Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Beignets (instant mix) From my boyfriend's trip to Louisianna

Beignets (Made from a mix) - From my boyfriend's trip to Louisiana
After being wifi-less, and working myself to the bone to prep for Otakon's artist alley, my beignet post is finally here!

Some of you might remember that my boyfriend went to Louisiana last month for two weeks to visit family, while he was there he went to the famous Cafe Du Monde for coffee with chicory and a big plate of sugar dusted beignets. Since he knows that I run this blog, and that I love trying new foods (especially famous ones), he bought a box of instant beignet mix and a tin of coffee so that I could experience the same yummy treats.

Since I'm used to baking my sweets from scratch, I had anticipated that these instant beignets would have some kind of complex instructions, like needing to rise or adding extra ingredients, but all we had to do was add water, mix, and roll the dough out on a floured surface. Not bad at all! Once mixed, I rolled the dough out to a quarter inch thickness and then we used a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 2-inch squares. Once we had the first batch ready to go we heated a pan of vegetable oil and got ready to start frying.

These little pillows of dough puffed up almost instantly and they smelled delicious. (Just like funnel cake and other fried sweets.)  After a minute or two I flipped them over to make sure that both sides cooked evenly, and then we moved the finished beignets over to a rack covered with paper towels to remove access oil.


We followed the instructions for one batch of beignets, which is 2-dozen, but that was way too much for the two of us, so we ended up sharing with my boyfriend's roommates. (Fried dough items usually don't keep well, it's best to make them in moderation and eat them when they are fresh.) In true Cafe Du Monde fashion we coated the finished beignets with a healthy dose of powdered sugar (although ours are no where near as heavily coated as the real deal) and we sat down to enjoy our not-so-healthy breakfast with a cup of coffee with chikory.


The results were absolutely delicious. Beignets are quite similar to a doughnut, so these taste very similar to the fluffy yeast doughnuts you can buy at most mom-and-pop bakeries, but the outside it a bit more crispy. To me, these were like pillow-y little funnel cakes, and even though they are obviously not healthy way to start the day, they are an addictive little treat.

After I ate one of two beignets with the powdered sugar I felt like it needed something a little tart to cut through the intense sweetness, so I ended up adding some (real) strawberry syrup to my plate. Since I prefer jelly filled doughnuts that made this evern more delicious and satisfying, but I am sure many of you would be happy with just the powdered sugar.


The cafe sells boxes of this instant mix on their site, and you can easily find it through other sources online, so if any of you want a delicious (and really easy) taste of Louisiana in your own kitchen, I highly recommend this mix. (Just make sure you have enough people to eat them!)
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