RecipeReviews: Funnel Cake!

I did this recipe:
http://deep-fried.food.com/recipe/gluten-free-funnel-cake-187546
Because I was rambling on facebook about how much I missed funnel cake, and my friend Josh the Unicorn (if you know him, you know who I'm talking about) and Miss Gunnar von Wunderly both highly recommended the post.

So I did it.  And I LOVED it.  Just incase I'm posting an unstable link, I'll extract the recipe text into the bottom of this post.  So if the link was dead, don't dispair, just scroll down.

Yield, yes:
I did a half recipe, and it was great.  It made 3.5 small funnel cakes, so I'd say the stated yield of 5-7 is about right.

Stores well, no:
I discovered that the made cakes do not keep well.  I took one to my friend the next day and it was still alright, but that's about all I could say for it.  Much better fresh.
The batter, however, keeps just fine, I'll show you how.
But the oil doesn't keep so well once used.
I gather this is, therefore, better as a food for a gathering.

Other tips:
I also used a full size pot instead of a skillet.  Because: high walls offer mess reduction in the form of less splatter.
I also used half and half instead of the milk because the ratings section had a few people recommending to do that.
And I used the confectioners sugar as the sugar in the recipe as well as the dusting on top, because really, who needs a whole bag of confectioners sugar?  Not me.  I'm going to use it asap.
Using my sifter was super helpful.  That's a good tip in the recipe, if you have one.

Flour recommendation:
This is deep fried, SO, you can use any flour designed to be directly substituted for white/wheat flour.  Deep frying is, chemistry wise, a very forgiving process.  Anything that doesn't require adjustments to milk or egg ratios, in use, will do the trick.  I used some rather 'meh' tasting for-direct-subtitution flour from the co-op, generally this flour has been tasting like stale potatoes.  This is the only recipe I tried with that flour that ended up really tasting good.

I'll add all these notes to my text extraction of the recipe below for easier reference.  First, let's on to the review of my experience.

PICTURES!
(With captions and descriptions, no less.)

 This is what half recipe will look like.  None of my things are the right size.  I'm sure you've been decieved by my 12 inch skillet making things look tiny.  Well in this case, my blender is half-size.  The spatula is regular size, at least.  That's why I put it in there, so you'd have something normal size to go on.

 Testing the oil heat with the spatula.  This is one of those heat resistant silicone spatulas that can take up to 500 degrees and not melt.

 Less than a minute did this to the batter residue on my spatula.  Looks good.

 Getting the batter into this bag without help was difficult.  Pictures of the process were not possible.  If you have the option of an assistant to hold the bag open for you, it's recommended.  Doing this involved using the spatula, holding the bowl up, and holding the bag open all at once.

 Batter funneled out.  (Process of funnelling is shown in the super-short video below.)

 Browning....

 Ready to flip.  (I forgot to take a picture of the flipped cake, it actually cooked the other side so fast that I thought I better just get it out of there before it burned.)

Ready!

If you have left over batter, double bag it and put it in the fridge.  Keeps a few days.  Make sure to let it get to room temperature completely before trying to cook with it!  Cold batter in hot oil can splatter so much as to cause injury!  So be careful!

AND VIDEO, no less!  

Of funnelling the batter.

Original recipe text in white.  My notes in green...

Gluten Free Funnel Cake
By Pugs-N-Apps at food.com

Dry Ingredients Yes, do these first, that way you can reuse your measuring cups for the wet ingredients.  That idea doesn't work so well the other way around.
1/4 cup sugar confectioners
2 cups gluten-free flour (Bob's Red Mills All Purpose Gluten Free Flour, Avail at Kroger & online)  Any flour made for substitution
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
1 teaspoon gluten-free xanthan gum (Bob's Red Mills) (or whatever brand)

Wet Ingredients
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk I used half and half
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract

What you will need for cooking
oil (for frying, canola or vegetable preferred) I used canola (which is the same thing as rape seed oil) and a large spaghetti pot.  This required a full container of canola oil.  Note that clean, new canola will not hardly smoke, whereas reused canola, or that which has been on the heat for a long time, smokes like crazy and burns hotter.  Second day oil should be set on extra low, whereas first day oil should be on medium eat.

One of the below toppings
powdered sugar (which is the same thing as confectioners sugar)
cinnamon
strawberry
blueberries

Directions:

1. On the stove start heating approx 2 inches of oil in a fry pan over medium heat. Again, I used a large spaghetti pot to reduce oil mess, and a full bottle of canola was required.  Medium heat with the gas range was perfect for new oil, for used oil, very low heat was necessary.
2. In a small mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and set aside in a sifter if you have one.  Yes, dry ingredients first, as noted.  Also, the sifter was a good idea, and was really helpful for putting the sugar on top after cooking.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the wet ingredients together until top is slightly frothy.
4. Now sift or slowly add the dry ingredients you have set aside into the large mixing bowl with the wet ingredients, whisking continuously to avoid lumps.
5. When all ingredients are combined into a smooth creamy mixture it is time to cook.
6. Check your oil temperature, take a small drop of batter and drop it into the pan -- It should take just about 45-60 seconds to start browning on one side. Adjust the heat accordingly.  I used my batter-covered high heat resistant silicone spatula for this test.  Each cake took less than 5 minutes, which was nice and fast.  The convenience of it being fast was pretty awesome. 
7. Use a wide tipped funnel (a kitchen type funnel would not work for this, the batter is too thick, definitely go for the ziplock suggestion instead) or ziplock bag with a corner snipped off (This size of this hole is really important.  Too large and you'll have issues, smaller is better.) to drop strings of batter into the pan of hot oil to make whatever designs you wish. Cook until golden brown on both sides (I flipped it over with a slotted spoon half way through), remove from heat with metal spatula and place on a plate with wire strainer. Repeat until all the batter is gone.
8. Let each cake sit for a moment on the wire rack (I used a few layers of papertowel on a plate, and I put the confectioners sugar on before it was cool), then move to a plate and finish with your favorite toppings.

Here's what happens if you make too big of a hole in your bag.  Oversized, easy to burn, very slow to cook.  But still yummy!  :)

CombODDnation: Ginger Spaghetti Squash

Here's a really simple one, only a slight twist on the usual.  You'll need a spaghetti squash, a small ginger root, brown sugar, and water.  Olive oil too if you're doing the seeds up (as shown at end of post).

Start by coring the seeds out of both halves of a spaghetti squash.  

Keep those seeds, we'll talk about those a little further down this post.

Put these cavity side up in a pan (this is a clear pirex pan so you can't see it very well).

Slice the ginger root and place the slices in this cavity left from the seeds.

Put 1/4 cup brown sugar in each seed cavity.

Putt approximately 1/4 cup water over all this.  The cavity should be filled about half an inch from the top.

Put in Oven at 400 degrees.
One hour and thirty minutes for this medium sized hybrid squash.  Bigger squashes may need longer.

Here's to realizing that not everybody knows how to scrape this squash into spaghetti form, eh?
I use a my silicon hot mits to hold the squash while it's still pretty warm, and use a long tines dinner fork to scrape at the squash flesh.  Start from the sides, like so.

 

Once it's all loosened up, you can actually just put the squash shell in a bowl and eat the spaghetti right out of that, or you can lift the strands into a bowl for serving.  You will be lifting out portions then going back to scraping again.  Doesn't hurt to cut the strands a bit, these will be long spaghetti strands.

Feeds two.  Goes well with the juices poured over it, the now candied gingers can be diced and put on top.  Tomato sauce on top is also fantastic.

Sorry, that's totally my yellow tomato and hot pepper tomato sauce I canned from garden surplus last year.  Just add lemon juice and you can make that too by following any standard canning recipe for tomato sauce, but ya gotta grow the tomatoes and peppers first!

Now!  SEEDS!  Actually, I do these as an appetizer when I put the squash in the oven.

So what's the easiest thing to do with the bits inside a squash or pumpkin?  I do my seeds up like so...

Put about 2 Tbs oil in a skillet on low heat.
Scoup out the squash and put everything that comes out of that center portion straight into the oiled skillet.  Stringy stuff and all.

In 10 minutes, flip this stuff over.  Go for another 5 minutes on this side.

Let cool and start munching.

You know, for as much as I love squash (OMG love love) the terms I use in describing it aren't as appetizing as they could be.  So far I've used "cavity" and "flesh" so I may as well let you know that the stringy bits that come out with the seeds from pumpkins and squash, yes, I'm silly, I call those entrails.  Oh deary me.

CombODDnation: Pork Bake

Hey guys, I used the chicken rice bake recipe with pork tenderloin boneless cuts this time, and it also turned out delicious.

Using the exact same recipe as the chicken rice, I came out with this:

Pork tenderloin packed into the top, water up to the bottom of the pork.  Rice and vege underneath.  Exactly like the chicken recipe from earlier, check the link for details.

 

Here is is, after I served a couple helpings making sure all was right (90 minutes on 410 degrees) here is the lovely outcome of this endeavor.

Just thought I'd let you know!

CombODDnation: Blackbean brownies re-up

I took these to my mom, who eats normal food all the time, and she declared these were like a semi-sweet fudge.  My brother and his girlfriend agreed on the yumminess verdict.  I think that is a good enough review to warrant posting.  You've probably seen blackbean brownie recipes online here or there, and if you haven't, you easily can.  The idea is easily googleable.  I just overhauled the more common recipe to suit me, and I find it to be better than the original, so here it is.  

Ingredients, to start:

3 cups black beans (I used beans that are cooked from dry-pack to reduce salt content as compared to canned.  After cooking a large batch of black beans, I freeze three cup portions in mason jars.  I do the same with chick peas.  Because canned beans have SO much salt I can feel it.  This is, however, also the same as two 15.5 oz cans of black beans, if that is how you prefer to do this.  If using canned beans, rinse them thoroughly with hot water before using.)
3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
3tsp baking powder
1/4c baking cocoa powder
1/2 c milled flax
1/8c olive oil
1 c semi sweet chocolate chips
(The tiny red octopus hugging an even tinier ninja is an optional component.)

Preheat to 375

SO, let's get started.  In a large food processor!  Or if you only have a small one, do it in thirds.  This 10 cup food processor is the best $50 I've ever spent, in case you were wondering.

Put 3 cup black beans and 3 eggs and blend together.

 Add 1 cup brown sugar, 3 tsp baking powder, 1/4c backing cocoa powder, 1/2c milled flax, 1/8c olive oil.
Blend together.

Add 1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (these are mini chips but the size really doesn't matter at all here.)
Blend together.

You will likely need to use a spoon or spatula to get the even texture, since the edges tend to hold some of the dry ingredients in clumps and those need spread in.  You'll get this texture in the end.

Spoon into an 8x8 pan.  Spread to even thickness.

Bake for 40-45 minutes.  At 375 degrees F.  Fork should come out clean from center.

 Let cool a minimum of 5-10 minutes.  Longer if you can stand to wait a bit.  It stays extra melty for a little while, the cake structure doesn't hold up as well to cutting when it's still very hot.  But it's SO yummy when it's that warm and fresh that I couldn't wait for my first bite.  Heh.  So suit yourself.

Cut and serve, and enjoy!

The original recipe from online is copied on yellow.  I'm laying my new recipe over the old one in my photo album recipe book.