If you’ve always wanted to try to make donuts at home but find the recipes too complicated or time consuming – try making beignets instead.
We grew up eating these – back then it was a special breakfast since they were cooked on the stovetop, fried in a pot of oil – perhaps lard or crisco or whatever people used back then. With how easy and safe deep fryers are to use now, these can be prepped and ready to eat in no time – and it’s not a dangerous activity either!
The recipe is very simple and I can almost guarantee you have every ingredient – if not you need to do some shopping 🙂
– 2 cups of flour
– 1 cup milk (i’m guessing you could substitute almond milk etc.)
– 2 eggs
– 2 tsps baking powder
And that’s it – mix these up by hand until it’s blended and you’re ready to go. I always turn on the deep fryer before I get going, and the donut setting usually reaches the right temp a minute or two after the recipe is done.
Once your oil is hot enough plop the dough in the deep fryer with a tablespoon, it’ll form balls and fun shapes. I think that’s one of my favourite things, they’re all different. Let them cook for a few minutes then flip them over, once they’re nice and golden they’re ready to set on a paper towel and then eat! Use a slotted spoon to scoop them out, and if there’s little pieces that broke off make sure to scoop those up as they’re delicious! And that’s it!
You can dust them with icing sugar if you’re doing them as a dessert, but if you want to do a classic breakfast melt some honey and everyone can dip them in. The little arms and pieces that stick out get nice and crunchy and the beignet itself is fluffy inside and perfect for dipping – could even do a caramel or chocolate sauce.
If you want to make chocolate beignets add in a tbsp of cocoa powder and a tsp of sugar. We always had just the original beignets with honey growing up, but I’ve been having fun trying out changes to the recipe – I’m waiting for summer and fresh herbs to make a variety of savoury beignets.
Makes for the perfect coffee break treat too – a nice warm beignet and a cup of coffee of hot chocolate is the best! If you make a lot of them, make sure to reheat them in the oven for a few minutes, they’ll taste almost as good as fresh made.
What are your favourite childhood recipes? Does your family have a donut recipe of their own?
We went to New Orleans last fall & Beignets are famous there. So great to get a simple recipe we can make at home! Can’t wait to try this out. thanks Nadine!