One of the kids' favorite Belizean foods is Fry Jacks. They have become quite adept at making them with very minimal supervision and have also tweaked their recipe to perfection.

**Very important: For best results, this recipe must be accompanied by running and jumping through the house while shouting "Fry Jack... Fry Jack mon... Fry Jack!!" very loudly...


Ingredients

5 cups flour
5 tsp baking powder  (slightly rounded)
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp coconut oil
water
healthy frying oil



Directions

1. Make sure you are working with clean hands!
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients.
3. Cut or pour in coconut oil. (*depending on how high you like to crank your air conditioning)
4. Add water slowly until a soft dough is formed.
5. Knead gently. (we skip the board and do it right in the big bowl but you can use a floured board if you like)
6. Pinch in half and loosely form two balls.
7. Allow to sit at least 30 min.
8. Flatten and shape dough while oil is heating.
9. Fry, turning once until golden in color.
10. Customize


We've always had our Fry Jacks here in Belize served folded with refried beans and either chicken or pork inside or as a breakfast item filled with egg and cheese. I've also had them served plain as a side to my breakfast or stuffed full of everything you can think of from meat, beans and cheese to hot peppers and plantains.

Now in our house... we have to be different of course and serve them with everything but the above mentioned items. Here are a few of our favorite variations that the kids have come up with... we figured since the white flour is not good for us anyway, we may as well go nuts and get our junk fix all at once.


1) Pizza Jacks - simply flatten the dough before frying, prick with a fork to prevent puffing and once fried, load all your favorite pizza toppings on, broil for a moment and enjoy. Alternatively, pizza items can be folded inside the same way the traditional items are found. Very yummy and my personal favorite. (Yes, I choose to pay for the dough consumption on this one.)

2) Pou-Jacks - (It's a Canadian thing, ok?) This variation involves flattening the dough well and cutting into longish 1/2 inch strips with a pizza cutter before frying. This likens them to french fries once they are cooked to a lovely golden brown, then they are covered with shredded cheese (in lieu of cheese curds) and a thick brown gravy. Mmmmm!!

3) Sugar Jacks - easy as 1-2-3! The fun thing about this one is that you can form the dough into any crazy shape you like. Just fry, drain and sprinkle with your sugar of choice. Our favorites are confectioner's and turbinado... or you could go all out and glaze them. *Fruit sugar can be substituted for caster sugar in the glaze recipe.

4) ChocoChip Jacks - another easy one... we just form the dough into small pockets (much like a panzarotti or calzone) and stuff with dark chocolate chips before frying.

Now keep in mind these variations come from the minds of 8 & 10 yr olds but the sky's the limit really on what you can do with this amazing food item. It's a blank canvas, just waiting for your special touch. We'd love to hear what delicious or crazy variations you come up with; please let us know!

*For some reason (difference in flour perhaps?) this recipe works best in Belize. We tried it during a visit back home and it was horrible. We couldn't flatten the dough, it was out of control like Flubber and kept retracting into a puffy ball. Tasted terrible too... go figure.