I've never been to New Orleans. My dad is from Louisiana and I've been there...but New Orleans has always eluded me. I'm not a big Mardi Gras girl and really I feel like I'm not missing anything by not having gone. Maybe I'm wrong, though. BUT....if I ever DID get to go to the Big Easy...I know I'd hightail it to the first place I saw that served beignets cuz I'm ALL about those! I love 'em! Just bread and sugar...what could get better than that? The other day I decided to make my own and they turned out SO good. And talk about the big easy? Yep, they were! I'm gonna do this again!
Beignets
½ cup butter
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
Oil for frying
Powdered sugar for dusting Beignets
In a medium pan, combine butter, sugar, salt and water. Heat to boiling. Remove from heat and add flour all at once. Stir vigorously until ingredients are combined and mixture leaves the sides of pan and forms a ball. Add vanilla and stir. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Dough should be smooth.
In another pan, heat about 1 ½ inches of oil on medium high heat…about 375 degrees. Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls into hot oil, a few at a time. Cook until golden and beignets split open or until they are about 2 inches in diameter and golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Dust liberally with powdered sugar.
* Serve warm chocolate sauce or fruit sauce alongside for dipping, if desired.
This is what you need for these lucious
little pillows of goodness.
Start by melting the butter.
Add the water, salt and sugar and heat to boiling.
Dump the flour in all at once and start stirring!
Add the vanilla....
..then add the eggs one at a time,
stirring after each addition.
This is what you want the dough to look like.
Very much like cream puff dough, if you've ever made those.
Heat the oil and drop the dough by
heaping tablespoonfuls....
Fry them until they are golden brown
and start to split open.
...then pile them up and sprinkle with
LOTS of powdered sugar!
