hi bold bakers! when i was reading throughyour comments, trying to decide what the next big and bold episode would be, i saw thatyou requested beignets a lot. very similar to a donut, it’s traditionally a fried treat,however, we are going to do our own big and bold version, and make it baked. so let’sget started. a lot of people know beignets from the famouscaf㩠du monde restaurant in new orleans.
cafe du monde french roast coffee, they serve them morning, noon, and night,piled high with icing sugar. i have never been there, but i have been to disneyland,where they also serve them, shaped like mickey. we are going to make it today. it’s reallyeasy. it’s a yeasted dough that can all be mixed by hand.we are going to start out by mixing up our
yeast. so in a jug we are going to add insome blood temperature water. you can always check if it’s blood temperature becauseyou can put your finger in it, and if you don’t feel the water around it, it’s bloodtemperature. you need that warmth in the water to help the yeast grow. into the water, scatterover your dried yeast. any type of dried yeast you have at home is totally fine. i love thatsmell. i love the smell of fermenting, and yeast, and bread-making. it’s my favorite.and just go in and stir it up, and get that yeast to dissolve. yeast feeds on sugar andwill help our dough to rise, so in a few minutes you’ll probably see this mix actually foamingup a little bit. we’re going to set this mix aside for five minutes and continue withthe rest of our ingredients. for this next
step, you want to have a large bowl becausewe are going to mix and proof our dough in the same bowl, so you want to give a lot ofroom. so we’re going to crack in an egg, add in some vanilla, salt for flavor, alwayssalt in dough is important, and then some evaporated milk. so i looked at a lot of recipes,and most of them require evaporated milk. i think it’s because of a little sweetnessand creaminess, so be sure you add that in. and then just give this mix a little whiskup together. so into these wet ingredients, we’re going to add in our yeasted mix. nowi want you to have a little look at the top here. you see that foam? that means that theyeast is alive, so we’re just going to pour that straight into this. give that a bit ofa whisk-y whisk. now next we’re going to
add in some melted butter. now the importantthing about adding in melted butter is make sure that it’s at room temperature, youdon’t want it too hot, or else it will set on top of your wet ingredients. so melt itwhen you first stop making your beignets, and it’ll be good to go. so keep whiskingand pour that in there. lovely. we’re almost done with our dough. the next thing we haveto do is add in our flour. so we’re just going to add in half of it. don’t ever beafraid of working with yeasted dough. it is the easiest thing to do. and lots of timesyou can mix them by hand, just like these ones. and just stir that in until you geta really wet, soggy dough. okay we have our nice, soggy, wet dough here, and then go aheadand add in the rest of your flour. and then
just mix it in with a spatula or a woodenspoon until your dough starts to come together. one thing i like about this dough is thatit’s fast, and that you can mix it by hand. bring your dough as best you can with yourspatula, but you get to a point where you just have to get stuck in with your hand,and bring it all together. i always find it easier to work with your hands with dough,because then you know what’s going on, you know if you’ve added too much liquid, ifyou need a little bit more—you just find out straight away. and bread dough, and yeasteddough, is a more of a kind of hands-on type of technique anyway. just give it a quicklittle knead into the bowl until it comes together and there’s no dry bits left. nomatter what kind of dough or pastry you are
making, one really easy way to tell if you’reon the right path is if you have a nice dough at the end, and a clean bowl. a clean bowlalways means you’re on the right track. so you will notice that this beignet doughis a tiny bit sticky. that’s the nature of it. we are gonna pop it back in the samebowl that we mixed it in. to let it proof, we’re going to tightly cover it with somecling wrap, making sure no air gets in there, and then we are going to lay a tea towel ontop, and this keeps it nice and warm during the proofing stage. so now what we’re goingto do is set aside our dough for two hours and let it proof. you want to see it doublein size, and then we’re ready to use it. so it’s been two hours and if you take alittle peek at our dough, it has doubled in
size. it is absolutely beautiful. this iswhy i love working with yeasted doughs because in a little amount of time, you can see yourrecipe working and growing. these are going to make beautiful beignets. dust your countertopwith a little bit of flour, to stop your dough from sticking. and then gently turn out yourdough. sprinkle a little bit of flour on your rolling pin to stop it sticking, and thenwe’re going to roll it out gently to around a quarter of an inch thick. i want my beignetsnice and thick. give it a little bit of a move around your countertop to make sure it’snot sticking. i get a lot of questions about what are important kitchen tools to have andi always say a ruler, because i use this nearly every time i go into the kitchen, so investin a ruler. another important piece of kitchen
equipment is a pizza roller, and that’show we’re going to cut our beignets. we’re going to cut around an inch by an inch square.that’s a good bite-sized piece for a beignet. so i like to cut all of my lines across first,and then i go up. and then you start to see your squares forming. beignets are traditionallyknown for their square shape, a little bit like a puffy pillow. okay, we’re going togo ahead and gently lay these on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, giving eacha little bit of room to proof and to bake and to grow. once your beignets are all cutand on the tray, then we’re going to have to let them sit and proof for around 35 to45 minutes, and this will help us yield big, lovely puffy beignets. these need a littlebit of time to rest and grow. so wrap a little
bit of cling wrap around them, and then againwith your towel, just lightly placed over. so we’ll come back in a little bit and checkon them. so our beignets are proofed, but i want to show you the telltale signs of howyou know that. so not only has it risen, and it’s nice and soft, like you can see, ifyou push it with your finger, it doesn’t bounce back. also the lines that you havecut have kind of rounded out a little bit. they’re a little bit softer. so that’show you can tell that it has proofed and is ready for the oven. so just before we putthem in, i’m going to glaze them with a little bit of milk, and this will help themget a lovely golden brown color in the oven. so you might be wondering what’s the differencebetween beignets and donuts, and they are
quite different. there are different ingredientsin them, so you get a different texture in your dough, and a bit of a different flavor.okie-dokie, we’re glazed, we’re proofed, we’re ready for the oven. bake your beignetsat 350 degree fahrenheit or 180 degrees celsius, until lovely and golden brown. so i know i’mbaking these today, but you can fry this dough as well. all you need is a few inches of oilin a pan, and fry them gently until they’re lovely and golden brown. the timer just went off, my kitchen smellslike warm dough, so i’m pretty sure they’re ready. just look at these little beignets,made from that really easy dough. if you can see, there’s little bubbles on the side.that means they’re lovely, and airy, and
soft. i wish you guys could smell these, becausethey absolutely smell divine. so now while your beignets are still warm, fresh out ofthe oven, our next step is to coat them in a bit of butter, and then we’re going todust them with icing sugar. i like to add butter for extra flavor, and also, it givessomething for the icing sugar to stick on. and then liberally—don’t be shy with theicing sugar—dust your beignets. traditionally they are served with mounds of icing sugar.beignets are best eaten freshly baked and nice and warm, so i’m going to dip somein some chocolate sauce that i have, and i’m also going to serve it with some dark coffee,just like they do in caf㩠du monde. this is like a soft pillow of heaven. just lookat that texture. this is a lovely, buttery,
airy dough that gives you a beautiful beignetat the end. you do not have to go as far as new orleansor disneyland to enjoy these famous treats.
let me know what you think in the commentsbelow, because i really hope you like them. if you like my big and bold recipes, thenmake sure you hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss out on any of my upcomingvideos. i’ll see you back here next thursday for more bigger bolder baking.
