New Orleans beignets
https://fannyzanotti.com/new-orleans-beignets-of-my-dreams/Beignets - French for doughnuts - are made much like brioche. Flour, milk, eggs, sugar, yeast, and salt. A smooth dough, easy to work with. I like to place my shaped ones, ready for their final proof, onto parchment-lined trays, lightly sprayed with oil. And just before frying, I cut the paper into squares, each holding a beignet or two, and lower them into the hot oil, paper and all. They puff and turn golden in moments, crisp at the edges, impossibly light within. Straight from the fryer, they’re tossed in icing sugar, which melts into a delicate, fudgy glaze. Best eaten warm, while the sugar still clings to your fingertips.Bon Mardi Gras!!
Makes 24 beignets
Ingredients
- 250 g whole milk
- 2 eggs
- 510 g plain flour
- 55 g caster sugar
- 20 g fresh yeast or 7g instant yeast
- 3 g fine sea salt
- 90 g salted butter thinly sliced
- neutral oil for frying
- 400 g icing sugar to coat
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the milk, eggs, flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and butter. Knead on medium speed until smooth and elastic. The dough should pass the windowpane test.
- Lightly spray a baking dish with cooking spray – my favourite is a 23×30cm Pyrex glass dish. Transfer the dough to the dish, turning it to coat the surface. Flatten it to fill the dish evenly, and cover with clingfilm.
- Leave to rise in a warm place until nearly doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.
- In the meantime, prepare 2 baking trays lined with parchment paper; spray lightly with cooking spray.
- Lightly flour your work surface. Pat the dough into a slightly larger rectangle – around 2cm thick – and dust with a little flour.
- Using a long knife, cut the dough into 24 pieces. Place them onto the prepared trays, loosely cover with clingfilm or clean kitchen towels, and leave to rise again for around 30 minutes.
- While the beignets are rising, heat a generous amount of neutral oil in a deep-fryer or a heavy-bottomed pot to 180°C.
- Put the icing sugar into a brown paper bag or a large bowl.
- Fry 4–6 beignets at a time, turning with a metal spider or tongs, until deep golden brown, around 1-1½ minutes per side.
- Transfer the hot beignets straight into the bag of icing sugar, close tightly, and shake well to coat. Place on a cooling rack over a tray. Repeat with the remaining beignets, adding more icing sugar as needed.
Notes
On timing
These beignets are best eaten the same day - preferably hot, fresh from the oil, when they’re at their lightest and crispest. If you need to plan ahead, you have two options: you can proof the dough overnight in the fridge, then shape, do the final rise, and fry the next day, which deepens the flavour and fits neatly into a morning schedule. Or, for a longer make-ahead option, freeze the shaped dough on a silicone mat until firm, then transfer to freezer bags, pressing out as much air as possible. When ready to fry, place the frozen beignets onto lightly greased baking trays, cover with clingfilm, and proof until doubled - around 4 hours (to account for the thawing time as well) - before frying as usual.
On coating
The traditional way to coat beignets is to toss them into a brown paper bag filled with icing sugar and give it a good shake - quick, effortless, and wonderfully nostalgic. A large bowl works just as well, allowing for a more controlled dusting, but either way, the goal is the same: a generous flurry of sugar while they’re still warm.