Better than Funnel Cake

Connor is forever reading and he likes all kinds of books. Recently, we found a book at the thrift store about the Navajo Indians. In the book, was a recipe for Navajo flat bread and Connor thought we should definitely try it out. We did and it was delicious. Better than funnel cake even....or at least better in my book. It was less doughy and therefore, more delicious.

You can find all sorts of recipes for Navajo flat bread (or sometimes called fry bread) all over the internet. I like to use this one from the Pioneer Woman as my starting point. I like it so much I even put it in my personal cook book.   

Don't be jealous of my cookbook naming prowess. The kids helped me. 

Connor liked the flat bread so much that he decided to take it to Scouts the next time he had snacks...which just happens to be tonight. He thought it would be a good way for them to learn about another culture and also get to eat something besides cookies. Not that these have more nutritional value than cookies...I'm not making that claim. Well...they might be before we add the toppings. 

There aren't too many ingredients required - flour, salt, baking powder, milk, and water. That's it. Seriously. Super easy and stuff we always have on hand. Mix the dry ingredients than add the wet ones in a little at a time. Start with the milk and then add enough water that a dough forms. The recipe suggests 1/2 cup. I needed quite a bit more than that. 

Mix with a fork...or your hands until a nice dough forms. Then put a towel over the bowl and sit it aside for a half hour or forty five minutes. Just enough time to do some cleaning or, may I suggest sneaking a television show whose target audience is above the age of eight while the kids are napping. 

After you watch those one or two television shows, melt some shortening or heat up some oil in a skillet. You are going to need at least a few inches worth in there. The Pioneer Woman suggested that shortening seems to work better - it seemed to work about the same as oil for me.

I usually make them a bit bigger, but since they are for a snack for the boys, I decided to make them smaller. I just flattened these out by hand. If you pick the dough up and slowly turn it while hanging on to one side, it will stretch out by its own weight. It's kind of like how you would stretch pizza dough out if you have ever done that. If not...well...just look it up on YouTube. 

Once your oil is nice and sizzling hot, you can put them in to cook. Usually less than a minute a side is all that is needed for them to be nice and golden brown. I don't recommend doing three at a time - two seems just about right or one if you are doing larger rounds. 

When they are done you put them on a paper towel to cool and top with whatever you want. The possibilities are endless here. I highly recommend powdered sugar, but since I mostly like the other Scout's moms and they wear those cute dark blue shirts, I did cinnamon and sugar on these. Honey is great. You can even fold them in half and put some taco meat, cheese, and lettuce in there. Yum-o. 

 

I decided that this was probably about enough for the boys, and that meant I had enough dough left over to make a few big ones for the family. If you roll them really flat and poke some wholes in them, they will even puff up a bit inside - which the kids seem to think is awesome. A little hand roller works great. 

You can do bigger circles that way which makes it easier to fold in half for tacos or just means that you have more delicious bread to eat later. 

And yeah....I totally went back and ate the other half later. 

As a bonus, because of the ease of the recipe and depending on how much you like to have little helper hands in the kitchen, this is a great recipe for the kids to do with you (except for the frying in hot oil part - although, at eight, Connor seems to be able to help with that part too). 

Now go fry up some bread and eat it. You won't be sorry you did. And the next time the carnival comes around you can turn your nose up at that $5 funnel cake because you've got something even yummier to make at home.