Abellamiento Recipes

This week, I published a blog post on Portland Saturday Market, and how I remember Elephant Ears was one of the very first things I remembered about the market going clear back to 1974, so I thought I'd share a recipe for them:

ELEPHANT EARS


1 1/2 c. milk
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. shortening
2 pkgs. dry yeast
4 c. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon with 1/2 c. sugar
Oil for frying
Combine first 4 ingredients in pan; heat until shortening is melted; do not boil. Cool mixture to lukewarm.

Add yeast; stir until dissolved. Stir in flour, 2 cups at a time, beating until smooth after each addition.

Put mixture in a greased bowl; cover; let rise until double in bulk (30 minutes).

Heat oil in large pan.

Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of golf balls. Stretch each piece of dough into a thin 6" to 8" circle.

Drop stretched dough into hot grease, one at a time; fry until dough rises to top, turn and place on absorbent paper.

Combine cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle generously over hot, drained elephant ears.  You can also "doctor" the elephant ears up with such goodies as honey or jam or butter or ... well, you catch my drift!