Sunday, April 18, 2010

Beignets (Behn-YAYS!)

My kids were watching The Princess and the Frog for the eleventyhundredth time and Harrison commented that the beignets that Tiana was making looked "reeeeeally good" and asked would I please make them some.  I found this recipe from Paula Deen and was so excited to find out what French Quarter Beignets actually were.  It turns out they're the Utah Mormon version of scones.  I think the dough is probably slightly different, but it's the same idea.  Whatever, dude.  I told my kids we were having gumbo and beignets for dinner and their little hearts exploded with joy.

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 envelope active dry yeast
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup evaporated milk
  • 7 cups bread flour
  • 1/4 cup shortening
  • Nonstick spray
  • oil, for deep frying (for authentic New Orleans beignets, use cottonseed oil)
  • 3 cups confectioners' sugar
Mix water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.

In another bowl, beat the eggs, salt and evaporated milk together.  Mix egg mixture to the yeast mixture.  In a seperate bowl, measure out the bread flour.  Add 3 cups of the flour to the yeast mixture and stir to combine.  Add the shortening and continue to sir while adding the remaining flour.  Remove dough from the bowl, place onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.  (Or let your Bosch do all the stirring and kneading, suckas.)  Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray.  Put dough into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a towel.  (I left it in the Bosch with the lid on.)  Let rise in a warm place for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oil in deep fryer to 350 degrees or heavy pot on medium-high heat.

Add the confectioners' sugar to a paper or plastic bag and set aside.

Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inc thickness and cut into 1-inch squares.

Deep-fry, flipping constantly until they become a golden color.

After beignets are fried, drain them for a few seconds on paper towel, then toss them into the bag of confectioners' sugar.

Hold the bag closed and shake to coat evenly. 

Put them in a heart-shaped tin and make new friends.

Makes about 3 dozen, says the recipe.  I halfed it both times I made these and we had at least two dozen.

5 comments:

Nicole said...

You don't even know, dude. I'm SO FREAKING EXCITED TO HAVE THIS RECIPE. I thought those looked like little scones. Utah scones. (English scones are a disappointment when you think they're going to be fried dough covered in honey and powdered sugar.)

allyn said...

i am so glad you found this. i didn't know what these were. they looked like fried dough scones, but in cartoon it might be something else. i asked aron's parents if they knew what they were, cause they lived down there. they had NO idea what i was talking about. c'mon! we just had scones last week because i was out of EVERYTHING except flour and yeast and way expired milk.

Katy said...

Yay! So excited for the beignets! Where's the gumbo? Does Paula Deen have a recipe for that, too? They are totally scones! how fun!

Katy said...

I made these lasternight and they were soooo good! Two things: it requires 2 eggs (somehow left off of the ingredients list), and I had the wrong thing in my brain and used sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk. Weird mistake, but it was really good!

melissa said...

Oops. I'll fix the egg thing. Thanks, Katy!