Cinnamon Crisp Elephant Ears Recipe

If you LOVE crispy cinnamon elephant ears at the fair try this easy Elephant Ears recipe at home. Crispy flakey layers without puff pastry and with an easy homemade yeasted dough. A fair food snack you can make at home.

This recipe is like a hybrid of two snacking favorites, elephant ears at the fair and palmiers from a bakery. And what a combination to make at home

Elephant Ears as Fair Food

It’s not quite the same as the elephant ears you find at the fair. Those are pillowy dough, deep fried, and rolled in cinnamon. Oh so good but they require deep fat frying.

Palmiers from the Bakery

And these are not quite what you get when you buy Palmiers in a bakery. Those are typically made with puff pastry, rolled into two connected circles.

Baked Elephant Ears at Home

This baked elephant ears recipe is a combination of both recipes, and my kids are digging them! It’s like having the bakery and the fair right in the kitchen.

What Kind of Yeast Should You Use? Instant Yeast or Active Yeast?

These yeasts offer the same thing, rise to your bread. What they do is the same, how you add them to a recipe is different. You can use them interchangeably in recipes as long as you use them correctly! Or you can see the third option for the rebels out there.

• If your recipe calls for Active Dry Yeast and you have Rapid/Instant Rise, use about 25% LESS Yeast for best results
• If Your recipe calls for Rapid/Instant Rise Yeast and you have Active Dry use about 25% MORE Yeast for best results
• If you’re using Instant Quick Rise or Rapid Rise can add the yeast directly to your dry ingredients — There’s NO NEED to dissolve the yeast in the water FIRST
• Active Dry Yeast-Regular Normal Yeast should be mixed with a small amount of the water and flour from the recipe and added that way to make sure the yeast is properly distributed
• REBEL MODE you can be like me and use EITHER type of yeast like it’s Instant Yeast and just accept that your bake may not be perfect

Can I use All-Purpose Flour to Make Elephant Ears?

Yes, you can absolutely make this recipe even IF you don’t have bread flour. Bread flour has wheat that has a higher gluten content so it’s a little more structurally sound. If you DON’T have bread flour it’s going to be just fine. I test all my recipes with All-Purpose Flour (AP Flour) to make sure they will work for you.

As a mom of teen boys I know buying bread flour in bulk can be hard to do, whether its availability OR price that makes it hard. So I make sure that if anyone needs (KNEADS) to use AP flour, they’ll be just fine to do so.

You can ALSO make your own bread flour out of AP flour. Simply measure out your flour, for every cup remove 1.5 teaspoons of flour and add in 1.5 teaspoons of vital wheat gluten.

Fair Food at Home

It’s fun to make fair food at home! Make my soft homemade pretzels for a taste of the fair OR Head over to The Mom on the Move and check out her ENTIRE line up of fair food at home ideas. Some are homemade and some are store-bought. Either way you go, there’s a lot of fun to be had when you make fair food at home!