Cinnamon Puffles...

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! It was so nice being with the family, and there was so much good food. I've probably gained 10 lbs in the two days we were all together! :)

I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes Pinterest fails me. Or maybe it's me that's a failure and can't follow the directions right. I think this time, I'll blame it completely on Pinterest! It'll make me feel better about how this dessert turned out! I've changed the original recipe so that you don't experience the same things I did.

This year was probably my favorite year cooking for Chistmas. Usually it's just me and my Fairy Godmother cooking all day to get ready for our big family Christmas Eve dinner, but since she had to work, Doc and Happy stepped in and helped as much as they could. Doc stood by my side the entire time I made this dessert, gave his advice, encouraged me, helped me 'clean as I go' and was there just to be my friend through it all. Happy rolled all the Moose Poops in white chocolate, helped clean up, sat and talked to me, and sometimes just sat and stared at me while I stressed out and let me complain a little about the recipe. This is making me get all teary eyed just thinking about it, because in all my stress over this silly dessert, they were so sweet through it all and such a big help!

Here is the recipe:

CINNAMON PUFFLES

1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup milk
3/4 cup butter
1 2/3 cup flour (add flour until the dough is stiff enough to scoop)
2 eggs
3 cups vegetable oil (I used a mixture of Coconut oil and Palm oil)

Put sugar and cinnamon in a baking tray and combine. Put milk and butter in a medium pan and cook, stirring over a low heat until the butter has melted (do not boil). Add flour and stir until mixture forms a ball. Transfer to a large bowl. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition until completely combined. Let oil come to 350 degrees. With a cookie scoop, scoop half a scoop of dough and plop it (safely) into the oil. Cook for 2-3 minutes and immediately transfer to a paper towel. 

Okay, stop right here and enjoy this hideous picture of my first attempt at following the directions. Here's what went wrong: The original recipe said the dough should come out looking like pancake batter and they wanted you to put it in a piping bag and pipe blops into oil. Well, here's how it turned out. 

I frantically called my sister-in-law, Ariel, and asked what in the world to do, because they were coming out looking like POOP instead of balls! She told me to add more flour to make it stiffer, and use a cookie scoop to drop them in. After doing that, they turned out perfect!

CUSTARD FILLING:

2 cups milk

4 large egg yolks

6 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp corn flour

3 Tbls. butter

1 tsp caramel essence or vanilla extract

To make the custard, bring milk to the boil. At the same time, in a separate saucepan, combine yolks, corn flour and sugar together and whisk over a low heat until the milk boils. Add a splash of boiled milk to the yolk mixture and begin to whisk vigorously. Gradually add the rest of the milk, continuing to whisk constantly, until thick and smooth. Remove from heat and immediately scrape the custard into a bowl and place in a basin containing a few inches of cold water. Add the butter in 3-4 installments. Add caramel essence(or vanilla) to flavour. Cool.
Pierce each cinnamon ball with a knife. You will notice one side of each ball has an air pocket. This is the side to pierce. Fill a piping bag with the custard and pipe into each hole. Serve.

This turned out perfect, of course. 

Here is the finished product. You want to serve this immediately. I think they tasted much better than a couple hours later.

After making this, I swore I'd never ever make this again. Was it good? Yes, but like I said, you had to eat it right away, or it loses its awesomeness. Was it worth all the trouble? No. Did anyone like it? A few of the dwarfs and a few of the princesses did, but it wasn't a 'Wow! You need to make this again!' kind of dessert. What have I learned? Never make a complicated new recipe on the day of a major event. Ha!

I couldn't have done it without you both, Doc and Happy. Thanks for all your hard work and for being patient with me. I love you both so much, I'm so lucky to have you! :) And Happy.....I'll probably never admit this in person to you, but you were right...4 different desserts was a little overboard for Christmas Eve. I should have listened to you. ;)