Recipe: Beignets

At the beginning of summer, I’d cooked a special farewell lunch for my grad program friends: Cajun stuffed Cornish hens, dirty rice, and Brussels sprouts with candied bacon. For dessert, I kept with the Louisianan theme and served homemade beignets and Cafe du Monde New Orleans-style coffee with condensed milk, just the way Vietnamese people love to drink it.While I grew up around Cafe du Monde’s ready-to-brew coffee grounds (which came in those notorious mustard yellow tin cans that afterwards became every Vietnamese family’s piggy bank/knickknack holder), I didn’t have my first beignet until college when I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I visited the brick-and-mortar Cafe du Monde and did what all the other tourists did: sat in the open-air cafe and sipped on steaming chicory drip coffee with the powdered sugar from the three beignets snowing all over my mouth and lap. It was a heavenly combination of flavors, and boy, all I can say is those French sure know their fried desserts.Beignet, which literally means “bump,” is the French version of the American fritter. I love to eat them with powdered sugar and honey. They should be pillowy on the inside with a very light crunch on the outside. Before “MasterChef,” I always got my beignets from local shops. But then I learned how to make them from scratch, and there ain’t nothin’ like a beignet fresh out of the fryer. My friends gobbled them all up, their faces and fingers covered in white. If it hadn’t been for food coma written all over their eyes, they would’ve been mistaken for a bunch of cokeheads. Try these out, and let me know what you think. If the Blind can Cook it, you know you can too. 

Recipe: Beignets

Ingredients

1. 196 g AP flour
2. 98 g Sugar
3. 4.5 g baking powder
4. 3 g Salt
5. 95 g Milk
6. 8 g lemon juice
7. 83 g butter, melted
8. 1egg
9. 1egg yolk

Instructions

1. Preheat oil to 350° to 365°F.
2. In a mixer bowl, combine less than half the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Whisk together the milk, lemon juice, melted butter, egg, and yolk.
4. Add the wet to the dry and mix on med. Speed until smooth.
5. Lower the speed and add the remaining flour. Mix until just combined.
6. Turn out dough on to a floured surface. Roll out to 1/4- to 1/2-in. Thick. Cut with a ring cutter.
7. Drop beignets carefully into fryer. Once they rise to the surface, fry until golden brown.
8. Drain on paper towel lined pan or wire rack. Serve warm with a sprinkling of powdered sugar on top and a side of honey.

Preparation time: 30 minute(s)Cooking time: 20 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 6