New Orleans Beignets
These New Orleans Beignets are the Real Deal! Heavenly morsels of dough are deep fried to golden brown perfection and topped with powdered sugar making you feel like you stepped off the plane into NOLA!
Servings: 20 servings
Calories: 147kcal
Ingredients
- 1 package active dry yeast
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
- 1 ¼ cups warm milk 110 degrees
- 1 large egg beaten
- 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- Pinch salt
- Oil for frying
- Powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- In the bowl of an stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, add yeast, sugar, shortening, and milk and mix together for 2 minutes. Add the egg and mix then add 4 cups of the flour and salt. Continue mixing on low speed until all of the flour is incorporated. This takes about 1 minute. Mix at medium speed until the mixture forms a ball, leaves the sides of the mixing bowl, and climbs up the dough hook.
- Remove the dough from the bowl. Form the dough into a smooth ball with your hands then lightly oil a bowl. Place the dough inside the bowl and push it along the sides to make sure it is slightly oiled all the way around. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in size. This takes about 2 hours.
- Preheat the vegetable oil a deep fat fryer to 360 degrees F.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1-inch thick. Lightly dust the surface of the dough. Roll out the rectangle to 12 1/2 inches long by 10 inches wide and about 1/4-inch thick. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into twenty 2 1/2-inch square beignets.
- Fry beignets, just a couple at a time until golden brown and crispy on all sides, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove and drain on a paper towels. Sprinkle the beignets with powdered sugar and serve.
Notes
- Don't overcrowd the oil. Adding too many beignets lowers the temperature of the beignets and they won't cook up right.
- It's best to make your beignets as soon as the dough doubles in size. The longer it sits the dough will actually begin to degrade.
- Don't skip the powdered sugar! It's essential to the flavor in this easy beignet recipe.
- This traditional New Orleans beignets recipe is absolutely the best eaten hot, freshly fried. They truly don't store all that great and even after sitting and cooling for a few minutes, they lose their appeal.
- Don't skimp on the flour when rolling your beignet dough. Coat anything and everything that will touch the sticky dough.
Nutrition
Calories: 147kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 10mg | Potassium: 57mg | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 40IU | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1.4mg