Elephant Ears Pastries - Betty Crocker

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Elephant Ears Pastries
by AndiatBettyCrocker 4/4/2011 5:19:00 AM

Some bakeries called these large, flat, crisp and cinnamony pastries Elephant Ears and others call them Crispies. Kathy (Food Editor) is holding an Elephant Ear made from a recipe we developed in the test kitchens recently.

We went to work to develop this recipe because of a request from a visitor to our Community board in February:

I've been looking in vain for a recipe for a popular item in Minnesota bakeries: Elephant Ears. These are thin, sugary and cinnamony swirls made from a pie crust pastry as close as I can recall. They are baked, not fried. Sometimes you can find them flipped in half, full of apple filling.

Can anyone provide a recipe? Thank you.

I also remember these same pastries from my childhood and begged my mother and grandmother to buy them for me every Saturday morning when they let me tag along with them to our neighborhood bakery.

After a few tests in the kitchens to get them just right, here is the recipe we came up with.

Elephant Ears

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Start to Finish: 50 minutes

1 Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crust
1 egg white, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Unroll crust. Cut into 14 (3/4 inch wide) dough strips; do not separate strips. Lightly brush egg white over strips.

3. In small bowl, combine ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over dough strips.

4. Roll up first dough strip, starting at short edge. (See photo below.) Place rolled-up dough strip at the bottom of the next dough strip. Continue to roll 6 additional pastry strips around 1st strip, ending up with 3 1/2-inch pinwheel.

5. Place dough pinwheel on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Place sheet of parchment paper over dough; using rolling pin, roll out dough pinwheel to a 5 1/2-inch circle.

6. Sprinkle half the 1 tablespoon sugar over the top.

7. Repeat steps #4 to #6 (above) with remaining 7 pastry strips; place on cookie sheet.

8. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Cool on wire rack.

2 elephant ears

Tips
• Using a pizza wheel makes cutting the strips very easy.

Tags: pie crust, Crispies, Elephant Ear Crisps, Elephant Ears, pastry, breakfast pastries

Comments (12)

12 Comments

TammyMB said:
Just bought some at an Amish market on Saturday. They call them pig ears! I've also seen the long strips slightly twisted and baked, called cinnamon twists. My grandmother also had her own version. After cutting long strips, shed sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the whole thing. Roll up each strip separately, lay on their sides on baking pan and bake til centers were done. Our family has done this for many generations. We call them rolly pollies (long "o" in both words). They've been a great treat and everyone loves them! :o)
4/4/2011 3:57:54 PM

Cake_Sister said:
Our old bakery used to make these with puff pastry dough and they were beautifully flaky. You could substitute Pillsbury frozen Puff Pastry dough for the pie crust and just follow the rest of the recipe as shown. You may have to bake it for a lesser time, though.
4/4/2011 6:09:38 PM

Lyell said:
My father in law run a bakery for years and he used cim roll dough, he would roll out the dought and brush melted butter on dough and then put cim sugar on dought and then roll up and cut one inch rolls off and then roll them out until thin and bake on parchment paper, bake until done. We called them crispies and his family still make them. I will try your recipe because I rember my mother baking scrapes of pie dought and how much I liked them.
4/4/2011 6:24:45 PM

karatejon said:
Great post, I love the step-by-step!
4/5/2011 11:16:23 AM

MomReenie said:
Those "elephant ears" are not what I call "elephant ears." The "elephant ears I know are done by using bread dough, (thawed frozen dough works well,)taking a small piece (about 1/8 of a loaf)and rolling or spreading it out with your hands until it is very thin and about the size of your 2 hands put together. Then you fry it in oil about 1-2 inches deep in a large skillet or large deep fat fryer if you have one, turning it when the one side is golden brown. When nice and golden on both sides, remove with tongs. They work best when turning the dough. Have cinnamon sugar ready in a 13 x 9 pan. You'll want enough made up so you can coat the dough, both sides with it. I do 1 cup sugar to 1-2 Tbsp. cinnamon, more or less cinnamon depending on how strong you like it. When coated, the elephant ears are ready to eat..........warm is really best!! They have these at some of the fairs around here. We love them!!
4/5/2011 11:24:33 AM

coleus25 said:
Thank you for this step-by-step because these were my grandmother's favorite. I can't wait to try making them & surprising my mom. She called them crispies out in SD, on the east coast they seem to be Elephant Ears, and sometimes have some raspberry jam added before rolling up. Are these of Midwest origin?
4/7/2011 8:39:38 AM

VinayKadam said:
Thank you For such detailed recipe
4/8/2011 4:05:02 AM

vinayno48 said:
Discussion vinayno48 comment
4/8/2011 4:57:45 AM

llama01 said:
great recipe!
4/25/2011 1:53:15 PM

dcheek36 said:
excellent blog
7/31/2011 9:29:01 PM

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