7th Most Favorite Thing About the State Fair of Texas: Tier I Fried Desserts
A few days ago, we discussed my second-favorite-by-a-hair group of sweet fried items that can be found and enjoyed during the State Fair of Texas. Today, we get down to the REAL business.
I don’t think it would be too much of an exaggeration to say that dessert is my #1 weakness in life. Certain people talk about having a “sweet tooth ” — I’m convinced that I was blessed with an entire mouth full of them. When I share meals with people, I’m always amazed by the mechanism (that seems to occur naturally in everyone else) whereby a certain dessert can be declared “too rich,” “too sweet,” or “too much” and then pushed away before complete consumption. I simply do not possess an Auto Shut-Off. If it’s sugary and it’s good, it will be eaten. That is all.
Which certainly does not mean that I am not extremely discerning about my desserts. My rule in this department is this: if calories are to be eaten, they absolutely, positively will NOT be wasted on the unworthy. And Tier I Fried Desserts are, without a doubt, the MOST worthy at the Fair.
Fried Nutter Butter
I’m guessing this one may surprise some people. It CERTAINLY surprised me the first time I tried it. Don’t get me wrong — I’d been a Nutter Butter fan since childhood — but I was skeptical about its viability in the fried cookie department. I already enjoyed the naked Nutter Butter (see photo) so much, that frying it seemed silly. Kind of like trying to fry a peanut. To me, the Fried Oreo seemed like a FAR better bet for an A+ Fried Cookie Treat, mainly due to its killer chocolate-and-cream combo.
The Fried Nutter Butter surprised me, though. Who knew that fry and peanut-buttery goodness could be so incredibly delicious? It’s a good thing these treats only happen once a year at the Fair. If they were widely accessible, I imagine I’d have to be forcibly stopped from snacking on them all day long.
Fried Snickers
I have an intense and possibly sordid history with candy bars that was ignited when I spent some time in Switzerland during my sophomore year of high school. While there, I probably consumed at least one candy bar A DAY, and when I say that, I’m talking about the most INSANELY GOOD chocolate on the planet. (I think Switzerland was the place where I most fully discovered my utter lack of sweet-stuff Auto Shut-Off.) When I arrived back in the states, I lived in the dorm at high school for a while and satisfied my daily chocolate craving by heating Snickers bars in the microwave. You had to do it just right — if the candy was just a tiny bit melty while still retaining its overall structural integrity, you were in business (after much experimentation and many not-so-delicious failures, this turned out to be about 15 microwave seconds).
The Fried Snickers at the Fair replicates the genius of the microwaved-Snickers as far as internal consistency is concerned, while adding a glorious fry-cocoon to keep everything together. Few things in the world, I’ve discovered, are better than an almost-unstable, just-this-side-of-melted mass of chocolate, caramel, peanuts, and nougat (whatever that is).
Fried Cookie Dough
Folks, I need to confess that one of my main missions in my eating life has been to seek out and consume barely-cooked forms of brownie, cake, or cookie.
Evidence — First favorite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream Flavor: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough; Favorite cookie of all time: Tweety cookie (the most delicious not-completely-cooked oatmeal chocolate chip bliss you could ever hope to find in the world); Favorite brownie of all time: ones made by my friend, Maggie, in high school, which were so raw that they had to be spooned out of the pan; Favorite Cake: molten chocolate with vanilla ice cream; Favorite Dairy Queen Blizzard: Cookie Dough (made specially to order with extra chocolate sauce); Second favorite Ben & Jerry’s Flavor: Half-Baked, of course.
So, yes, cookie dough and all manner of semi- or wholly-uncooked baked goods have been a big part of my life.
The Fair’s fried version is a dream. I would first like to hand it to the vendor for serving this item in a car. Clare was INCREDIBLY appreciative of this culinary shout out to the world of racing. I just couldn’t get over the mental
image of happy little fried balls of raw dough going for a car ride. Fortunately, the treats are accompanied on their trip (into my stomach) by a healthy serving of chocolate sauce, which makes them extra tasty. I think it could be further refined with Blue Bell Vanilla Bean, but honestly, I won’t complain about something so close to heaven on my Fair food roster.
So there they are — my favorite sweet things at the Fair. I’m curious to find out if any additions will be made to the First Tier this year. Strong contenders abound… fried peaches and cream, fried peanut butter cup (still not sure about that macaroon, though), fried birthday cake, and fried cookie monster bars.
To you new items hoping for a spot at the top I say this:
BRING IT.
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