Honestly, is there anything better than a warm beignet from Cafe du Monde in New Orleans with a hot cup of chicory coffee?? We don’t get there very often, but when we do it’s a required stop. If you’re not able to visit New Orleans though making these yourself isn’t half bad.

My husband and I actually tried making beignets a long time ago and it didn’t work out very well. Neither of us like deep drying and apparently we didn’t leave the dough in there long enough so the middle wasn’t cooked all the way. If I recall, we ended up throwing them out because they were raw in the middle. I was a little nervous when I chose this recipe as one of my 12 Days of Christmas Baking pastries, but I hoped more experience frying and a new recipe would bring success.

Despite being a yeast dough, this particular recipe actually doesn’t take too long to make and you really only have a few steps to mix all of the ingredients. You can make this ahead of time and leave it in the fridge for up to 24 hours, but we just left ours in the fridge for the minimum amount of time (2 hours). I was a little worried when I pulled the dough out of the fridge and it hadn’t risen much, but it seemed very pillowly when I rolled it out so that was a good sign.

The frying wasn’t too difficult either and given our last experience with making these, I let it go a little longer than a minute on each side. I realized afterwards, having a paper bag filled with powdered sugar would have resulted in a better covered beignet. Obviously more powdered sugar would have been ideal (is it really a beignets if you aren’t coughing because of all the powdered sugar?!), but they were very good. While they were cooked in the middle, I think they could have used just a tiny bit more time frying, or maybe my dough was just a little too thick. One thing my husband recommended if we made it again was to add some freshly grated nutmeg to the dough to give it a little pop. I’d definitely make these again so I’ll keep you posted!

Recipe Used: Baker By Nature