JFG Nation, college football is back! Admission – while I love college football, I really don’t have “a team.” I’ll root for my undergrad squad but they’re never on TV. So …maybe I’ll bandwagon onto one of your teams. Who should I cheer for in college football this year? Tell me your loyalty in the comments below.

Second, I’m going to be doing some college football picks this year…well, scratch that. I’m going to be letting my college football fanatic friend, The Yates, do some football picks this year. We’ll track how he does throughout the season…nothing fancy, just two picks a week. For this weekend, The Yates likes:

Clemson (-7.5) over Auburn (“Auburn lost their starTING RB and Clemson with Watson will be scary. This is a lock.”)

FSU (-4.5) over Ole Miss (“Ole Miss lost a ton of talent.”)

Bonus prediction from The Yates: Tennessee will win the SEC East this year. He is unfazed by last night’s Appalachian State debacle.

So there you have it – sound off with comments on the picks, your college football loyalty, or anything else in the comments below.

Today’s junk food: Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies!

Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies were discussed on the Nosh Show, and at the time I was a NOT. After the disastrous reviews of the Oreo Churros, I was super hesitant to try another oven baked calamity that wouldn’t live up to the original. I’ve had deep fried Twinkies before. They are glorious. Would this boxed version hold up?

Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies are apparently Twinkies battered in funnel cake. Which is SORT of what deep fried Twinkies are in real life…my concern is the cream inside, obviously. These are normally kept in the freezer; would they have that oozy center I’m looking for?

Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies have a lot of ingredients that I am ignoring reading for my stomach’s sake. Corn syrup solids la la la la la *hands over ears*

Holy crap, Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies are 220 cal a cake??? But hey! 3 grams of protein! HEALTHY!

Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies have an interesting instruction – apparently if you bake them TOO long, the filling liquefies and absorbs into the cake. So you need to toy with the bake settings to get these JUUUUST right. The box recommended 6-8 minutes, so I went with 7.

Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies: Frozen, pre bake. Lifeless.

Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies: Post bake. Golden. Looked amazing. Smelled like cake.

I sliced me Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies open and it looks like 7 minutes wasn’t quite enough….the cake was hot but the inside was still a LITTLE solid…warm but not melted. This was actually fine for me though – I wanted it a bit before ooze-level.

After I bit into one of these Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies, the cake squished down to cover up the cream slot a little bit, but I wanted to show how the Twinkie actually DID have a bit of a funnel cake skin around the outside. It wasn’t crispy, per se, like you’d get out of a deep fryer, but there was a slight textural difference.

Here’s the live play by play:

“The JFG grabs the two halves of the Hostess Deep Fried Twinkie…”

“…he goes for the bite!”

“Hot on the outside, only warm on the inside. 8-9 minutes in the oven, next time.”

“As the JFG chews, he contemplates the experience…”

“….ooooh, that might be good! Let’s chew some more.”

“That actually might be great. Let’s take another bite…”

“I need to make sure this half doesn’t get ignored…”

“OOOOOOOHHHH HOHOHOHOH. OH THESE ARE GOOD. Damnit, Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies. You’re definitely good.”

“Stuff both halves of the remaining Hostess Deep Fried Twinkie into mouth for further processing…”

“Why are you still photographing this?”

Yep JFG Nation these are really good. I stand corrected – these are nothing like the Oteo Churros. Baked properly, the hot Twinkies flavor was excellent, as the funnel cake coating really did remind me of a state-fair-deep-fried-Twinkie. It doesn’t have the crunch I wanted but it also didn’t have a super oily finish, which I appreciated.

The batter was surprisingly tasty; it tasted pancake-like in true funnel cake fashion. I liked these. A lot. I’m only a so-so Twinkie fan, but these were worth it. Wow. Someone get me a deep fryer.

I mean, hot Twinkies. Go try these; if you already have, let me know what you think in the comments below. Have a great long weekend!

Purchased at: Walmart, Germantown, MD

Cost: $4.76

Sincerely,

The JFG