Easy Elephant Ears (Fair‑Style Fried Pastry Recipe)
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Easy Elephant Ears
These easy elephant ears taste just like the ones you get at the fair. They’re crisp, buttery, and covered in cinnamon sugar. The best part is you don’t need to make dough from scratch. Frozen bread dough works beautifully and gives you that classic fair‑style texture at home.
Ingredients
- Thawed frozen bread dough
- Oil for frying
- Butter, melted
- Sugar
- Cinnamon
Ingredient Notes
- Thawed Frozen Bread Dough: This is the easiest way to make elephant ears at home. Once thawed, it rolls out smoothly and fries up crisp and golden.
- Puff Pastry (Optional): You can use puff pastry if you want a flakier, lighter version. It cooks faster and puffs more, so keep an eye on it.
- Granulated Sugar vs. Powdered Sugar: Granulated sugar gives you that crunchy fair‑style finish. Powdered sugar melts into a softer coating. Both work, depending on what you like.
Topping Ideas
- Cinnamon sugar (classic)
- Powdered sugar
- Cherry pie filling
- Apple pie filling
- Nutella
- Strawberries and whipped cream
Brown sugar and cinnamon
If you want a version made with homemade dough, try my from‑scratch elephant ears.
Easy Elephant Ears (Fair‑Style Cinnamon Sugar Fried Dough)
Simple ingredients and quick frying give you classic fair‑style elephant ears at home. Warm, crisp, and coated in cinnamon sugar.
Equipment
- Plate with napkins/paper towels
Ingredients
- frozen bread dough
- cinnamon sugar mix
- vegetable oil
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and place the frozen dough into the loaf pan, covering with plastic wrap.
- Allow to thaw and rise, punching down at least once.
- Once it is thawed, time to make elephant ears!
- Cut the dough into 5-6 equal pieces.
- Work the dough into small flat ‘pizza’ looking discs.
- Work the dough as thin as you can get it. It will rise up a bit when it cooks.
- Have a plate with paper towels on it to use once the ears have cooked.
- Pour oil into a pan so it’s about 1 inch deep (You’ll want a wide pan if you want to make more than one at a time), one at a time is easier to manage.
- Turn oil on medium heat and allow oil to heat up.
- Test a small piece of dough to see if it hot enough. It will begin to bubble and turn brown when the oil is hot enough. If it sinks, and no bubbles, oil is not hot enough.
- Place one of the discs carefully into the oil and allow it to get golden brown (about 1-2 minutes).
- Gently flip over with the tongs and allow to brown on the other side.
- Remove from oil and place onto the plate and towels.
- Sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons of the cinnamon sugar mix.
- Repeat until all ears are made.
Video
Notes
Cooking Tips
- Make the discs as thin as possible, they will puff a bit when cooking
- It’s easier if you make one ear at a time, versus several
- As the oil heats up, the ears will take less time to cook, so you will need to move quickly
- If the oil is not hot enough and you put the dough in, they will taste like grease
- Mix the cinnamon sugar to your liking
- Before putting the the cinnamon sugar on, you could put melted butter on each elephant ear, and then the cinnamon sugar mix
