Holy disks of fatty deliciousness! I did not know that today was National Doughnut Day. Imagine that.... So I was in the front yard letting the girls play in the sprinkler when a "neighbor" walked by. (I have no idea if it was a neighbor or not. I have never seen them before and she was walking a boy, possibly her son, to the park just past our house.) The girls
dragged asked if the boy wanted to play too. As the kids played we mommies talked. Somehow Lily (baby #1) offered the boy pretend beignets which she had seen in Disney's The Princess and the Frog. As we talked more she told me about a recipe for beignets. Since it is National Doughnut Day why not try them.
A little background: Beignets are French in origin that is loosely used for a deep fried pastry with fruit filling (I think we Americans put our own twist on it down in the Melting Pot known as Louisiana).
Recipe:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups cake flour
4 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
Oil which should be heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
A lot of powdered sugar
You will need a sauce pot, measuring cups and spoons, a sifter (I do not own one so a sieve it must be), a spoon to mix wooden/plastic, and a pot to fry the beignets in or in my case a deep fryer.
In one sauce pot you need to add the butter, water, salt and sugar and bring to a soft boil. I wish I had a picture of that but I don't sorry. Once the mixture as come to a boil, remove the pot from the stove and add the flour. It will clump like this. Do not fear the clump!
Next you need to add one egg at a time and mix thoroughly. For some reason it was still clumpy.....
After you add all 4 eggs the mixture will be sticky and clumpy but that large
scary clump will be just a bunch of little ones. I tried very hard to remove the lumps but I failed. So maybe it is suppose to be lumpy.
Drop spoonfuls of dough into the preheated fryer. It literally took 1 minute for the beignets to float to the top and turn golden brown.
Flip beignets so the other side can continue cooking. Once again it took less then one minute.
Sprinkle with a ton of powdered sugar. Ta-dah! Beignets!
What did I think?
Let me prep this with I have NEVER had a beignet before and had no idea what it should taste like. Since my "neighbor" said it was like a doughnut I was thinking Krispy Kreme or doughnuts in general. Well the insides were a little eggy (yes I know that is not a real word). I turned up the heat to 375 degrees and cook them for a couple of minutes on each side. This did not change anything. The beignets were still egg-like and tasted vaguely like a funnel cake but not as yummy. I would have to say this recipe was a failure..... I know what will happen though, the same thing
that happens every night Pinky I always do with a recipe I don't like. I'll fiddle with it until I like it. I will say the girls thought it was yummy and enjoyed pretending to be Princesses serving beignets. If any of you have had a beignet is this what they are suppose to be like? *sigh* This weekend will be Sio Poa which I KNOW how to make and have a time tested recipe that is delicious.
