Shut up and eat

Like old cold oatmeal glued to the side of a bowl, I've had the notion of Twinkies lodged in my brain for weeks. Kind of like the way a song lyric gets inexplicably stuck in your head, the idea of the creamed filled sponge cake has been haunting me. The darn thing just won't go away.

This all started a few weeks ago when I heard Joe Kernen on CNBC's Morning Call mention deep fried Twinkies. Now mind you, this is an early morning stock market show and why he mentioned the fried snack cake, well I can't even remember. But a few days later I picked up the April issue of Saveur magazine and there on page twenty was a note about the anniversary of Twinkies. Couple this with a sale of Hostess products at the local Target - two boxes for five bucks and I knew I was headed for some sort of Twinkie trouble.

Last night I decided to celebrate Twinkies' 74th birthday by making a lot of desserts featuring what else? Thereby performing a sort of Twinkie exorcism (you know eat too much of anything and it will disappear from your diet for a long time). And because you shouldn't do this sort of thing alone I called a few friends to come join me. The idea of cooking with Twinkies sounded ridiculously silly and just plain fun, so my friend Maria agreed to come over. Julie would have stopped by as well, but other obligations prevented her - which was fine - since we are a little short on space...

We started with a variation of the Kitsch'n on Roscoe's recipe for Twinkie Tiramisu, then moved onto my own invention of Boston Cream Twinkies.
A near disaster with a chocolate sauce almost stalled the dessert production, but we dumped the failed sauce in the trash and quickly corrected the recipe. Next we created our own chocolate dipped Twinkies. If you're not up for dipping your own, treat yourself to Ruby et Violette's chocolate covered Twinkies. Our last Twinkie confection was a show stealing dessert: deep fried Twinkies served with Fosselman's cappuccino ice cream.



Sampling them all, hands down, the fried Twinkies with ice cream was astounding. A true heart attack waiting to happen and worth every mouthful. The Boston Cream Twinkies weren't bad either. And although it's a little involved in assembling, the Twinkie Tiramisu is a great dessert to play "Guess the Ingredients."

If you are ever in need of laugh or want a sure cure for the blues, I recommend having a Twinkie dessert party. The evening was humorous - it's hard to be serious around the word twinkie. And in a small kitchen it's hard not to laugh when you're bumping into things while asking, "Please pass the Twinkies."

But the question is, "Was I cured"?
There are three Twinkies in a box on the counter up for grabs...

Deep Fried Twinkies
Ingredients
4 Twinkies
2 - 12" wooden skewers
2 - 3 cups vegetable oil
1/4 cup flour

for batter
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

To make:
Freeze Twinkies for at least 4 hours.
Heat 2- 3 cups vegetable oil in deep fryer or pan with high sides to about 375 degrees. (Oil is hot when a piece of bread dropped in in the oil browns in 1 minute)
Whisk buttermilk and oil in a bowl and then add flour, baking powder and salt to this mixture. Blend well.
Place flour in plastic bag and coat each Twinkie lightly with flour.
Insert skewers into bottom side of one Twinkie to make a handle and dip cake into batter. Spoon batter over all sides of Twinkie to cover entire cake and then using skewer handles place Twinkie carefully in the oil. (note the skewer handles allow you to submerge the Twinkie in the oil, as they like to float) Use care when doing this and cook only one Twinkie at a time.
The outer coating should turn a golden brown in about 3 - 4 minutes.
Drain on a paper towel. Serve with your favorite ice cream.

this recipe is an adaptation of one found on the web
credited to Janet K. Keeler, Times food editor