Beignets | The Princess and the Frog
Oh, Tia, you are bonafide genius. I’m gonna need about five hundred of your man-catching beignets!
Charlotte, The Princess and the Frog
I love beignets so much. My first memory of them is from my childhood, I would have been only 9 years old and my dad had spent a month in the US, travelling around the New Orleans and Memphis area. He spoke so highly (as a very health conscious individual, him exuding the delights of the beignet was very impressive) of the beignets from Cafe Du Monde, and had even bought one of their packaged mixes to bring home to Australia.
Before the moment I bit into that pillowy, warm, fluffy, icing sugar coated delight my only exposure to doughnuts were the dense, oily and vivid strawberry sprinkle covered monstrosities that were available at the school canteen. That first beignet was a revelation to my young mind that something so simple could be so, so delicious.
Obviously when The Princess and the Frog was released in 2009 and set within New Orleans, they of course had to feature the beignet as a speciality of Tiana. A friend had requested a veganised version of beignets a few years back and during a particularly long weekend I decided to try my hand at them. They turned out just how I remembered, and I think I inhaled nearly the entire batch with coffee after coffee as they came out from the fryer.
Beignets
Makes 6-7 small tarts or 1 big tart
Ingredients
240ml milk
5 tbsp rice malt syrup
1.5 tbsp dry yeast
80ml vegetable oil
520g plain flour
120g icing sugar
230ml vegetable or canola oil, for frying
Sea salt
In a small saucepan combine the milk and rice malt syrup, mix and heat until just warm. Too warm and the yeast will die.
Combine the yeast and the milk mixture in a large bowl and leave to sit for approx. 5 mins or until the yeast becomes a little frothy on top.
Add in about half the flour, 80ml of vegetable oil and a pinch of salt. Add in the remaining flour and mix until the dough is very soft and sticky. Pour it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, you can oil your hands a little if the dough is sticking. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is soft and stretchy.
Lightly oil a large bowl and place the kneaded dough into it, cover tightly with cling wrap or a damp towel and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours - preferably overnight though.
Heat the remaining oil in a thick bottomed skillet until it reaches 180C.
Remove the dough from the fridge and place it into a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out into a rectangle that is approximately 1/4 inch thick. Cut out your beignets from this (I usually like mine sort of smaller so about 2.5 inch rectangle works for me).
As you’re cutting out the beignets you can start frying them. Only do a few at a time (depending on the size of your skillet), you don’t want to overcrowd them. As they start to turn a golden brown, make sure you’re flipping them so they’re getting evenly cooked. About 2 minutes each side is all that is needed!
As you pull the beignets from the oil, place them onto a plate lined with paper towel to get the excess oil from it, before tossing with the icing sugar to coat it well. Enjoy hot with a coffee!