Fried Mini Oreos

Let's make some carnival food at home.

Ingredients [yields 2 to 3 dozen]:

3 dozen mini oreos

½ cup flour

¼ cup butter

½ cup + ¼ cup milk

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

oil for frying

+ powdered sugar

Grab a pan and sprinkle some mini Oreos onto it and chuck it in the freezer. Let the cookies chill for at least 2 hours until they're frozen solid. Freezing the Oreos makes it so they turn soft and cake-like during frying instead of mushy and soggy.

The most popular breading for fried Oreos is pancake batter. I'm a fan of pate a choux. I think it's crisper, lighter, and it balloons up so that the fried treats are cute little globes. So, to start, add butter, salt, sugar, and ½ cup milk to a saucepan. Get it boiling over medium heat.

Once the buttery milk is boiling, reduce the heat to low and then dump in the flour. Whisk vigorously until a clumpy dough forms. Let it cook for 5 minutes to allow some moisture to evaporate out.

Let the dough cool for about 10 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, as well as the vanilla extract and ¼ cup milk. The dough will start off weird and pebbly and then it will get lovely, sticky, and smooth.

Coat each Oreo in batter - I think it helps to use two forks - and then fry them in 350F oil until they puff up and turn a lovely golden brown.

Drain the fried Oreos on a paper towel to wick away the excess oil.

Pop a pile of 6, which I think is a perfectly generous serving size, into a little container and dust liberally with powdered sugar.

The Oreos inside are cake-like and sweet, the batter is crisp and light, and the cloud of powdered sugar you'll cough out like cigarette smoke will make you laugh. And they're bite-sized. Does it get any better than this?

Here's the recipe page: