For the uninitiated, a BEIGNET is basically a deep fried fritter and can be either sweet or savoury. These deep fried delights are served hot and are very, very French in their origin. They are extremely popular in New Orleans in the Southern States of the USA, also famous for its Cajun and Louisanna Creole Cuisine.
Beignets have been popular within New Orleans Creole cuisine for many years and are customarily served as a hot dessert or in some sweet variation. They were brought to New Orleans in the 18th century by French colonists,from “the old mother country” and became a large part of home-style Creole cooking, variations often including banana or plantain – popular fruits in the port city. Beignets were declared the official state doughnut of Louisiana in 1986.
My recipe below takes Beignet cooking to a whole different level, where the fruit is puréed with the batter – in this case with a classic Choux Paste recipe especially adapted for use in your TM5 or TM31.
Beignets can also be made from a yeast batter.
Recipe to make good sized 16 – 20 souffés
- 250 g semi-skimmed milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 40 g golden caster sugar
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 150 g plain flour
- 5 g baking powder
- 3 medium eggs – room temperature
- 90 g banana – peeled and cubed
- vegetable oil for frying – BE HEALTH & SAFETY AWARE
To Serve
- Cinnamon sugar
- 400 g apricot jam
- 3 tbsp dark rum
- 2-3 tbsp water
Method
- Heat milk, butter, sugar and vanilla essence. Cover TM hole with straining basket 4 min / 100oC / Speed 1
- Add flour and baking powder. 6 seconds / Speed 4. Then 1 minute / 98oC / Speed 4 to cook out flour. Scrape down if necessary and mix again briefly.
- Remove bowl from TM5 and allow to stand for 10 minutes to cool.
- While the mixture is cooling, set your friture at 180oC. If using a saucepan, do not fill more than 1/3 full (max). Use a digital thermometer to monitor temperature fluctuations.
- Lightly whisk eggs.
- Place all Apricot Glaze ingredients into a small saucepan and set over a low heat, stirring occasionally.
- After 10 minutes, return TM bowl to your machine, cover with lid and gradually pour whisked eggs over rotating blade on Speed 4.
- Add diced banana and process for 30 secs / Speed 6.
To cook
- Heat the oil to 180oC. Scoop out one quenelle of mixture at a time using a dessert spoon and gently drop into the hot oil. Make sure you drop the mix near to the hot oil and always in a direction away from you (or others) and cook for 5-6 minutes. Turn the soufflés after a half cooking time to brown on the other side. Fry each beignet until it is fully puffed and deep brown in colour (about 5 minutes). Drain onto absorbent kitchen paper.
- Depending on the size of your pan, you can cook around 4 at a time.
- Have ready a sheet of absorbent kitchen paper, covering a plate or similar ready for draining when cooked.
- Adjust Apricot Glaze consistency if required.
To serve
- When drained, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and serve immediately on warm plates with your boozy apricot glaze.
Thermomixing with Malcy TIPS:
- Before deep frying, please make sure you read the BE HEALTH & SAFETY AWARE link above.
- ‘Test-run’ one beignet to make sure before cooking a batch. This will give you the chance to alter cooking times if necessary.
- These beautiful beignets are fabulous served with home made Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.
- Allow to cool a little and fill with some Chocolate Crème Patissière – absolute heaven!
- Use the batter straight away, for lovely light soufflés. If you refrigerate and use later, then the end product will be more ‘spongy’, but just as tasty – just less light in texture than if you use straight away!
