Search
Now you can enjoy 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 fried beignet recipe! Serve beignets warm, with plenty of powdered sugar!
Copycat Café du Monde Beignets
We’re heading to New Orleans for vacation today and I couldn’t be more excited to chill out in the big easy! Give me all the fried dough, boozy iced coffees, and gumbo, please and thank you!
But before we head to the airport, I’m popping in to share my favorite deep fried beignets recipe with you. Aka copycat Café du Monde beignets, which are the best in New Orleans.
They fry up crispy, chewy, and golden brown! And you serve the beignets warm, covered in powdered sugar, with piping hot coffee. Sweet enough to be dessert but we love making these for breakfast or brunch!
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.
- Leftovers taste ok at room temperature, but they don’t hold up well over time.
- The word beignet is French, and translates to fried dough or fritter.
- Unlike traditional doughnuts, they have a unique square shape.
- Texture wise, they’re crispy on the outside, with an airy pillowy soft interior.
- When it comes to taste, they’re not overly sweet. Which is why they’re served covered in lots and lots of powdered sugar.
- Best served hot, with a cafe au lait or cup of coffee.
- You’ll need a deep fry 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 costs me less than 10 bucks, and I’ve probably used it over a hundred times!
- To proof the yeast mixture, your warm 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.
- 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. The vitamin C increases the elasticity of the gluten and its ability to retain gas as the dough rises.
- The dough will double in size as it rests. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours so it has time to properly develop.
- Fry the dough working in batches. If you crowd the oil, the beignets won’t get crispy or golden brown.
How to Serve Beignets
- As soon as you see the fried dough has achieved a golden brown color, remove them from the oil.
- Transfer them to a paper towel lined baking sheet to absorb some of the oil.
- Once cool enough to handle, transfer them to a large platter.
- Cover with powdered sugar and serve beignets warm!
As mentioned a few times earlier, I don’t suggest saving these for a future use. They get soggy after a few hours. So they’re best eaten right after making!
More Beignet Recipes:
If you can’t make it to New Orleans this year to enjoy cripsy golden brown fried dough… give it a try at home! Full step-by-step recipe video in the recipe card below!
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!
Can they be stuffed with anything…like Nutella?
Yes anything you want
What can I use instead of evaporated milk?
I’ve been eating beignets since college at Loyola New Orleans in the late 1980s. While I normally use a mix in a yellow box from a famous cafe in the French Quarter, I live overseas and making beignets by hand is really the only option. I stumbled across Baker by Nature’s recipe and it came out great, and looked like little pillows just as described! Note: I cut the ingredients in half and it still resulted in a large number of beignets (maybe 20+), so next time I might just do 25% of the recipe. Also, I used canola oil in a wok which was fine, and stored the dough in the refrigerator over night for about ten hours before frying. One trick, which comes directly from the Cafe du Mont box’s recipe, is to spoon hot oil over the top of the beignets right after they go in the oil and are still white. That ensures even ballooning of the beignets. Once they puff up and you can see that the bottom is brown, then flip them over. Many thanks Ashley!
Great trick, I’ll try this. Thank you!
Made these for Easter Sunday and they were wonderful. Growing up with beignets, I wanted to get my kids into the same tradition. I let the dough rest once I pulled it out of the fridge for about 15 minutes while the kids did their egg hunt. Then, I rolled it out and let it sit another 10-15 min while the oil heated. I used vegetable oil in a deep pot and tried to keep the temp to 350. If I went any higher, like you said, they didn’t cook through on the inside but were browned on the outside. Covered in a ton of powdered sugar like Cafe Du Monde and all kids LOVED them. Thank you so much for a great recipe!
These look SO good! Can’t wait to try them! Also, did you get the inspiration from the Princess and the Frog?
Can these be air fried?
My Family Loved it. I am definitely sharing Guys, Thanks For sharing this Great Recipe. this recipe and this website with my friend. Hope they also love it. Thank you again for sharing such a great recipe.
Thank you for a great recipe! Worked fantastic when I substituted my gluten free flour, plant butter and oatmilk. Its tricky with gluten free but they came out perfect!
I used salted butter, forgot salt. How can I fix it? Salt came up late in the recipe and I didn’t see it.
Hi Terry. Since you used salted butter, I think it’ll work out fine!
So delicious! Best beignet recipe yet! So pillowy soft and great directions and tips with using the thermometer