Recipe: Gluten Free Corn Fritters

Michael and I have been wanting to try different recipes lately (especially since we have new recipe books and ingredients to work with)!  I was craving a baked potato (surprise, surprise) with broccoli and cheese the other night.  With Michael not being a big potato person, he had to add something a little different in.  So, he looked up recipes and found that we had all the ingredients to make gluten-free corn fritters.

I had only ever had cafeteria corn fritters.  Pre-Celiac, I was always looking forward to corn fritters at work (they so rarely have anything good like that for us night shifters).  But, every now and again I would get to eat some of the greasy, bready, crispy on the outside gooey in the middle corn fritters (are you sold yet?).  Now that I can't partake in corn fritter day (or mac-n-cheese day), I was so excited for Michael to make me some homemade corn fritters (ok, so maybe I questioned his ability to make this wonderful dish, especially when he had never tried it himself).  Like usually, Michael proved me very wrong.

Michael's Gluten-Free Corn Fritters
 Ingredients

• 3 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar (more or less to taste)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp melted shortening (shortening means Crisco or grease, for all of those who are like me and had no clue Crisco was shortening, we just called it grease)
• 1 can whole kernel corn (drained)

Directions

This is what your batter should look like.

1. Heat oil to medium-heat (every stove is different, so this may take some trial and error) in a cast iron skillet (really, any skillet can do, but cast iron makes everything fried taste better).
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together in a bowl.  Add egg, milk, and melted Crisco.  Mix in corn (the batter will be a lot runnier than I expected, so don't fret)
3. Drop the batter, by spoonfuls, into the hot vegetable oil (if your temperature is correct, the batter should immediately begin to fry and stay together).  Fry until golden-brown (this only takes a few seconds on each side).  Let drain on paper-towels.  Enjoy!!

 This is what yours should look like then they are finished.

This recipe made a ton of corn fritters, so you may want to half it if you are making it for 2 people.  Not because you can't it all of them, but because you probably will eat all of them and then regret it later (like when you find out you gained 5 pounds in 3 weeks at the OB/GYN).  

Seriously though, these are delicious.  They taste so much like fair food (and I love anything that should come on a stick at the fair).  This is why the Pre-Celiac me loved the Monte Cristo sandwich at Cheddars.  I will have to find a gluten-free version one day!  Let me know if you have any ideas!

Gluten Free Flour

Michael pointed out that I may need to be more specific when talking about flour.  Gluten-free flour comes in all different kinds (rice flour, soy flour, tapioca flour, corn flour, potato flour).  So, when do you know what kind of flour to use?  Many recipes call for a mix of several kinds to achieve the best texture.  I will always be specific to what type of flour I used.  When I refer to all-purpose gluten-free flour, then I am using a generic, store-bought gluten-free all purpose flour.  This brand in particular has already mixed several types to achieve the best texture.  We used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour.  It has a mixture of garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, white sorghum flour, and fava bean flour (several things I would never be able to find without ordering online.  I eventually hope to come up with my own mixture of flours to make an all-purpose flour that is cheaper.  But, for now, I love that there are options of already prepared all-purpose flours out there.