New Orleans Beignets
These beignets, popular at New Orleans‘ Café du Monde, are soft, pillowy, and light, made with love in your kitchen. Forget regular doughnuts because these are easy and satisfying.
I grew up eating mandazi and puff puff, popular traditional West African deep-fried dough, which I adore. So when, during my first Mardi Gras in New Orleans, I tried a heavenly bite of a beignet. Since then, Café du Monde’s beignets have had a special place in my heart.
What Is a Beignet?
Beignets are sweet treats covered in powdered sugar that are somewhere between a donut and a fritter. Dubbed Louisiana’s state doughnut, the delicious yeast dough, fried and dusted with powdered sugar, is absolutely divine.
How to Make Beignets
- Activate the yeast in warm water for about 5 minutes or until it dissolves and looks frothy. (Photo 1)
- Whisk the evaporated milk, sugar, salt, egg, egg yolks, and vanilla extract, then add it to the yeast mixture.
- Add about 2 cups of flour and continue mixing with a hand or dough mixer. If using a stand mixer, mix for about 1-2 minutes. (Photo 2)
- Mix in the melted butter (at least softened for easy mixing) until the dough is sticky but smooth, adding flour as needed to make a soft dough. Knead the dough for 1-2 minutes.
- Let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 2 hours or until doubled in size. Punch it down and dump it out on a lightly floured surface. (Photos 3-4)
- Roll it out until it is about ¼-⅓” thick. Cut it into 1½-2″ squares using a sharp knife or pizza cutter. (Photos 5-6)
- Fry it after letting the beignets rest for about 10 minutes, working in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Flip once and fry until puffy and golden brown on both sides. (Photo 7)
- Drain excess oil and dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy! (Photo 8)
Tips and Tricks
- Oil should be at 375℉ (190℃) when frying. Any cooler and the beignets will take longer to cook, absorbing too much oil. Any hotter and the outside can burn before the inside is cooked through.
- Beignets taste best fresh, and this recipe makes about 35-40 two-inch beignets, so invite some friends over and share this delicacy along with some strong coffee and cheerful conversation.
Make-Ahead and Leftovers
If you make your beignet dough ahead of time (up to three days), you can keep it in the fridge and make them when you are ready. Just make sure your dough comes back to room temperature for about 30 minutes before frying.
Store fried beignets in an airtight container on your countertop at room temperature for 2-3 days, or freeze them for 3-4 months.
Reheat by popping them in the microwave for 10 seconds. If you’ve got a few extra seconds, try reheating them in your countertop convection oven to get that crispy outer layer back.
What Goes With New Orleans Beignets
I like to follow up a spicy meal, like African spicy oxtail stew or asun, with beignets because they round out the meal.
Definitely serve beignets with a hot drink. Besides coffee with milk (café au lait), I love chai tea latte. Usually, I dial back my coffee’s sugar to balance the pastry’s sweetness.
More Amazing Pastries to Try
By Imma
Watch How to Make It
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”f6rrNboF” upload-date=”2019-09-18T07:55:46.000Z” name=”New Orleans Beignets” description=” Beignets – These New Orleans doughnuts are the best! Soft, pillowy and light just like the ones eat at Cafe du Monde but taste even better! You can’t beat Homemade.” player-type=”collapse” override-embed=”false”]
This blog post was originally published in February 2017 and has been updated with additional tips, new photos, and a video.
New Orleans Beignets
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (180ml) lukewarm water
- 1 ¼-ounce packet (7g) active dry yeast
- ½ cup (120ml) evaporated milk
- ¼ cup (60ml) water
- ⅓ cup (66g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon (6g) salt
- 1 whole egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
- 3½-4 cups (470-500g) all-purpose flour (start with 3 cups and add more as needed)
- 4 tablespoons (60g) butter, melted or at least softened
- corn oil for frying (or any neutral-flavored oil)
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine lukewarm water and yeast. Let the mixture do its job for about 5 minutes or until it's dissolved and looks a little frothy.
- Lightly whisk evaporated milk, sugar, salt, egg, egg yolks, and vanilla extract. Add it to the yeast mixture.
- Mix in about 2 cups of flour and continue mixing with a hand or dough mixer. If using a stand mixer, mix for 1-2 minutes.
- Finally, add melted butter and mix until the dough is sticky but smooth. Add additional flour as needed to make a soft dough.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 1-2 minutes. Place the beignet dough in a greased bowl, turning once to coat it. Cover loosely with a clean cloth and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 2 hours or until doubled in size.
- Punch the dough down and remove it from the bowl. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until ¼-⅓ inch thick.
- Cut the dough into 1½-2-inch squares using a sharp knife or pizza cutter. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before frying.
- Working in batches so as not to crowd the oil, fry the dough squares until puffy and golden brown.
- Remove them from the oil, making a pit stop on a paper towel to soak up any extra oil.
- Dust with powdered sugar immediately. Serve hot with café au lait, and enjoy!
Tips & Notes:
- When mixing the yeast and water, keep in mind that the water should be somewhere between 110℉-115℉ (43-46℃). Any hotter and the water will kill the yeast cells; any cooler and the yeast may not activate.
- Regular milk is fine if you wish to substitute the evaporated milk.
- If you prefer brown sugar, you can substitute up to 2 tablespoons (half) for the granulated sugar.
- Corn oil or any neutral-flavored high-smoke-point oil is excellent for frying.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on the products used in the recipe.
I would love to make the beignets and was wondering if they can be cooked in an air fryer.
Hi, Helen. I haven’t tried air frying them, but I do some online on google.
Salted or unsalted butter
Please use unsalted butter.
I added butter to milk mixture. Should I start over?
No, just continue it still works.
Hi I am trying to make this recipe but I don’t understand how much is 7 g of yeast can you convert that into teaspoons for me
Hi Reeva, one packet or sachet of active dry yeast is equal to 2 teaspoons.
I have learned from America’s Test Kitchen/Baking Illustrated to use shortening for frying donuts. They seem to be less greasy. It’s easy and usually takes one container.
I just made these for my family and they turned out great! I’m not a very frequent baker, neither am I very experienced so this is really a great recipe for anyone and everyone.
I will make these again on Christmas 🙂
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback.
Fantastic!
I’ve made these twice now following this recipe and they turned out perfect both times.
Hello! 🙂 trying to make the dough the night before and fry them in the morning. Is it ok to leave it in the fridge over night? Thank you!
Yes, you can.Let it rest outside , about 30 minutes before frying.
How much yeast is it in grams?
Hi, Chani. It’s 7 grams. Updated the recipe box.
I was wondering what temperature should the oil be at for frying?
It should be at 375 degrees.
What would be a good substitute for evaporated milk
Regular milk would work just fine.
I made these today for my husband’s birthday. Your recipe was easy to follow and the results were delicious! Thank you!
Great! So happy to hear it worked out well. Thanks for the feedback!
This recipe is the bomb! My 11 year old son wanted to make beignets for his French class and we decided on your recipe…so happy we did! Easy to follow, excellent results! They were perfect! Fried between 360 and 370 degrees. Thank you!
Yay! Thanks for choosing mine . So glad to hear it worked out well for you. Thanks for taking time out to share this with me.
How many beignets does this recipe make? I’m wondering if I’ll need to double up the recipe since I’m making it for a group of people.
It all depends on the size. If you cut into 2-inch squares it will yield about 35-40. It really depends on the crowd- and the other items on the menu.
Omg!! So good! Just enough sweetness with every bite.
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks for the recipe. I am a Tanzanian and maandazi is our breakfast accompliment. I am trying beignet your recipe today. I dont understand after frying “make a pit stop on paper towel”. Please can you Explain. Thanks.
Hi Farida! Pit stop simply means – letting it stay for a few minutes on the paper towel. Happy Cooking !!!
I’m trying these tonight! When and where do we add the pinch of salt?
You add it together with the sugar. Happy Cooking!!!
5* to these beignets! Usually I use Paula Deen’s recipe and I add more sugar, and I add butter. If I don’t add butter, they become kinda dry the next day. But with butter, they stay soft for couple of days. Great job Immaculate’s! I really love your recipes. You’very got me back to cooking again! Thank you.
Woohoo!!! . So glad to hear this cynira ! Thanks for taking the time to share this with me.
Cynira just curious how much more sugar and butter do you add to the Paula Seen recipe?
Immaculate bites how many beignets will this recipe make exactly because the recipe says 4 -5. Is that the total amount? That doesn’t seem like very many. The Paula Deen recipe says it makes 36.
Hi, Cynthia. Thanks for raising that up. This recipe is a combination of Paula Dean and Anne Burrell’s and have also modified the amount of ingredient a bit. I’ve also updated the recipe to reflect the approximate amount that this recipe would yield which is around a dozen, depending of course on how big or small you cut the dough.
Thanks,I’ll give it a try….
I wonder, would it be sacrilegious to put some cream or nutella inside them? Just once a year, of course . Or would it be too much?
For once a year you can stuff and dip it in chocolate -Lol. Not sacrilegious at all .. As a matter of fact , I tried it with Nutella and OMG. SO GOOD yet SOOO BAD. It’s going on my guilty pleasure rotation list.
I know what you mean…but I am more partial to cream. Nutella is great for a quick fix though! Well these beignets are gonna be great anyway.
what kind of oil?
I used corn oil. Any flavorless oil will do.