Beignets

In our house, probably about once a month, we'd have a big Saturday breakfast. We'd have cinnamon rolls, Swedish Pancakes, or this recipe: beignets. If you aren't familiar with beignets (pronounced ben-YAYs, at least in our household), they are popular in the French Quarter of New Orleans. I have no idea how our family got turned on to  making them, but I'm sure glad they did. 

Not much needed in the way of ingredients. All you top them with is powdered sugar. Doug tried to add chocolate syrup like we did with the banana fritters, but I think that's a little too much sweet. 

• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• cooking fat or oil for frying
• powdered sugar for topping

In saucepan, heat water and butter until butter melts. Add flour. Stir firmly until the dough forms a ball in the center of the pan. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Add 1 egg, beat until well-blended. Add the other egg and beat as before. Mixture should be very stiff. If not, let stand 10 minutes before shaping. 

Drop by spoonfuls into deep cooking fat or oil heated to 375 degrees and fry until delicately brown. They will often turn over as one side browns. After it is fried, remove from oil and drain on paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy.

NOTES: My dough was definitely not stiff and that made dropping it into the oil very difficult. I added quite a bit more flour and let it sit for a while. My dad always rolls the dough out flat on a cutting board and makes super perfectly rectangular shapes out of the dough before dropping it in. I had to really flour the board in order to not lose half the dough to stickiness. I must say, I like the square ones better than the balls of dough. Makes the dough go further too. 

I just heated vegetable oil in a deep skillet on the stove and used that for frying. Takes a while to get the oil heated up though so I'd definitely put that on as you are making the dough. 

Serves: 3 (for a full meal)
Total Time: 30 minutes