I’ve had a funnel cake. Nasty, greasy, fair food.
An elephant ear, to me, is a plant with large leaves.
It’s clear the consensus is that there is a big difference between funnel cakes and elephant ears. I stand corrected. I realize now that I’ve probably never had an authentic funnel cake. If I did, I probably just thought it was an unmemorable wonky elephant ear.
Paintcharge, for the little that my experience seems to be worth, the New England “fried dough” I’ve had is what people here seem to be calling an elephant ear. My father’s club in Massachusetts runs a Portuguese feast every year at which they sell thousands of malasadas. Those malasadas are just like the fried dough I’ve bought at other fairs in New England and they are made the way people are describing elephant ears.
Not if cooked properly. Which 90% of the time they are not. A well made funnel cake is hardly greasy at all, like a well made donut.
I’m surprised it took 20 posts before the mention of donuts. Elephant ears and donuts are more like each other than either is like a funnelcake.
And if you’re looking for bad funnelcakes, I’ve seen some places selling them that they have a big freezer full of pre-made frozen ones, which they thaw out in a microwave. Now, those are nasty and greasy.
Here is a video of why it is called a funnel cake. Look closely at what they are using to put the batter in the oil (spoiler alert… it is a funnel)
My point was not that a donut and a funnel cake are similar, but that there is no fundamental reason that a funnel cake has to be greasy any more than a donut has to be greasy just because it is fried. It’s a matter of quality control.
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Elephant Ears are just large fry bread. Fry bread is often made with a sweetened dough, and also often tossed with cinnamon and sugar immediately after being taken out of the fryer, not too unlike a doughnut. Funnel cakes, done correctly, must be topped with powdered sugar or else they will float away.
Having said that, in my humble opinion, why don’t you drive down and Do the Puyallup, and as you’re leaving stop and get a dozen scones to take home with you. If they last the trip home.
mmmm, scones . . .
Oh, and speaking of scones, I’ve also seen what I know as “elephant ears” called “scones”. I don’t know if that’s what kaiwik was referring to, though. To me, a “scone” is a baked (not fried) product similar to an (American) biscuit, usually with raisins.
Interesting. I’ve seen some rather interesting American interpretations of “scone,” but never something flattened and deep-fried like an elephant ear. I wonder if this is regional, or somebody got their recipes mixed up.
Eating a funnel cake should be a communal activity. They should be eaten as soon as they are cool enough to not burn your fingers and should be finished while still hot. That usually requires at least two people eating the same one. When cold they tend to taste greasy.
They have always served both at the local fair.
The difference is elephant ears are flat, have a large circumference (20" or more) and only come in cinnamon flavor.
Funnel cakes are thicker with a smaller circumference, look like they came through an extruder, and come in a wide range of flavors. Chocolate, strawberry, blueberry, cherry, etc.
Oh no! The Puyallup Fair is famous for it’s scones. Real, authentic scones. Fresh from the oven, hot and a bit crumbly with honey butter and raspberry jam. Fair foods can be a delightful treat, but nothing is as good as the scones from the Washington State Fair!
Funnel cakes were one of life’s great disappointments for me.
I pictured them as tasting like the stuff left on the tube (“funnel?”) of an angel food cake pan after you took the cake out. Brown, slightly crunchy, sweet, and delicious–but a whole CAKE of this. It was nothing like that.:mad:
I think of elephant ears as kind of a flat donut, with the things donuts have but no hole. (I.e., jelly inside, honey dipped, sprinkles if you must.)
Scones were another great disappointment. I first heard of them when Uncle Scrooge was rhapsodizing about them in a Donald Duck cartoon. I imagined something like a wonderful pancake, only even better! Again, not like that at all.
I’ve never seen an elephant ear with any of those, especially the filling. Around here, they’re pretty much invariably cinnamon & sugar.
That was my question and looking at the pictures compared with what I’ve gotten at the fairs, I’d say it’s roughly equivalent to the elephant ear (a solid sheet of dough) but I haven’t seen it called that.
The twist though is when I had what we called “fried dough” at the church bazaar when I was a kid (Hudson Valley of NYS), it was more like the funnel cake pictures!
FTFM
If your description of the difference between elephant ears and funnel cake rests on the diameter and thickness of the confections, then what you have is not funnel cake. A funnel cake doesn’t even have the same topology as an elephant ear (nor, for that matter, the same as pretty much any other food at all). All I can figure is that someone had their early childhood in an area that had funnel cakes, and remembers absolutely nothing about them beyond “they were these sweet things covered in powdered sugar they had at the fair”, and then applies that name to something completely different at the fairs they go to as an adult, and the new name sticks for some reason.
I don’t go to many fairs (have been to a couple state fairs with the kids over the past decade but don’t remember much and probably wont go again after the fatal accident this year), but our local fireworks show on the 4th of July features vendors that sell both and they are different. I can’t tell you what exactly - other than the shape and size are different. They might be the same bread/dough/whatever but the elephant ears are big and flattish and the funnel cake is small rolled “funnel” pieces. This is in Ohio, btw.
I don’t think they have any flavor here because when you buy them you go to the condiment table and put either cinnamon or powdered sugar on. Or maybe they ARE cinnamon and extra cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar is an option. I’ve never paid that much attention and I’ve only eaten them in complete darkness.
Wait, you mean the funnel cake has pieces that are shaped like funnels? Like, someone had heard the name “funnel cake”, and decided that’s what it must mean, and figured out how to make it?