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when I first met my husband one of the
first things we bonded over was our love
of the South I grew up in Texas and he
spent part of his childhood in Atlanta
Georgia after we got married we started
our road trip in Dallas and went
straight to New Orleans one of the first
things we had was Cafe Du Monde beignets
the memory of those Donuts and that
coffee is so vivid to me that I came
home and made a small batch in my
kitchen just for us let me show you how
to make them I know you're gonna love
them
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making beignet dough is actually quite
simple I frequently make this the night
before it really only has a few steps we
want to proof our yeast make a
buttermilk shortening dough stir all of
that together and then add our flour and
that's it
then it rests for at least an hour to
three days so the first thing we need to
do is proof our yeast the way you do
this is you measure 1/2 a teaspoon into
a little dish and then add 2 tablespoons
of warm water on top your water needs to
be between 105 and 110 if you just let
the tap run for a little bit it should
feel slightly warm to the touch but
definitely not hot that would kill your
yeast add 2 tablespoons
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and I want to add a little pinch of
sugar just to get the yeast going this
is called proofing your yeast whenever
you wake up your yeast in this way you
will see foamy bubbles on the surface
that's how you know it's alive and ready
to go if it doesn't do that start over
because you don't want to spend all this
time and then bake with dead yeast and
have your dough not rise let it sit for
about five minutes oh I can already see
it bubbling so let's make the rest of
our dough the first thing we need is two
teaspoons of shortening shortening is
what gives these beignets lift and
fluffiness and lightness
to this add one tablespoon of sugar we
also need one egg white just the white
we're gonna save the yolk for another
recipe probably a cookie recipe just
separate the egg by going back and forth
and eventually the white will fall off
and then three tablespoons of whole milk
you can also use buttermilk here that's
really great this milk is room
temperature it's been sitting out for a
little bit three tablespoons a little
pinch of salt and then I'm going to
start whisking this together the last
thing we need is three tablespoons of
boiling water the boiling water will
help break up the shortening but you
want to kind of break it up with your
whisk as much as you can before adding
the boiling water okay the safest way to
add boiling water is to pour it into
another dish for measuring and three
tablespoons it's okay if the dough looks
a little curdled at this point it will
be fine when you add the flour and start
to mix it together okay whisk this
together then we need to pour in our
yeast but I don't want to color you so
I'm going to temp this and make sure
that it's less than 110 degrees
so we're gonna add our blooming yeast
you can see at the foam on the surface
the little bubbles that are coming up
now make sure you get all of it in there
and stir this together the extra sugar
that you added to this will give these
something to eat and grow and rise and
make your dough puff up
finally one and a quarter cups of flour
and that's it for your dough you just
want to stir this together
and then give it about an hour to proof
and rise you can do this and an oven set
to proof you can do it on the counter if
your house is kind of warm you can also
make it the night before and just let it
slow rise overnight in the fridge I like
to do that because then you wake up to
fresh bonito and all you have to do is
fry them pretty easy to work with dough
it's a little sticky at this point cover
this and let it rise I actually have
some dough that's already risen this is
our dough it has doubled and bulk and
it's time to roll it out just gonna
flour my counter lightly gather all the
dough it's a little bit sticky this
dough has a lot of air bubbles in it
which is what makes them puff and the
hot oil a little flour on top we're only
making six or eight beignets kind of
depends how long your dough has risen
I'm gonna roll it out into a rectangle
shape oh it's nice and soft easy to work
with roll it gently it's about eight
inches by four inches
use a pizza cutter to cut it in half
them at all then you can get let's get
six out of this one one two no let's get
eight there we go these are our little
beignets
I'm gonna take these to the back burner
and heat up some oil and fry them I have
here a one and a half quart saucepan I
clipped a candy thermometer to the side
and we're gonna add 2 cups of a neutral
oil something like canola peanuts
something like that would work we're
gonna turn the heat to medium-high and
let it come up to 360 degrees before we
start dropping our beignets in our oil
has reached 360 so it's time to add our
dough let's add one or two at a time
don't overcrowd your pan I like to put
them on a little strainer so I have more
control when I add them they're gonna
fry on the first side for three minutes
then check them and flip when they're
golden-brown you can watch them puff in
the pot that's that little air bubble
forming in the center of the beignet
keep an eye on your heat so you can
adjust it you don't want it going too
much above 380 it's gonna drop a little
bit when you add the dough and then
it'll rise back up I turn mine down to
about medium and it's maintaining about
360 so the first side is golden brown so
I'm gonna gently flip them over and fry
them on the second side they'll take
less time on the second side about two
minutes when they're golden brown you
want to remove them from the oil and let
them sit on a wire rack to cool slightly
and now it's time to dunk them in
powdered sugar they're ready now it's
time for the best part it's time to dust
them in powdered sugar I'm gonna put
half in the bottom of this pie plate
move them in go big or go home when it
comes to beignets time to taste it's a
messy job but they're so good these are
so light and fluffy they taste just like
the ones and New Orleans for the full
recipe visit dessert for two calm
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