Jamaican Festival
Jamaican festival is a sweet hush puppy, usually served with jerk chicken or fried fish. I made some tweaks to make it gluten and dairy free.
Equipment
- 1 Mixing bowl
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- 1 Large skillet
Ingredients
- 1 cup Fine or medium cornmeal
- 1 cup GF all-purpose or 1-1 baking flour
- 1 TBSP Cane sugar brown or coconut sugar works as well
- 1 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- 3/4-1 cup Water
- 1/4-1/2 cup Coconut oil
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl add cornmeal, flour, baking powder salt and sugar then mix.
- Add water in small amounts (1 TBSP at a time) until you form a dough. Do not overmix. The dough should not be very sticky. If it is add 1 TBSP of cornmeal and flour and knead.
- Pinch off a small piece and roll into a cigar shape.
- Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Once heated add coconut oil.
- When oil is heated add in the festival and fry 3 minutes on the first side.
- Turn every 2 minutes until golden brown on each side. This should take about 10 minutes.
- Remove to a paper towel lined plate to let drain.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
For best results, use fine cornmeal instead of coarse cornmeal.
I used cane sugar in this recipe, but you can use brown sugar if you like.
If you want to use a dairy free milk instead of water, use coconut or oat milk. Keep in mind they may alter the taste a bit.
If you can't get the GF baking flour, you can use GF all-purpose flour. Just be sure to add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum to help stabilize the dough.
If you added too much liquid to the dough and it's become sticky, add in an extra TBSP of both flour and cornmeal and mix.
To make it grain free, use almond meal or flax meal instead of cornmeal and substitute all-purpose flour for a blend that’s grain free or use cassava flour. It will need less water to form the dough.