Monday, January 3, 2011

How to Make Homemade Beignets


Do you know what beignets are? They are French donuts - square, crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside, delicious! Being from New Orleans, we have eaten quite a few beignets over the years! The most famous place to get them, of course, is Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter. Now that we live away, I like to make them at home for special occasions, like birthdays, New Year's, and Mardi Gras. 

I hate to admit it, but when we visit New Orleans, I usually get a couple of boxes of the beignet mix from Cafe du Monde to make them with. But when I run out and want to make some, I am left with either finding a good recipe or going without. The thing is that there are about as many different beignet recipes out there as there are people who post them! But I finally took the plunge and started testing a few out - adding this here, taking out that there, and just tweaking until I was left with an authentic recipe that I thought was great.

Some recipes call for yeast and lots of time and effort. What? Totally unnecessary! Beignets are actually easy to make. Mix dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients, put them together, flatten the dough & cut into squares, fry & eat!

Beignets are typically served with powdered sugar on top and strong coffee or cafe au lait (half coffee, half milk). Know what would be fun? Make these with the kids - they are perfect for that - and then watch The Princess & the Frog or Labou!

Visit my Examiner page for the recipe. Enjoy!  

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