Air Fried Dr. Pepper: State Fair at Home

Jump to Recipe

What leads a person to make air fried Dr. Pepper? The Covid-19 Pandemic has affected everyone in the world at this point. There are tragedies great and small, and the State Fair of Texas being cancelled was among them. My little boy has been getting mail from Big Tex and the Little Lone Stars club for months now. He was very disappointed to find that he wouldn't get a chance to meet Big Tex this year. Even so, there is always an opportunity to take what life hands us and make the most of it. In this case, my brother-in-law and I grabbed our air fryers and got to work on our own fried food competition. My first entry: air fried Dr. Pepper.

The traditional fried food competition at the State Fair of Texas involves good old fashioned deep frying, but we like to pretend that we're health conscious before coating something in sugar.

We went all out. "State Fair" corn dogs, grocery store sherbet flavored cotton candy, and our air-fried beauties. My brother-in-law created air fried Oreos and air fried Caesar bacon chicken bombs. I went for air fried guacamole (recipe to come!) and air fried Dr. Pepper.

Air fried Dr. Pepper is not a recipe for the faint of heart. This was birthed out of a longing for my beloved State Fair and the crazy, creative dishes chefs out there have been devising for years. It satisfied that itch and my husband may have developed an addiction.

How to make air fried Dr. Pepper

These are essentially a biscuit wrapped around a cream filling. They get air fried and dunked in Dr. Pepper glaze. To make the Dr. Pepper cream, boil down a Dr. Pepper to its syrup. Add this to a cream filling and then freeze overnight. The cream filling thaws very quickly, so a long freeze is important. When wrapping the dough around the filling the next day, work quickly. The cream thaws so quickly that you might even want to stand in the freezer and wrap the dough around it like some crazy person I know. Make sure all the cream is covered and toss it into the air fryer at 360 degrees for 5 minutes. Let them cool enough that you won't burn your fingers, and then dunk them into the Dr. Pepper glaze while still warm. Cool and dry on a rack before serving.

Tips and Tricks

Soda and soda syrups

You could probably create this dish with any soda you like, but Dr. Pepper and biscuits have a Southern flavor that is hard to imagine any other way. If you have easy access to Dr. Pepper syrup it would work quite well, but its a whole lot easier to get your hands on a can of soda as it comes. The boiling allows the extra moisture to evaporate and leaves you with the concentrated flavor.

Cream Filling

It is very important to take your time when making a cream filling. Add the milk slowly. Start with just enough to make a paste of the flour and sugar. Add the rest of the milk little by little, keeping the mixture free of lumps. Once it begins to heat, keep stirring to prevent any scalding or burning of the milk. The milk should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon when the egg yolks get tempered. Once the eggs are added in, continue to heat until the cream "glubs". I have also heard this referred to as letting the cream "burp". It's very thick so it can't be called a boil, but a big bubble needs to appear whatever you'd like to call it.

Tempering Eggs

Add a little bit of the hot milk to the egg yolks and stir. Add a little more. This slow addition of heat to the yolks allows them to warm up without going straight into scrambled egg mode.

Biscuit dough

The sourdough biscuit dough featured on the King Arthur Flour site is perfect for this recipe. The tang of the sourdough complements all the sweetness of the Dr. Pepper. Plus, this is a great way to use your sourdough discard if you've been working on your quarantine sourdough skills. There is no reason you couldn't make your own biscuit recipe or just a can of your favorite ready made biscuit dough to make air fried Dr. Pepper.

Air Frying

This is the air fryer my brother-in-law and I both use: GoWise USA Air Fryer. Air frying this recipe for air fried Dr. Pepper pays homage to the deep frying done at the state fair, but if you've gone to the trouble to make the cream filling and don't have any air fryer, go right ahead and bake it in the oven.

Salt

I once had a friend declare that she never put salt in her baked goods. Her goal was to maintain the purity of sweetness in her desserts. But, adding salt is all about balance! A balanced flavor is much more important than an overwhelming one. Please, add the salt to your glaze. Trust me, this thing is sweet enough as it is.

The Recipe

Ingredients:
12oz can Dr. Pepper
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
Dash of salt
1 cup milk
2 egg yolks
1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 recipe of PJ Hamel's sourdough biscuit dough
For glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp Dr. Pepper

1. Reserve 3 tbsp of Dr. Pepper. Boil the rest until syrupy, about 20 minutes.
2. While Dr. Pepper boils, in another sauce pan, mix sugar, flour, and salt.
3. Over medium heat, slowly add milk to sugar mixture, stirring constantly.
4. When milk is thick, temper the egg yolks and add them in. Stir until large "glubs" appear.
5. Remove from heat and add hot Dr. Pepper syrup.
6. Cool to room temperature. Use a melon baller to divide cream into about 18 portions on a parchment lined pan and freeze overnight.
7. Make biscuit dough and divide into 18 portions.
8. Flatten dough and wrap around frozen cream.
9. Cook in air fryer at 360 degrees for 5 minutes or oven at 425 degrees for 11 minutes.
10. Remove from air fryer/oven dip into glaze while still warm. Allow glaze to cool and dry on a rack before serving.