photo by erewhon
Anyone travelling to New Orleans will eventually make their way to Café Du Monde. The New Orleans landmark either lives in the shadow of the farmer's market or provides its anchor. Since its open 24 hours a day, vistor's memories of Café Du Monde will differ. Some recall pleasant breakfasts drinking strong café au lait with chicory and eating warm beignets while the French Quarter starts the day. Some recall a late night dessert to bring a night of drinking to an end.
Folks from New Orleans will most likely tell you their preference for a competitor - the Morning Call Coffee Stand. According to their site, Morning Call has been making their version of Beignet's since 1870. Some years back they left their French Quarter digs and moved to Metaire (Fat City). Since you can buy beignet mix in some grocery stores, I thought it wiser to take a shot at Morning Call. Especially since, frankly, they're better.
There are plenty of recipes for Café Du Monde beignets. They all share a common flaw - they are way too large. Unless you are planning to make doughnuts for the whole of the 9th Ward, you really want a recipe that makes a half dozen beignets, not 5-6 dozen. This recipe takes care of that problem in two ways - frozen dough and a bread backup. The dough is made ahead of time and frozen in whatever portions you like. If you split the dough in two, you will end up with enough dough (after you've made your beignets) to make a loaf of sweet bread or yeast rolls. This recipe assumes you have divided the dough recipe into two portions, but you can just as easily do many smaller batches and skip the bread altogether.
Beignets
Bread Dough:
2/3 cup lukewarm water
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 1/2 cup water or milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
5-6 cups flour
Beignets:
Frozen bread dough
Powdered sugar
To make the dough:
- Dissolve yeast in a yeast a large mixing bowl with the warm water. Let stand for 15 minutes.
- Add the water/milk, oil, salt and sugar to the yeast and blend well.
- Add the flour a cup at a time, blending until the dough starts to form.
- Split the dough into two portions and freeze them both.
To make the beignets:
- The night before you plan to have beignets, take the frozen dough out. Wait until the end of the night. Spread flour on a plate and put the dough on the plate. Dust the top of the dough with flour and cover with a glass cover. The dough is going to expand overnight.
- In the morning, spread plenty of flour out on a board. Be generous with the flour.
- Roll the dough out to be about 1/8 - 1/4" thick. Cut into 2 1/2" squares.
- Heat 2-3" of cooking oil in a small pan to 375 degrees.
- Cook each square, 2-3 at a time, until golden brown. Usually just a minute or so per side.
- Give each beignet a heavy dusting of powdered sugar.
To make the bread:
- Grease your hands well. Take the remaining dough and form it into a loaf or rolls. Cover the loaf and let it rise an additional 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Using a greased pan, parchment paper or grease muffin tins, bake the bread for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let the oven cool to 250 degrees. Coat the bread with olive oil, cooking oil or butter to finish. Bake another 30 minutes at 250 degrees.