Can Elephant Ears do Upscale? Remembering the Circus.

One of the highlights of my childhood was getting to ride on a huge pachyderm, a.k.a elephant. For my cousins and I, the circus was a frequent part of our childhood. On this occasion, the circus made it's home in the dusty dirt floored arena of a historic fairgrounds, whose fairway had seen many, many generations of eager carnival, concert or rodeo goers. The concessions had a looming presence between the main arena and the white washed wood, gray roofed exhibition out buildings who had welcomed 4-H livestock, various crafts and the eleclectic mix of gawkers whose ages were of a varied range.

This was all surrounded by a scenery of ancient Maple, Oak and Locust trees - whose gnarled appearances of lacy leafy canopies gave shade on the hot sultry summer nights and perfumed the air with an earthy sweetness, when these events were usually scheduled. A once proud chained link fence, now disheveled kept watch over the whole property, only the ticket booths and metal arms of the floor to head height turnstile gates allowed slowly for the pandemonium to spill outward and overflow into the street.

The circus was an adventure for my cousins and I, we delighted at the splendor and surprise of all that the circus offered. From the sugary sweet aroma of cotton candy and caramel corn and of course elephant ears, to the buttery unmistakable popcorn aroma and roasted peanuts that permeated the whole grounds. To the magic feeling of the performers and smells and sounds of the trained animals. Through our child eyes, these routines did not seem rehearsed, they seemed as though they had been played out especially for us.

The circus has the power to touch a special part in all of us - to harness the child-like wonder and air of magic, as adults, we wished existed.

picture provided by markus941

I think out of all the circus and carnival concessions, elephant ears might be my favorite. The kid in me loves all of there soft, warm and cinnamon-sugar goodness. The baker in me knows their is a more upscale, adult version. The Crispy. Crispies use puff dough as a base. You can find a formula for puff dough here in my previous post Formula: Scratch Italian Puff Pastry.

Formula for Cinnamon Sugar (home use version) [commercial version should be increased by 8 times]

• 26 oz all purpose sugar
• 2 2/3 oz. cinnamon
• 1 oz. vegetable oil

Procedure:

Mix together cinnamon and sugar first with paddle attachment in kitchen aide (for commercial version use 20 QT), then add oil .

You can store this in an air tight container for future use with breads, cinnamon rolls etc.


Procedure For Making Crispies:

Roll out or sheet puff dough to 5 cm (you can use a yard stick to measure the dough thickness if rolling it out by hand).

You will need to have a dough width of 20 inches. (remember to roll out your dough a few inches wider , then using your hands push the sides in to get the 20 inches width on your yard stick. This is called "shrinking" which promises that your crispies will stay the size you originally made them and not shrink during bake off).

Egg wash (1 egg beaten), the dough rectangle. Spread the cinnamon sugar over the egg washed dough, leaving 1/2 inch uncovered for seem allowance.

Starting at the top of your dough triangles left side, tuck your first 4 fingers of each hand under the edge of the dough - keep your thumbs free, and start by tucking the edge under using the heal of your hand and thumbs until you have spanned the length of your rectangle to the right. Keep repeating until you have tucked all of your dough, creating a tight roll. (it is very important not to press the layers of puff dough to tightly, as this will effect the integrity of the puff dough it's self.)

Once you have a roll, slowly pull the length of the roll so that it is of a uniform length and width. Using a sharp chef knife cut in increments of 1 inch wide pieces using a rocking motion when cutting each piece - you may need to hold each piece while cutting - be careful in the position of your knife blade.

When you have cut all your pieces, using all purpose sugar, spread it out all over your work surface to form a thin layer. Place each piece spiral facing up and roll with rolling pin until paper thin and semi circular. Place crispies on a parchment covered sheet pan, in groups of six (arranged 2 by 2 by 2). Continue adding new parchment onto the finishes sets of six until your pieces are all done.

You can then bake off each parchment sheet containing six crispies until crisp and golden at 375 F °ree; The unfinished crispies can be refrigerated if encased in a plastic bag, knotted tightly (airtight), to bake off later.

These are a very crispy and sticky sweet version of the elephant ear. They make great garnish for custards or cheesecake - break into pieces and arrange by gently pushing into the center of each dessert portion.


Now back to the topic of circuses, I know there is a circus tour starting soon. Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus have tour dates planned for all over the East Coast and South East corner of the US. There is one Stop in California on the West Coast. You can click on the picture below to see the tour stops below on the map.

To Get more info visit http://www.ringling.com/, where you can purchase tickets or view other fun things.

blogs that flickr, renaissance culinaire, pastry, elephant ears, concession food, recipe, formula, commercial baking, professional baking, 20 QT, puff pastry, fair favorites, memories, childhood, circus, Barnum and Bailey, Ringling Brothers, circus tour dates.