I got the urge to try this after watching another movie with my bride. The Princess and the Frog. In one of the scenes, the main character's friend asks her to make "some of those man catchin beignets!!". Never knew what that was but the movie made it look soooooo delicious. So after further investigating, they end up being an original doughnut made with yeast, flour, sugar,... and fried. After they're done cooking, they have a bath in powdered sugar, can be drizzled with honey, syrup...
The recipe that I was following said that there was a 25minute prep, and a few minutes of cooking. Well, they forgot to factor 8 hours for the dough chilling/rising so that was kind of a bummer... Oh yeah, they also forgot to count time to run to the store because you forgot shortening, ran out of flour, and didn't have enough frying oil.
Beignets
1 package active dry yeast (3/4 oz)
1 ½ cups warm water (1 and a half cups)
½ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
7 cups flour (leveled)
¼ cup vegetable shortening
Non-flavored oil (enough to fill an inch in a pan)
Powdered sugar (optional)
Honey (optional)
Add water to a bowl/kitchenaid
Sprinkle in all the yeast and ~2 tsp sugar
Stir this until well dissolved and let sit for 10 minutes
Add the rest of the sugar, salt, eggs and evaporated milk and blend it all together
Slowly add 4 cups of flour
Add the shortening and make sure all chunks are well blended
Slowly add the rest of the flour
Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight
Heat the oil pretty hot
Put a lot (and I mean a lot) of flour on a rolling surface and roll out the dough to about the thickness of half a pencil. (the recipe said 1/8 inch but I’m not gonna get out a ruler)
Cut into shapes
Test a small chunk of dough to see if it rises to the top when fried. If not, increase temp.
Fry each side about 30sec-1minute or until golden. Put on paper towels to dry.
Serve hot/crispy with powdered sugar/honey or whatever else you want.
I used a kitchenaid with paddle for the first 4 cups of flour and shortening. Afterwards I used the dough hook. You can use your hands or spoons too but it gets thick and sticky.
