(Unfortunately, these pictures didn't come out great. As you will see in this post, I did not use my hiatus from blog writing to get any better at photography.)I bought a box of Peanut Butter Patties (formerly called Tagalongs), a box of Caramel Delites (formerly called Samoas), and a box Thin Mints. I also like the lemon ones, but I didn't think those had any potential for deep frying, so I passed on those for now.
Despite the fact that I don't really like shredded coconut, I do like the Caramel Delites. I also love caramel, and I love deep-fried caramel, so I had high hopes for this one. Also, since Elise likes coconut and was helping me out, I figured these could be made a little fancier by coating them with pancake batter and then sprinkling more shredded coconut on top. I imagined they would come out looking like coconut macaroons.
In my opinion, Peanut Butter Patties are one of the more underrated Girl Scout cookies. And I'm still searching for a peanut butter that gets soft and gooey when deep fried. As my readers know, I've tried several peanut butter desserts and candies without any luck yet. I coated these in pancake batter as I do for most sweets.
The Thin Mints are, of course, one of everybody's favorite Girl Scout cookies, so I had to include these. They were dipped in plain pancake batter as well.
I cooked them all for just a couple minutes at 375F.
I think the Caramel Delites had the most potential, even though I don't like coconut. Elise enjoyed the first one, and made herself a couple more. I just tried one. The extra shredded coconut was too much for me, but it did look good, and I can see the appeal if you like coconut. In hindsight, a really good idea would have been to drizzle additional chocolate over these to make them again look like a Caramel Delite.
The Peanut Butter Patties were fine, but nothing special. As usual, the peanut butter didn't soften. I'm going to need to do some actual in-depth research on this to see if there is anything I can do to make peanut butter improve through deep frying. The Thin Mint also was OK, but the classic minty flavor we all love wasn't complemented particularly well by the batter or the heat. I guess this makes sense when you realize that people usually freeze Thin Mints.
Both the Peanut Butter Patties' and the Thin Mints' centers stayed very crisp even after coming out of the fryer (Remember, the Peanut Butter Patties have that crunchy cookie base that the peanut butter sits on top of.), which also didn't work well with the light crunch of the outer shell. I was hoping the actual cookies would soften up like Oreos do. Most of the really good fried desserts are soft and gooey on the inside with a light crisp on the outside, and neither of these turned out like that.Overall, I would only recommend trying the Caramel Delites — and only if you are a fan of coconut. The other two are better enjoyed out of the box or, in the case of Thin Mints, out of the freezer. When deep fried, the other two tasted and felt the same, just hotter and covered in batter.
It's been a while since I posted, but hopefully I can get back on a good deep frying schedule and, more importantly, back in the habit of photographing my work. I've recently moved, and now that I'm set up in a new Deep Frying Lair, I will try to make deep frying a more regular part of my diet. In the meantime, I have pictures of a few past deep frying exploits, and I'll try to write those up soon. Due to the baseball playoffs, I'll be spending plenty of evenings in front of the TV, and since my team didn't make it (I don't want to talk about it.), I'll try to use that time to write more posts.
Up next is pulled pork!
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