Not Your New Orleans Beignets

New Orleans Beignets are made with yeast and are essentially American donuts. But the beignets I learned as a child are a more simple country fried dough.

These Beignets are a derivative of Pâte à Choux. This is the standard recipe all of us learned to make by memory.

1 cup of water, 1 stick of butter, 1 tsp sugar, 1 cup of flour, 4 beaten eggs. Powdered sugar for dusting.

There are lots of recipes for how to put this together online, but here is the recipe my mother taught me:

Put a cup of water, 1 tsp of sugar and a stick of butter in a saucepan on medium heat.

Beat the eggs in a bowl and set aside.

When the butter melts and the water boils, dump a cup of flour in all at once and stir vigorously. Turn the heat down and stir for just a few moments (no more than a minute) and remove from the heat.

Continue stirring for about 10 minutes to cool the dough.

Then pour a little of the beaten eggs in and beat with a wooden spoon until it is totally combined. Repeat with more of the egg mixture until all of the eggs are incorporated. (Note: this is going to look like it will never go together. Be patient and use those arm muscles! It will come together.)

There are a lot of cooks online who tell you to use an electric mixer to beat this mixture together, but we never used the electric mixer for such a small quantity. Plus, I figure that if I have to work for the meal I am likely to enjoy the food more and perhaps retain my figure because I had to burn calories to make it. That's just me. You do you.

This simple recipe is the basis for cream puffs, eclairs, and the french beignets I learned as a child. It is quite versatile and can be dressed up however you choose.

Heat oil in a deep saucepan on medium until it shimmers. Test the heat by dropping a tiny bit of the dough in to see if it boils. One the oil reaches the right temperature, drop the dough in by spoonfuls and cook about 5 Beignets at a time.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the golden brown Beignet and put on paper towels to drain. Once all of the Beignets are cooked, remove the oil from the heat and put the pan on a back burner or hot pad away from the edge of the counter to cool.

Dust the pastries with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Note: Oil gets very hot. It will cause severe burns. Please be careful. Never walk away from the oil for any reason. Keep the lid for the pan and an open box of baking soda next to the stove while you work. If the oil catches on fire dump the baking soda on the fire and then cover the pan to completely douse the flames.

Served for breakfast, these are a nice break from pancakes.