this recipe is gluten-free, so you may have a hard time finding the flour but check your local health food store if you really wanna get into this. xD I would not suggest trying to substitute another kind of flour as I don't think you'll get the chemical reaction that helps the batter stay together... but I could be wrong. If you try this or play with changing the recipe, lemme know how it went!
biggrin Read the entire recipe before attempting ^^;
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In a mixing bowl, stir together:
1 cup potato starch flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
Add:
1/2 cup milk
2 drops food coloring of choice
You should see a really crazy chemical reaction at this point, just stir firmly until the mixture stops trying to act like cement and all the ingredients are well blended. It will still retain an odd firmness which is perfect for what it needs to do.
In a shallow saucepan heat 1/4 inch safflower oil on medium heat until drops of water pop when sprinkled on it. Now form rough ball shapes with about one to two tablespoons worth of batter (use two spoons) and drop them into the oil, making sure they do not touch each other. Turn when edges are visibly golden, and fry until golden brown. Remove finished poffins and drain on paper towels. Wait until not-so-nuclear-hot and serve. Makes at least 15 poffins.
Warnings: Beware burning the poffins, they cook fast. Also be careful because the mixture may stick to the bottom of the pan, making it difficult to turn the little buggers over (this tends to happen if the oil is not hot enough). Also be be very careful for the entire cooking process as the oil is dangerous at that temperature.
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You could top these with powdered sugar, I ate them with butter. :burp: This recipe version is very greasy and not really all that sweet, but still pretty good. It seemed to work better with smaller batter lumps than larger. I use safflower oil as opposed to anything else because it's one of the best and healthiest for you... and with this recipe, you end up with a lot of it in your tummy. ^^;
There are new neon food colorings available (at most major supermarkets?) and I used hot pink in this which was fun and quite fitting.
biggrin Man lol... I think I ate too many.
Edit 8/23:
Ohmigosh, I just tried this again yesterday and wasn't sure on how much milk to use (lol I did the whole recipe from guess-scratch)... so I used much less... and discovered that you can turn the mixture into a sorta moist-playdough if you don't use much milk. The poffin-shape is much easier to mold, and they fry soooo much better (I imagine they'd also bake well). The fried version ends up being somewhat chewy in the middle, but yummy and much less greasy (and if they aren't cooked long enough, some of the powdery mix is still in the middle, so then they just need to fry a little more). I also used more sugar this last time around, that helped.
xd : So yeah, should you choose to try this, add only just enough milk that the mixture is like playdough. You'll need to get your hands into it to get it to mix properly. But then, you'll be forming poffin shapes out of it anyways... dig in!
biggrin I'm thinking there's probably a "spicy" version in the works next... instead of sugar, something like garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, and oregano? Or cilantro and thyme.... mmmmm. xD: I bet one could even put a small amount of cheese (like a cube or something) inside the poffin shape.
biggrin (Or in teh sweet version, chocolate or carob.
Edit again: :burp: Spicy poffins quest complete! Well, other than I made them too big again. ^^; The smaller they are the better they fry... anyways, instead of sugar I used garlic powder, oregano, salt, paprika, and a little bit of pepper (would have used more but I think I'm allergic to it > ^ <). I tried the cheese thing too, which worked well!
biggrin Basically tasted like... pizza poffins? :giggle: I'll try and work up an actually-measured version next time. :nod:
Edit 8/24:
Well snap, this time around I made Poffin rocks. ^^; With powdery, uncooked dough on the inside. :doh: ARRRGH lol... so uh, for the record, this is what didn't work:
1/2 cup rice flour
1 1/2 cups potato starch flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
3/4 cups milk
3 drops food coloring
yield: 30 poffins
End results:
+ large uncooked area inside even when almost burnt
+ really does seem like they're rocks when moving them around
% cooked area tastes good
% good with powdered sugar on top
% extra baking powder this time around helped fulliness
+ made them too big, this recipe almost doubles the poffin size when cooking
+ this recipe is probably too large if one were to make smaller poffins from it
Possible solutions:
* make them much smaller, starting with a ball about as big around as a US nickel?
* bake the above recipe instead of frying it?
* change the flour/sugar/baking powder ratio again
I'm thinking... if making really small balls, to just do that when forming them ahead of time, then when it's time to fry them, form the balls quickly into the proper poffin shape (a sorta oval shape if you haven't seen one from the game). The uncooked poffins tend to try and stick to whatever they were sitting on, so it's kinda a waste of time to shape them twice (although that is what I've been doing lol). But yeah, unless you have help, you'll want to at least make ball shapes ahead of time, before the oil is hot.
