Elephant ears

I think we all tried a dessert completely covered in sugar, at least once in our life. In United states of America, there is plenty of such desserts, and as bad as they might be for your body, I still love to eat them every once in a while. Elephant ears are one of those foods, and before I came to the States, I never heard of that food.

But I knew that there is the plant, called elephant ear, so I was pretty confused when one of my friends suggested eating an elephant ear. I am pretty sure I heard that the elephant ear plant is poisonous, and we all laughed after I realized that we will not be eating a poisonous plant after all. The elephant ears are pretty easy to make, and here is my favourite recipe for making them.

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Just look at all this sugar!

Ingredients:

• Two cups of milk;
• Four cups of flour (all purpose flour is the best in this case);
• Half a cup of shortening;
• Two tablespoons of brown sugar;
• One tablespoon of active dry yeast;
• One pinch of salt;
• Two tablespoons of cinnamon;
• Five tablespoons of white sugar;
• Canola oil for frying the elephant ears.

Preparation:

1. First, get a medium sized saucepan and torn the stove top to the medium heat. Then, put salt, shortening, two tablespoons of brown sugar and milk into that saucepan and stir well. Shortening and sugar should soon start to dissolve. Keep stirring until the mixture has no bumps in it, then take off the heat and let it cool down. The, pour yeast on top. It should start foaming in a few minutes.
2. After all the yeast foams up, pour the mixture into a larger bowl and add flour. Knead (not mix! ) the mixture well, then cover it with a tablecloth and let it rest for half an hour.
3. Take a saucepan and heat oil inside. The oil level in the saucepan should be about one inch. Then, take the dough and roll out fistfuls of it. Fry each dough sheet for ninety seconds on one side, then turn it around and fry it on the other side. The elephant ears are done when they are golden brown. You can drain them on paper towels.

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Elephant ears smell delicious when frying.

And now for the sweet part: mix sugar and cinnamon in a cup and sprinkle the mixture over still warm elephant ears. Enjoy!

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In some bakeries, elephant ears will look like this.

Storage and serving suggestions

Just like most other foods, elephant ears taste the best when they are freshly made. However, if you keep them in a closed container, such as a plastic Tupperware box, they will be good for up to a week after making.

There is no special way to serve the elephant ears. When they are made, you can eat them, without any special toppings or anything. Well, you can experiment a little and try putting Nutella or other spreads on the elephant ears, but I assure you that they taste just as good with no additional toppings at all.

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The sugar makes the elephant ears sweet enough, so you do not need to think of any additional toppings.

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