Tuesday Recipe: Deep-Fried Candy Bars with Pineapple

As soon as Ted and I started planning our nuptial hoedown, I started thinking about food—of course, I’m thinking about food much of the time, but this was thinking about food in a purposeful, as opposed to a day-dreamy, kind of way. I thought about foods that are traditional favorites in my family. I perused magazines and cookbooks. One recipe I adored as soon as I encountered it was Deep-Fried Candy Bars with Pineapple, from the “Trashy” chapter of Nigella Bites.

This recipe calls for a deep-fryer, an appliance not found in every contemporary home, but a good-sized stir-fry pan might work, too. I had planned to serve the candy bars with grilled pineapple; the grilled pineapple, however, was long gone by the time we got around to making this dish, so I’ll have to wait until next time (the next time i make this dish, not the next time I get married). It wasn’t easy to find Mounds bars—in fact, I don’t even know where my mom finally rustled some up—but it was totally worth it. The chocolate gets all melty, the coconut gets hot, and the crispy batter is a lovely complement to the sweet gooeyness of the candy.

approx. 2 quarts sunflower or other oil for deep frying
1 ripe pineapple
1 cup self-rising flour
about 1 cup soda water
8 fun-sized Mounds bars

Heat the oil in a deep-fat fryer to maximum heat.

Cut the top and bottom off the pineapple, and then quarter it vertically. Trim the woody core off each segment, and then lay it skin-side down, and slice the flesh in half lengthwise, stopping when you feel the skin. Then cut it across into slices and run the knife between the flesh of the fruit and the outer husk. The pineapple pieces should then come away easily. Squeeze the outer skin of the pineapple over the cut fruit to get every last bit of juice.

Measure the flour into the bowl, and whisk in ¾ cup of the soda water to make the batter, adding the rest of the water if the consistency is still too thick: you want this just thick enough to adhere easily. The best way to check is to turn a Mounds bar in it; if the batter sticks well enough, it's fine. I just use my fingers for this, but tongs work well, too.

Plunge the batter-blanketed Mounds in the hot oil and fry for about 3 minutes, until the batter’s puffed and golden. Remove to pieces of paper towel to absorb excess grease, then pile up on a plate to sit on the table alongside the cut-up pineapple.

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Tuesday Recipe: Deep-Fried Candy Bars with Pineapple

As soon as Ted and I started planning our nuptial hoedown, I started thinking about food—of course, I’m thinking about food much of the time, but this was thinking about food in a purposeful, as opposed to a day-dreamy, kind of way. I thought about foods that are traditional favorites in my family. I perused magazines and cookbooks. One recipe I adored as soon as I encountered it was Deep-Fried Candy Bars with Pineapple, from the “Trashy” chapter of Nigella Bites.

This recipe calls for a deep-fryer, an appliance not found in every contemporary home, but a good-sized stir-fry pan might work, too. I had planned to serve the candy bars with grilled pineapple; the grilled pineapple, however, was long gone by the time we got around to making this dish, so I’ll have to wait until next time (the next time i make this dish, not the next time I get married). It wasn’t easy to find Mounds bars—in fact, I don’t even know where my mom finally rustled some up—but it was totally worth it. The chocolate gets all melty, the coconut gets hot, and the crispy batter is a lovely complement to the sweet gooeyness of the candy.

approx. 2 quarts sunflower or other oil for deep frying
1 ripe pineapple
1 cup self-rising flour
about 1 cup soda water
8 fun-sized Mounds bars

Heat the oil in a deep-fat fryer to maximum heat.

Cut the top and bottom off the pineapple, and then quarter it vertically. Trim the woody core off each segment, and then lay it skin-side down, and slice the flesh in half lengthwise, stopping when you feel the skin. Then cut it across into slices and run the knife between the flesh of the fruit and the outer husk. The pineapple pieces should then come away easily. Squeeze the outer skin of the pineapple over the cut fruit to get every last bit of juice.

Measure the flour into the bowl, and whisk in ¾ cup of the soda water to make the batter, adding the rest of the water if the consistency is still too thick: you want this just thick enough to adhere easily. The best way to check is to turn a Mounds bar in it; if the batter sticks well enough, it's fine. I just use my fingers for this, but tongs work well, too.

Plunge the batter-blanketed Mounds in the hot oil and fry for about 3 minutes, until the batter’s puffed and golden. Remove to pieces of paper towel to absorb excess grease, then pile up on a plate to sit on the table alongside the cut-up pineapple.