If you’ve been in Gatlinburg’s downtown area, one thing is sure to catch your eye: all the desserts and street food. Funnel cakes, corndogs, other fried foods, and fudge are everywhere. Some shops specialize in just one of these at a time, but what exactly are these wonderful frozen and fried treats?
Funnel cakes are probably one of the favorites around Gatlinburg. Left and right, you can see people buying, eating, and enjoying funnel cakes. Fried and sprinkled with sugar, you have to wonder, how are these things made?
A funnel cake is a type of light and watery fried dough that is poured into a fryer. This dough is watery and cannot hold its shape, like pancake batter. The shape of these wonderful pastries is achieved by continually pouring the dough in a twisting, circular pattern. They’re called funnel cakes because bakers used to pour them from a funnel.
Corndogs, are a lot less mysterious, but with all the foot-long corndogs up and down the parkway, it would help to get familiar with them. Corndogs are made by coating a sausage or hotdog in cornbread batter. This is then fried to the golden brown treat that we’re all familiar with. How they get them to be a foot long, then, is simple: big hotdogs, a lot more batter, and a bigger fryer!
Tons of other foods are fried as well, and every state seems to have some form of favorite fried food. In downtown, you can get fried Oreos, but stranger fried treats are possible, like fried Pepsi, fried Kool Aid, or fried cheesecake.
Lastly, fudge is another big confection in Gatlinburg. With so many different fudge shops, and so much deliciousness, it leaves me with the question “What exactly is fudge?” Fudge is made by saturating incredibly hot water with sugar, allowing much more sugar to be dissolved into the mixture. This mixture is then mixed with something like chocolate and cooled to form the classic, smooth chocolatey dessert we’ve come to love.
Dessert food is not hard to find in downtown Gatlinburg, and with so many different varieties of foods to try, what’s to stop you?
