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Showing posts sorted by relevance for query beignets. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query beignets. Sort by date Show all posts

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Beignets...Café du Monde


My many years working in the travel industry has allowed me the luxury of tasting many different foods and wonderful desserts.
One visit was to New Orleans, Louisiana, a fabulous place to visit if you like food, music and lots of fun! And one of my favorite stops is Café du Monde in the French Market. The French Market is comprised of seven buildings, anchored at the Jackson Square end by the Café du Monde and on the other end by the Farmers and Flea Market sheds. You must visit this area when you go to New Orleans!

The Café du Monde is famous for its beignets (pronounced BEN yays). The beignet is a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar. It's kind of like a donut without the hole...but much better! On one of my visits, I picked up the mix to make these delicious little fritters at home. Elliot (my son), has been my official taster over the years. It was just the two of us, but now he has a tasting apprentice, Dan, my wonderful husband. When the two of them get together and critique my baking, it is quite amusing.

Elliot loved these beignets and then the unthinkable happened... ohhhh yesss.... I ran out of the mix!!!! He was young and really didn't understand how I was relying on a box of powdered beignets. He looked at me in that son-ly way and asked if I could make them anyhow. "But this is special powdered beignets...from New Orleans...I don't know how to make them". Off I went, searching through recipe books until I found a beignet recipe. You can order the mix online now. but... these are better than the mix....even Elliot thinks so.
The recipe is from a wonderful little cookbook called James McNair's Breakfast.

Here's the recipe:

· ¾ cup warm water

· ½ package quick-rising active dry yeast
· ¼ cup granulated sugar
· ½ teaspoon salt
· ½ cup canned evaporated milk
· 1 egg, lightly beaten
· 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
· 3 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
· Vegetable oil for deep frying
· Powdered sugar for dusting

1. Sprinkle the yeast over the water in a small bowl and stir to dissolve. Let it stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.


2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, salt, evaporated milk, egg and shortening.

3. Stir in the yeast and mix well.


4. Gradually add the flour, about 1 ½ cups at a time, mixing until blended. (You can use a mixer with a dough hook or just use your hands once it gets too difficult to mix with your spoon). Note: if you plan on mixing a lot of dough in the future, you may want to get one of King Arthur Flour’s dough whisks. I love mine.

5. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Either refrigerate it several hours or overnight.

Note: I recommend you making it until this point the night before, so you can easily complete it in the morning for breakfast/brunch.


6. Heat vegetable oil in a deep fryer or heavy pot until approx. 360 degrees. (3 inches depth)

7. Pat or roll out the dough until ¼ inch...not too thin! Cut the dough into 2 x 3 inch rectangles with a sharp knife - or use square biscuit cutters...it really doesn’t matter! Keep them relatively the same size though, so they will take about the same time to fry.



8. Drop them 3 at a time into the hot oil , turning a few times with tongs or a slotted spoon until golden brown on all sides. DO NOT LEAVE THE STOVE!!! THEY NEED TO BE WATCHED!!!



9. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Note: if they don't puff up they are either: too big, too thin or the temperature of the oil has decreased too much.

10. Sprinkle very generously with powdered sugar .


11. Now put on some Zydeco music and serve these amazing beignets while they are hot /warm with coffee or tea..and imagine you are sitting in the french quarter in the fabulous city of New Orleans.

Bet you can't eat one!

Until we bake again!

Penny

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Doughnuts! - The October Daring Baker's Challenge




Doughnuts generally fall into two categories: yeast and cake. Yeast doughnuts take a little longer to  make to allow for rising time, but they create a lovely, fluffy and airy doughnut.   I am not a huge fan of doughnuts and prefer the Louisianna Beignets that I often make for Elliot, but these were quite good and fun to make too!

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.



I must say these Doughnuts were very easy to make!  The dough is meant to be very wet so you have to stop yourself from adding extra flour to work with it.  Also it is important the oil be the correct temperature so that your doughnut is nice and crispy on the outside. If the oil is not hot enough, your end product will be too greasy. If too hot, they’ll cook too quickly on the outside and you may have an uncooked doughy centre.


The doughnuts tasted great when they were served fresh from cooking, but after they rested a bit, I didn't love them.  They were a little too chewy and they just tasted better hot!


Here is the recipe:

Equipment required:


•A Dutch oven or deep skillet (I prefer using a Dutch oven to reduce splatter)

•Deep fry thermometer, candy thermometer or any thermometer that will withstand and measure temperatures of up to 380 degrees

•Metal slotted spoon, metal slotted spatula or tongs (do NOT use plastic - it will melt!)

•Cookie sheets or a wire rack lined with paper towels to allow doughnuts to drain

•Electric hand mixer or stand mixer, or a bowl and a spoon if you are able to utilize a lot of elbow grease

•Doughnut or biscuit cutters or you can use a glass and a piping tip for the center (I used the top of a vanilla extract bottle)


Yeast Doughnuts:

Yield: 20 to 25 doughnuts & 20 to 25 doughnut holes, depending on size

Ingredients

Milk 1.5 cup / 360 ml

Vegetable Shortening 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 70 gm / 2.5 oz (can substitute butter, margarine or lard)
(I used butter - because I loooovvvvvve butter)

Active Dry Yeast 4.5 teaspoon (2 pkgs.) / 22.5 ml / 14 gm / ½ oz

Warm Water 1/3 cup / 80 ml (95°F to 105°F / 35°C to 41°C)

Eggs, Large, beaten 2

White Granulated Sugar ¼ cup / 60 ml / 55 gm / 2 oz

Table Salt 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / 1/3 oz

Nutmeg, grated 1 tsp. / 5 ml / 6 gm / ¼ oz

All Purpose Flour 4 2/3 cup / 1,120 ml / 650 gm / 23 oz + extra for dusting surface

Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Directions:
1.Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)

2.Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.

3.In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.

4.Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.

5.Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.

6.Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes (for me this only took about two minutes). If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.

7.Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

8.On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch (9 mm)thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).

9.Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch (22 mm) ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.

10.Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 °F/185°C.

11.Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).

12.Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to rolling in sugar, if desired.

 
Until we bake again...

Penny




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