D-Licious And Her Knee Caps!

Hello again!   D-Licious here...

Well, you are probably wondering what on earth the title of my post could possibly have to do with cooking but, believe it or not, this was the name of my recipe....Knee Caps! I picked this recipe simply because I thought the name was funny. This recipe came out of one of my favorite cookbooks: The Blue Willow Inn Bible of Southern Cooking by Louis and Billie Van Dyke.

If you don't have this cookbook, I highly recommend purchasing it. Especially if you love traditional southern cooking. And let me throw this in while I'm at it. If you've never been to the Blue Willow Inn Restaurant in Social Circle, Georgia I feel very sorry for you. If you're within five hours of this restaurant, go! If not, plan a trip there. Trust me, it's worth the drive from anywhere you are.

So, if you're wondering what a knee cap is (as I was), it's simply a dense doughnut with an indentation in the center to which you fill with raspberry (or any flavor you desire) jelly and whipped topping. Sounds yummy, right? I mean, how bad can fried dough really be?! Any time I get the chance to get out my Presto Pro Fry deep fryer I'm a happy girl. All of you "health nuts" out there (and by "nuts" I don't mean crazies...I mean healthy eaters who, by the way, have my utmost admiration and respect!) keep breathing and stay with me.

This recipe took me several hours to make, including time to let the dough rise. I started around 6:15 am and finished around 9:30 am. I have to say that I was not totally confident this recipe would turn out good when I started.

 I had creamed shortening, sugar and salt together and then added yeast (mixed with water, of course) and whole milk and it looked very unappetizing. Knowing I had no other option, I pressed on.

After making the dough I cut out my dough with a biscuit cutter and then pressed an indentation in the center of each one with a small glass as I was instructed to do.

The directions stated to fry these at 400 degrees! I was quite surprised at the extremely high temperature.
 I was forced to fry mine at 375 degrees since my deep fryer wouldn't heat up any higher than that. Even that seemed too hot.

The dough seemed to brown too quickly while a tiny section in the center of some of the "knee caps" were still a tad doughy. One other slight disappointment was that despite doing exactly what I was told to do by making the indentation in the center, I found that it would only puff up during the frying time.

There were very few that ended up with indentations in them. I will say, that the ones that came out correctly did look very good when the finished product emerged.

Now on to the most important part...the taste. I had mixed feelings about my knee caps (how strange does that sound?!). I wasn't crazy about how dense they were, but that's my own personal preference. And I definitely did not like tasting the oil that it was cooked in. All in all it was not the worst recipe I've ever made, but not something that will probably make it into my "favorites" folder.

Great recipe or not, we had such a good time. Everyone's recipes (well, maybe except for one...sorry Cupcake!) were tasty and our hostess was so gracious and generous. The best part of our cook-n-critique's is that I'm blessed to spend time with the girls in my family whom I love dearly.

Next month's gathering will be at my house and wait until you hear what we're cooking up! I'll give you a hint...it has mayo in it. Hmmmmm.....I bet you'll never guess what it is! Until next time...