Deep-fried Twinkies are battered Twinkies that have been skewered and deep-fried. While regular Twinkies are soft snack cakes with creamy white fillings, deep-fried versions look like crispy-shelled beignets with pudding-like middles. These snacks are frequently served with powdered sugar or a berry sauce and are increasingly common at state and county fairs in the United States. Brooklyn restaurateur Christopher Sell is generally credited with inventing deep-fried Twinkies in 2001. These sweets are very high in calories, calories from fat, and sugars.
Although the Twinkie was first sold in 1930, Christopher Sell is credited with accidentally creating the deep-fried version in 2001 while experimenting with his restaurant’s industrial deep fryer. Sell, originally from England, was the owner of a fish-and-chips restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. He had been offering fried candy bars, a culinary tradition in the United Kingdom, and decided to try frying a Twinkie. He was so pleased with the results that he began offering deep-fried Twinkies too. After an article appeared in the New York Times in May 2002 about his discovery, the dessert spread across the country.
A basic deep-fried Twinkie is made by first dusting the snack cake in flour and then skewering it with a popsicle stick. Next the Twinkie is dipped in a simple batter of flour and water and fried until golden brown and crispy. It takes approximately three or four minutes depending on the oil temperature. The Twinkie often has to be held under the oil with a utensil because of its tendency to float. At Sell’s restaurant, deep-fried Twinkies are served with powdered sugar and a tart red berry sauce.
This snack is typically eaten like a corn dog, although it can also be served sliced on a plate. A deep-fried Twinkie has a crispy outer shell. The frying process causes the spongy golden snack cake to take on a buttery texture. The creamy vanilla filling melts into the surrounding cake.
Fried foods like funnel cakes are a staple of fair fare. Visitors to state and county fairs throughout the United States are likely to be offered deep-fried Twinkies by the vendors there. The company that makes Twinkies, Interstate Bakeries, promotes the deep-fried version to vendors as a way to increase sales.
As is the case with many fried foods, deep-fried Twinkies are not particularly healthy. One deep-fried snack cake contains approximately 361 calories, with 252 of those from fat. It is also a significant source of carbohydrates, including 14 grams of sugar per fried cake.
Deep-frying desserts like candy bars as well as other foods such as pizza is believed to have originated in fish-and-chip shops in Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom. What likely originally began as a novelty was popularized by mass media. The resulting popularity of eating fried snacks and desserts has caused some concern about adverse effects on people’s health.