Opal’s Elephant Ears

Makes about eight 5-inch ears.
2 C all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 heaping TBS Crisco
½ C warm water (more if needed)
Vegetable or peanut oil for frying
Confectioners sugar, cinnamon sugar, maple syrup, for toppings
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in Crisco using a pastry blender, a food processor or your fingers.
Stir in warm water to make a soft dough. Turn out onto surface and knead briefly.
Cover and let dough rest for 20 minutes. You can also make the dough ahead and refrigerate, covered well.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces, working with one piece at a time, roll into a thin approximately 5-inch round. The thinner the dough, the crisper it will be. When doing this with children, they can pat the dough out between their hands instead of using a rolling pin.
Heat about 3⁄8 inch of vegetable oil to 375 degrees in a frying pan (if you are using a 10-inch pan, this will be about 2 cups of oil). Use a candy thermometer to take the temperature of the oil or you can estimate it by seeing if the first piece of dough fries nicely in the time specified.
Using tongs, lower one piece of dough carefully into the hot oil. Let it cook for approximately 60 seconds (it will puff up on top and become light brown on the underside), then flip it over and cook until light brown on the other side, about 30 seconds more. Watch carefully: If they get too dark, they will be overly crisp.
Remove from oil and set on a paper towel-lined baking sheet. Serve immediately or place in a 200-degree oven to keep warm while you make the remaining fried dough. Serve warm, dusted with confectioners sugar, cinnamon sugar, maple syrup or any other topping of your choice.