Cooking: Experimental Steel-Cut Oatmeal Funnel Cakes

Well, it's meant to be made like a funnel cake, except the oatmeal is intended to give it more "tooth".  And since the seasonings used in the funnel cakes also work with oatmeal, I thought I'd give this a try.  I suppose "deep-fried oatmeal" would also be accurate.

Now in case you're wondering what the heck "steel-cut oats" are, they're also known as "Irish Oats" and "Pin Oats".  It's an oat grain that's been cut in half, instead of squished between rollers like "quick oats".

I'd lost the original funnel cake recipe I'd found on Allrecipes.com, so I just winged it.  They taste pretty good, but the oatmeal gives the cake a different texture.  If you don't mind your funnel cake "chewy," then give this a try.

What you'll need:

Vegetable oil for deep-frying

2 cups of steel-cut oats, cooked

2 cups of self-rising flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. powdered ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp. nutmeg powder

1 large egg

1/2 cup milk, more or less

Fill a small skillet with an inch of vegetable oil.  Get it hot.

Blend together everything except the vegetable oil.  If you need the batter to be more pourable, then add more milk.  It needs to be runny.

Place batter into a gallon-sized ziploc.  Cut a notch near the top in one side.  That will be your spout.  You'll probably need to make it big enough to let the oatmeal pass through.

Pour batter into sizzling oil, and cook until golden brown.  Carefully turn it.  When done, blot with paper towels to remove excess oil.  Repeat the process.  And if you need more oil, add more to your skillet and keep going, but make sure the oil is good and hot before you pour more batter.  It tends to cool between fryings.

Note: I've since decided this recipe doesn't work all that well with steel-cut oats.  It's tough to pour, it absorbs too much oil, and if too much oil makes your stomach feel yucky, you won't like that.  

So just strip out the steel-cut oats from the recipe and make funnel cakes from the remaining ingredients.