My first attempt at homemade beignets!

[pat]

I love beignets...and I made sure to go to Cafe Du Monde during the time I lived in and near New Orleans (back in the late 70's). Maybe I should give this recipe a try for a special occasion sometime soon

 

[starryeyedtiger]

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

I love beignets...and I made sure to go to Cafe Du Monde during the time I lived in and near New Orleans (back in the late 70's). Maybe I should give this recipe a try for a special occasion sometime soon

Definitely give it a try- it's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!!! I kinda blended the recipe i pulled up with the beignet tips from the cafe du monde site. here's what i did...it turned out really well:

Ingredients
1 cup milk (i used my Lactaid Fat Free milk since i'm lactose intolerant)

2 tablespoons butter (land o lakes creamy margine is divine in this recipe

)
4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
3 cups flour
1 package yeast (i used dry active yeast

)
corn oil for frying *you could also use vegetable or cottonseed oil!*

Directions
In a saucepan, heat milk over low heat. Add butter, sugar, and salt; stir well and cool until lukewarm; stir in egg. In a large bowl, mix together half of the flour and yeast. Add milk mixture; beat for 5 minutes. Gradually add remaining flour. ( i beat mine by hand) Form a ball with the dough; place in a greased ( I used PAM buttery spray to grease a large green plastic bowl) bowl, turn dough to coat. Cover dough and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours. (I let mine chill overnight so that they were ready for breakfast in the morning- it rose really well

) Then i poured some flour on a cutting board ( i use plastic ones -they are easier to clean and harder to contaminate

) I rolled the dough out and then used a pizza cutter to slice it into 2 inch squares. (when you do this- you're going to have little strips of dough sticking out- do NOT try to mix them in with the beignets you have already cut out- instead, save the scraps and then for your last beignet- roll them together and then fry it up into one beignet. Otherwise, it'll look like you have "twigs" hanging out all over your beignets.) I used a good amount of flour when rolling out the dough to keep it from sticking to things

I used 1/2 corn oil and 1/2 vegetable oil ( i ran out of corn oil) - the cafe du monde site recommends cottonseed oil- so next time, i will try that (i just used what i had today) and heated it until about 370 degrees (try medium heat. stick a wooden spoon into the middle of the pot- when you see little bubbles start to form around it- the oil is hot enough to fry them). Remember- only put 3 or 4 at a time into the pot- each time you add dough- the temperature of the oil drops....so you want to keep it a steady temperature. I put the beignet strips on the wooden spoon one by one and let it slide slowly into the oil (that way i didn't burn myself or make them splash oil everywhere) Let them fry *rotating sides* until they're golden brown- it doesn't take long! Then set them out to drain. I set out a cookie tray....and put wax paper on top of it then a few papertowels on top of that so they could drain- works like a charm!

. After you've done that- put powdered sugar in a little bowl and roll them in it. *it helps if you have two people- one frying the beignets and one rolling them in powdered sugar* Once you cook them- keep them in an air tight container if you can't eat them all at once so they won't go bad. If you want to reheat them- do not put them in the microwave- instead heat them up in the toaster oven or the conventional oven

 

[pat]

Thank you!!

 

[starryeyedtiger]

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

Thank you!!

No problem!!! I found it's cheaper to make the homemade ones than it is to buy the Cafe du Monde beignet mix.....plus, when it's homemade- i can watch what i add (like the lactiad milk for me

) The only thing i had to buy from the store was the yeast. The rest i had at home, so it was really reasonable and easy to fix

I hope you like the recipe