New Orleans Beignets
Squares of a very wet, eggy yeast dough fried until they balloon, then buried in powdered sugar, the French Quarter coffee-stand doughnut, made at home.
Beignet is French, but a New Orleans beignet is not what most French cooks mean by the word. 64 Parishes, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities' encyclopedia, says that in France the word usually means a fritter of pâte à choux (cream puff dough), that beignets probably reached Louisiana with French-speaking colonists in the 18th century, and that further claims about their local origin are conjecture; the "Picayune Creole Cook Book" of 1900 filed them under fritters (Rien Fertel:). New Orleans & Company, the city's tourism office, says French-Creole colonists brought them and that Café du Monde has served them since 1862. 64 Parishes adds the details: Fred Koeniger opened Café du Monde in 1862 as a coffee stand for butchers in the French Market; nobody knows when fried dough joined the menu; by the 1920s both it and its rival Morning Call (founded 1870) sold the squares as "doughnuts"; and the stands renamed them beignets as tourism grew around mid-century. On July 3, 1964, the day after the Civil Rights Act was signed, Café du Monde served its first Black customers. Today's New Orleans beignet is a raised dough, typically square (Wikipedia:).
🇺🇸 This one is American
Squares of a very wet, eggy yeast dough fried until they balloon, then buried in powdered sugar, the French Quarter coffee-stand doughnut, made at home.
🇳🇱 The original
The ancestor is Dutch: oliebollen, balls of yeast dough studded with currants and raisins, fried in oil and dusted with powdered sugar, which settlers brought to New Amsterdam as olykoeks. See the Dutch Oliebollen (New Year's Eve Doughnuts) recipe.
📖 What's wrong with this picture?: Are Beignets Doughnuts? What the French Word Really Means →
Why it works the kitchen science
A wet dough makes steam
The high-moisture dough turns to steam in the hot oil, which blows each square up into a hollow, honeycombed pillow (ATK).
Rise in the cold
Chilling the dough for its hour-long rise firms it enough to roll and cut cleanly without adding extra flour that would make the beignets tough (ATK).
Step by step
- Step 1
Stir the warm water, 1 tbsp sugar and the yeast in a large bowl and let stand about 5 minutes, until foamy. In another bowl, mix the flour, remaining 2 tbsp sugar and salt.
- Step 2
Whisk the eggs and 2 tbsp oil into the yeast mixture, add the flour mixture and stir hard with a rubber spatula until a sticky dough forms.
- Step 3
Cover and refrigerate about 1 hour, until nearly doubled; the cold firms the very wet dough so you can roll it.
- Step 4
Generously flour the counter and a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pat half the dough into a rectangle, flip to coat it in flour, roll it 1/4 inch thick (about 12 by 9 inches) and cut twelve 3-inch squares with a pizza wheel. Move them to the floured sheet and repeat with the rest.
- Step 5
Heat about 1 1/2 inches of oil in a large Dutch oven to 350°F. Fry 6 squares at a time about 3 minutes, flipping halfway, until puffed and golden brown, keeping the oil between 325°F and 350°F.
- Step 6
Drain on a wire rack, bring the oil back to 350°F and fry the rest. Bury them in powdered sugar and serve immediately.
New Orleans Beignets
Serves 8 (three beignets each) · about 24 beignets · 2 hr total
Dough
- 1 cup water, heated to 110°F
- 3 tbsp sugar, divided
- 1 tbsp instant or rapid-rise yeast
- 3 cups (425 g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Frying and finishing
- 2 quarts vegetable oil, for frying
- About 1 cup powdered sugar, for a heavy dusting
Method
- Stir the warm water, 1 tbsp sugar and the yeast in a large bowl and let stand about 5 minutes, until foamy. In another bowl, mix the flour, remaining 2 tbsp sugar and salt.
- Whisk the eggs and 2 tbsp oil into the yeast mixture, add the flour mixture and stir hard with a rubber spatula until a sticky dough forms.
- Cover and refrigerate about 1 hour, until nearly doubled; the cold firms the very wet dough so you can roll it.
- Generously flour the counter and a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pat half the dough into a rectangle, flip to coat it in flour, roll it 1/4 inch thick (about 12 by 9 inches) and cut twelve 3-inch squares with a pizza wheel. Move them to the floured sheet and repeat with the rest.
- Heat about 1 1/2 inches of oil in a large Dutch oven to 350°F. Fry 6 squares at a time about 3 minutes, flipping halfway, until puffed and golden brown, keeping the oil between 325°F and 350°F.
- Drain on a wire rack, bring the oil back to 350°F and fry the rest. Bury them in powdered sugar and serve immediately.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen (Cook's Country), "Beignets" by Rebeccah Marsters (September 17, 2013), as written for about 2 dozen. Café du Monde's recipe is secret; this is a home version. The amount of powdered sugar counted is our estimate. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Serve with café au lait; New Orleans coffee stands traditionally use coffee with chicory.
- Shake the beignets in a paper bag with powdered sugar for full coverage, the coffee-stand way.
- Eat them hot; beignets go flat and chewy as they cool.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Beignets are the official state doughnut of Louisiana, since 1986. Disputed: StateSymbolsUSA and Louisiana tourism pages say the legislature named it in 1986, but CooksInfo says its researchers could not find the designation in Louisiana's records; we could not find the act either.
- The Ursuline nuns brought the recipe from France in 1727. Folklore: repeated by travel sites as legend; 64 Parishes calls local-origin claims conjecture.
- Acadians brought beignets to Louisiana. Disputed: Wikipedia repeats it from Café du Monde's own website; 64 Parishes credits French-speaking colonists generally and calls the rest conjecture.
- Café du Monde's recipe has not changed since 1862. Folklore: 64 Parishes says it is unclear when fried dough was even added to the menu.
- New Orleans always called them beignets. Documented as false: 64 Parishes says they were sold as "doughnuts" from at least the 1920s until the stands renamed them around mid-century.
- A French beignet is a choux fritter. Documented (64 Parishes); the New Orleans square is a yeast dough.
Every other doughnut
Dutch Oliebollen (New Year's Eve Doughnuts)
Scoops of soft yeast batter studded with raisins and currants, fried round and golden and buried in powdered sugar, the Dutch New Year's Eve treat and a cousin of the olykoeks the Dutch made in old New York.
German Berliner (Jam-Filled Krapfen)
Soft balls of butter-and-egg yeast dough fried with their pale "collar", rolled in sugar and piped full of jam: the German jelly doughnut, called Berliner, Pfannkuchen, Krapfen or Kreppel depending on where you buy it.
Polish Pączki (Fat Thursday Doughnuts)
Extra-rich jelly doughnuts made with egg yolks, butter and vanilla, fried deep mahogany, tossed in powdered sugar and filled with plum, rose petal or raspberry jam for Fat Thursday.
Israeli Sufganiyot (Hanukkah Jelly Doughnuts)
Small yeast doughnuts scented with cinnamon, fried hot and fast for Hanukkah, filled with a spoonful of berry or plum preserves and rolled in sugar, from Joan Nathan's 1979 holiday cookbook.
Portuguese Malasadas (and Hawaii's Malasada Day)
Hole-less yeast doughnuts made with bread flour, milk and eggs, patted into disks, fried golden and tossed in sugar while hot: the Portuguese Shrove Tuesday treat that became Hawaii's Malasada Day.
Tuscan Bomboloni alla Crema (Custard Doughnuts)
Big, cloud-soft Italian doughnuts made from a folded yeast dough, fried slow and pale gold, filled with lemon-and-vanilla pastry cream and dusted with powdered sugar, the way Tuscan bakeries and beach carts sell them.
Greek Loukoumades (Honey Doughnut Puffs)
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Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts
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Apple Cider Doughnuts
Tender cake doughnuts flavored with apple, buttermilk, cinnamon and nutmeg, fried in two minutes and tossed in cinnamon sugar, the fall orchard and cider-mill classic made at home.
Baked Weeknight Doughnuts (Cinnamon Sugar)
Tender nutmeg cake doughnuts baked in a doughnut pan in 10 minutes and shaken in cinnamon sugar while warm: no yeast, no frying, about half an hour start to finish.
Hot Glazed Doughnuts, Inspired by Krispy Kreme
Light, fluffy yeast rings made with shortening, fried in shortening and dipped while warm in a thin, warm glaze of powdered sugar, milk and corn syrup, a home take on the famous hot glazed doughnut. Inspired by, not official.
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