a baking blog but I hope to share and explore flavors from my summers growing up that may include giving my oven a little break. In the meantime, please have a wonderful and safe 4th of July weekend!!
