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Now you can have New Orleans-Style Beignets without leaving the comfort of your home! If you’ve never enjoyed these soft and pillowy fried doughnuts before, you’re in for a treat. Because this is the best beignet recipe!
Beignets Recipe
We’re heading to New Orleans for vacation today! And I’m SO ready for it. But before we head to the airport, I’m popping in so I can share these beignets with you. And while I can’t say they’re exactly as good as the ones they serve at Café du Monde (aka the best beignets in New Orleans), I can say they’re pretty darn close. So yeah, I guess you could say this is my copycat Cafe du Monde recipe!
They fry up crispy, chewy, and golden brown! Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm!
What is a Beignet?
What is a Beignet?To put it simply, beignets are square shaped pieces of dough that are deep fried and generously sprinkled with confectioners sugar. They’re best served hot and are best paired with a cup of coffee, or café au lait!
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Tips and Tricks:
- First things first: you need a deep fry (aka candy thermometer) for this recipe. Because if your hot oil temperature is off, your fried dough will be too. This is the candy thermometer I use, and I love it. It’s less than 10 bucks and I’ve probably used it over a hundred times!
- To proof the yeast mixture, your water should be between 110 and 115 degrees (F). If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast cells, and if it’s too cold, the yeast will remain dormant and the dough won’t rise.
- Because beignets are best eaten hot, I highly suggest serving these as soon as possible! Once they’ve sat, they become soggy and unappealing.
- This recipe requires bread flour. Bread flour is a high-gluten flour that has a tiny amount of barley flour and vitamin C added. The barley flour helps the yeast activate, and the vitamin C increases the elasticity of the gluten and its ability to retain gas as the dough rises.
- The dough does need to be refrigerated for at least 2 hours. The good news? It can be made up to 24 hours in advance!
- You should also know this recipe makes a TON of beignets, so I suggest having friends over to help you eat them all 😉
- Finally, don’t skip the confectioner’s sugar! Without it, the beignets are quite plain. To make “dressing” the beignets an easy affair, place them in a paper bag – a few at a time – with a generous amount of sugar and shake for a few seconds. Be sure to have paper towels nearby too… as there’s sure to be a little mess!
Serve these warm, with extra powdered sugar and strong coffee. And enjoy!
If you try this recipe for New Orleans-Style Beignets, let me know what you think! Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on instagram! Seeing your creations makes my day ♥
More Beignet Recipes:
New Orleans-Style Beignets
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups warm water, between 110 and 115 degrees (F)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 7 cups bread flour
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 cups peanut oil, for deep frying
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- In a medium-size bowl, add the warm water, sugar, and yeast and whisk well to combine. Sit aside for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture has bubbled up and become foamy.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs until smooth. Beat in the vanilla and evaporated milk. Beat in 3 and 1/2 cups of the flour until smooth. Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly pour in the yeast mixture (careful here - this mixture can splash up if added to quickly!); beat until smooth. Add in the butter and beat until incorporated. Finally, beat in the remaining 3 and 1/2 cups of flour and salt. Beat until dough is smooth and cohesive; about 2 minutes. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or up to 24 hours.
- Line a large rimmed baking sheet with three layers of paper towels, set aside.
- In a large enameled cast-iron pan, heat 4-inches of oil to 360 degrees (F). Remove the dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a 1/4-inch thick rectangle. Cut the dough into 2 and 1/2-inch squares.
- In batches, fry the dough until they puff up and are golden brown in color, about 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the beignets to the prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
- Dust with powdered sugar and serve at once!
How do you handle leftovers? I know they should be eaten as soon as they’re fried, but what if you have leftovers? Can they be frozen and reheated (baked not microwaved) or will that be too gross? Or can you freeze them after cutting them out and fry them as needed?
I have made these many times and always with great results. That said I always have to use more flour as the dough is still too tacky to handle after just 875g (7c). I usually end up using another 50-75g plus more for kneading, rolling, and proofing later. About 1k or 8c and the crumb is still very light and airy, slightly crispy exterior, and with just a little bite(chewiness) to them.
Great recipe! Really easy to make. I recommend putting it in a warmer area if you don’t have time for it to be in the fridge overnight. Will definitely be making these again!
The work and the mess were absolutely worth it! I had promised my family beignets on Christmas morning, made with the mix I bought at Cafe du Monde last fall. Turned out the shelf life on that mix is shorter than I realized, and I needed to find a from-scratch recipe. This one turned out amazing, even when cooked in stages: I fried up half the dough the morning after mixing it, then the next day I rolled and cut the other half, setting the squares between sheets of parchment in a baking dish for transport to the in-laws’. I wish I’d greased the parchment, the dough stuck a bit, but cooking some of the squares that day and some the next – now three days after making the dough – still worked fine. I will absolutely be making this again next time I have a crowd to enjoy it.
This recipe is a keeper for sure. It’s perfect. I definitely recommend proofing the dough overnight in the fridge because in my experience it does make them taste even better. These donuts are pillowy, soft, delicious and just perfect. I have had beignets at Cafe du Monde and these taste the same. We dipped our in raspberry jam. Thank you for such an amazing recipe!
Making these with some trepidation — never seen a yeast dough recipe that didn’t include time for a rise, but your comments suggest it’s not an issue 🙂
Can you cook them in a air fryer?
I wouldn’t think that an air fryer (really just a countertop-sized convection oven) would make the beignets puff up like they do in oil. But worth a try!
WOW WOW WOW! Making them again tonight! They are SO GOOD and so easy to make! When I make a batch, my husband and children ride around our community and hand them out. Some with powdered sugar and some with donut glaze! Some me of the best desserts I’ve ever made. Thank you for this recipe!
These came out perfect. I made a 1.5x recipe to use up the 12oz can of condensed milk that i had purchased and let sit overnight in the fridge. Be warned! the dough will continue to proof a bit in the refrigerator! Came out lovely all the same.
Austin it’s not condensed milk it’s evaporated milk your recipe must have been really sweet there’s a difference between these kinds of milk, consistency and sweetener.
Condensed and evaporated milk are the same thing (at least in my family). The sweetened form of condensed milk is actually labeled “sweetened condensed milk”.
While you may be correct, in practice, any recipe that calls for condensed milk likely means sweetened. So *effectively* not the same.
This recipe was honestly really easy to follow and the result was one of the best things i’ve ever made :DD made the mistake of using the dough hook, so really be sure to use the paddle or whisk on a mixer (i used a hand mixer), then switch to hooks if needed. we got the oil to the exact temp needed but a few beignets in, we stopped monitoring and it still turned out pretty well! i dont have peanut oil but maybe one of these days i can taste what that would be like :DD lastly! our grocery had no confectioner’s sugar (just my luck), but thoroughly blended sugar makes a good sub. a great recipe! i’ll be sure to try it during christmas when more people are over
You can make your own confectioner’s sugar by putting regular white sugar in a blender with a bit of corn starch (I’m sure there’s a recipe somewhere) and pulverizing it. The corn starch keeps the sugar from clumping.