Indiana State Fair classic. A flattened circle of yeast dough fried in vegetable oil to a wide, ridged disc and dusted heavily with cinnamon sugar.

Elephant ears arrived at the Indiana State Fair in the 1970s and have stayed in the food-building rotation ever since, alongside corn dogs, deep-fried Snickers and the long-running Pioneer Village pioneer-cooking demo. The same disc shape and topping appear at midwestern county fairs from Ohio to Iowa under various names (palmiers, fried dough, beaver tails); in Indiana it is reliably called an elephant ear and dusted heavily with cinnamon sugar.

2 editor picks for Elephant ears in Indianapolis, ranked by editorial score. All Indianapolis signature dishes · Elephant ears across every city.