Description
These delicious French beignets are chewy yeast donuts coated with cinnamon sugar. Biting into a sweet and slightly dense beignet that’s still a little bit warm is pure joy, so don’t miss out !
Ingredients
Scale
For the French beignets dough:
- 120ml water (½ cup)
- 8g active dry yeast (2 tsp)
- 100g caster sugar (½ cup)
- 500g all-purpose flour (3 ½ cups)
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 120g Greek yogurt, at room temperature (½ cup)
- 40g butter, melted (3 tbsp)
- groundnut oil, for frying
For coating:
- 70g caster sugar (⅓ cup)
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Make the sponge. Warm the water until it’s around 32°C (90°F), pour into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast and 1 tsp of sugar. Whisk until combined and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the mixture stand for 10 min, until foamy. Mix in 105g of flour (¾ cup), cover again and leave to rise until doubled in size, about 30 min.
- Make the dough. Tip in the sugar, the rest of the flour and the salt and mix until combined with one of your hands. Then add in the egg, yogurt and the cooled melted butter. The dough might look dry at first but it will come together after a few minutes.
- Knead the dough. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for 10 min. The dough should be smooth, only slightly sticky (refrain from adding more flour) and bounce back lightly when pressed. Scrape the dough into a large greased bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap or a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm environment until doubled in size, about 1h30 to 2h. I usually place my dough in an oven preheated to the lowest temperatures for a couple of minutes (and then turned off).
- Shape the beignets. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and lightly dust it with flour. Punch the dough and fold it on itself to remove the air. Divide the dough into 11 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a tight ball between the palms of your hands and place them slightly apart on the tray. Loosely cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise for 15 min (they only need to puff up just a bit).
- Fry the beignets. Stir together the sugar and cinnamon on a deep plate. Line another plate with paper towels. Heat a pan over medium heat no more than a third full with oil to 180°C (355°F) or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Gently place the beignets, 2 or 3 at a time, and cook for 2min30 per side. Check that the oil is still at the right temperature for the duration of cooking. French beignets take on color quickly because of the high amount of sugar in the dough BUT you do need to fry them long enough so that they cook through. They will soften while cooling down so don’t worry about them being/looking overcooked.
- Finish up! Carefully remove the beignets from the pan using a slotted spoon and drain them on the paper towels. Roll the beignets in sugar while they are still warm and a bit oily (the sugar will stick better) and place them on a cooling rack. Repeat the frying (check the oil temperature before cooking each batch), draining and rolling process until all of the beignets are ready.
Notes
French beignets are best eaten the day they’re made but you can keep them in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
You can keep beignets in the fridge (and you should if you filled them with a cream-based filling) but they will dry out faster.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 413
Keywords: french dessert, shrove tuesday recipe, french mardi gras recipe