IHOP® Funnel Cakes

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Top Secret Recipes
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IHOP® Funnel Cakes

by Todd Wilbur


International House of Pancake's Funnel Cake Carnival brings the famous fairground food to the masses for a limited time. As you would expect from the name, the first thing you'll need to make proper funnel cakes is, of course a funnel. The funnel is used to swirl batter into hot oil until where it will fry to a happy golden brown in about a minute on each side. Find a funnel with an opening that is at least 1/2 inch wide so that your funnel cakes will have approximately the same thickness as the I.H.O.P. version. For the frying, shortening works the best since that's what I.H.O.P. uses, but you can also use vegetable or canola oil. I used a trans fat free shortening from Smart Balance and it worked great. Load your oil or shortening into a small saucepan with about a 6-inch diameter. This way the batter won't spread out when you funnel it into the, oil, and you'll get funnel cakes that are all the same size. When it's time to serve the dish, arrange two funnel cakes on a plate, dust them with powdered sugar, top 'em off with fruit and whipped cream, and enjoy fairground-style funnel cakes without any scary carnies watching you eat.

INGREDIENTS:

3 eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 to 3 cups vegetable shortening

Topping

powdered sugar
1/2 cup strawberry, blueberry, or cinnamon-apple pie filling
whipped cream

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Combine sugar and eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add milk, vanilla, and salt and mix until sugar is dissolved.

2. Sift together flour and baking powder and mix into wet ingredients with mixer for 1 minute. Cover and chill for one hour.

3. Heat shortening in a small saucepan over medium heat to 350 degrees. Pour 1/4 cup batter into a funnel with your finger over the hole. Tap on funnel to remove any bubbles from the batter. When shortening is hot take your finger off the hole and swirl the batter into the oil. Be sure to get the funnel very close to the oil, and keep the funnel moving at a medium speed. If you move the funnel too fast, the dough will come out too thin, and if you move too slowly you'll get big fried clumps of dough. Rinse the funnel with water after each frying. Cook funnel cake for about 1 minute or until golden brown, then flip it over and cook for 1 minute. Remove funnel cake to paper towels or a rack, and cover with foil while making the rest. Repeat the process with the remaining batter, then serve two funnel cakes topped with a dusting of powdered sugar, approximately 1/2 cup of the pie filling of your choice, and whipped cream on top.

Makes 14 servings, 7 servings.

Tidbits: It helps to have a thermometer in the shortening to monitor the temperature. After each funnel cake, the temperature of your shortening will drop up to 40 degrees. You may have to wait a few minutes between funnel cakes to get the temperature back up to 350 degrees. Consider using two small saucepans for the frying to speed things up when hungry mouths are drooling over your shoulder.