New Orleans Style Beignets are the fluffiest beignets you'll ever have! Smother them in powdered sugar and enjoy with a cup of coffee!
If you love beignets, you have to try these Nutella Beignets, Cinnamon Sugar Buttermilk Donuts as well as this No-Knead Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread!
New Orleans Style beignets
Who doesn't love New Orleans Style Beignets? Does Cafe du Monde ring a bell? If you've never gone, you're seriously missing out and need to get there as soon as possible. The beignets are simply out of this world. Fluffy, deep fried, and drenched in powdered sugar - what's there not to love? Since it's currently a pandemic and I've not been able to travel, I've been recreating some of my favorite recipes that I've tried around the world - in my kitchen. Hence these New Orleans Style Beignets.
These Beignets are super easy to make, fluffy and soft, perfectly sweet, and have a deliciously outer shell with just enough crisp on the outside to give you that texture that we all love! Airy, perfectly sweet, and full of love - you can't go wrong with these beignets!
what do beignets taste like?
If you've never had a New Orleans Style Beignet, I would describe it as a cross between a funnel cake and a brioche donut. The outside is somewhat crisp like a funnel cake and the inside is buttery and fluffy. Of course with the added sugar it reminds me of a funnel cake too, but not nearly as crunchy. They've got that deliciously deep fried flavor of a funnel cake too, but as I mentioned, a super airy donut like texture on the inside. Light, sweet, deep fried perfection. It's like eating a cloud.
how do you make new orleans style beignets?
For this recipe, I promise it's super simple. I'm here to walk you through the steps (there are not many, don't worry). Since I use active dry yeast, I dissolved the yeast in a ½ cup of warm water and then combined yeast mixture, flour, buttermilk, baking powder, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, nutmeg, salt, and a little cinnamon in a stand mixer. (FYI - you don't need a stand mixer for this recipe, you can knead the dough by hand. I just use the stand mixer because it's easier!) Knead this for about 5-8 minutes, the dough should come together pretty easily, however, if it's still a little rough, add a teaspoon of melted butter.
Add the dough to a well-oiled bowl and allow it rise until it's doubled in size. At this point, you've done all of the hard work and now it's simply time to wait. Ok, the waiting may be the hardest part honestly, but you're getting closer to your New Orleans Style Beignets! Stay strong!
Once doubled in size, heat about 5 cups of oil in a large pot to 360-380 degrees F. Roll out the dough onto a floured work surface. Use a dough roller/rolling pin to smooth dough into a 12 x 18 rectangle. Cut the dough into squares (whatever size you like). Then fry up the square beignets for about 2-3 minutes, 1-1.5 minutes on each side. Beignets should be nice and golden and should puff up ever so slightly! And there you have it, New Orleans Style Beignets!
how long can you store beignets?
I would say that the only down side of beignets are that they taste best fresh out of the oil. They don't keep very well. Per my experience, they can certainly be reheated (about 10 seconds in the microwave) but they don't have the same texture as when they're fresh out of the oil. But! They will keep for about 3 days... they just taste best on day one in my opinion.
what's the difference between a beignet and a donut?
The ingredients for beignets and donuts are quite similar, however, the quantities differ. This differences in these quantities make it so that beignets aren't as dense as donuts. Donuts tend to have a more dense crumb where beignets are more light and pillowy.
what do you eat with new orleans style beignets?
SO many things! I love eating New Orleans Style Beignets with apricot preserves with a cup of coffee or tea. My husband likes his beignets with a cup of black coffee and tons of powdered sugar. Fresh fruit goes really well with beignets too! You can also eat beignets alone because they're simply delicious. However, simply put - you can truly eat them with anything that you like!
While you're here, you have to try out thee Matcha Beignets and these Cacio e Pepe Beignets too!
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New Orleans Style Beignets
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Dutch Oven or Large Pot
Ingredients
- 4 cups All-Purpose Flour
- ½ cup Water
- ½ cup Buttermilk
- ½ cup Sugar + 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 ¼ tsp Active Dry Yeast
- 2 tbsps Salted Butter, room temperature
- 2 eggs
- Pinch of Nutmeg
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 5 cup vegetable oil, any neutral oil with high smoke point
- 2 cups Powdered Sugar
Directions
- Warm ½ cup of water in the microwave for about 20 seconds, until lukewarm. Add 2 ¼ tsp of yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar and whisk together. Allow yeast to dissolve for about 10 minutes.
- In a stand mixer, combine flour, buttermilk, yeast mixture, sugar, baking powder, vanilla extract, butter, eggs, pinch of nutmeg, kosher salt, and cinnamon. Using the dough hook attachment, knead on medium for about 5-8 minutes, allowing the dough to come together. If dough is not coming together, add an additional teaspoon of melted butter.
- Once dough is smooth, add to a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Allow dough to rise in a warm area for about 1-2 hours, until doubled in size.
- Once dough has risen, begin heating oil in a large dutch oven pot to 360-380 degrees F.
- Roll dough into a 12 x 18 rectangle. Cut dough into squares. Fry each beignet for 2-3 minutes, about 1-1.5 minutes on each side. Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes then sprinkle with powdered sugar,
- Top with chocolate shavings/pieces for added flavor!
These came out so good! Way easier to make than I thought, thanks!
Thank you, so glad to hear!
Made these last week for Mardi Gras. They were perfectly crispy and airy. Better than cafe du monde!!
Woohoo!
Being from Utah (land of jello salad and freeze dried meals), I’ve never had the pleasure of eating a beignet. Luckily for me that has now changed. My kids and I made these without any issue and smothered them in honey and powdered sugar á la Princess and the Frog. I’ve never fried dough before so I had a bit of a learning curve with getting the temp of the oil right, but once I got that down each beignet turned our fluffy and soft. I loved that the ingredients for these were fairly simple and things I usually have on hand. We will for sure be adding this recipe to our tried and true favorites.
Omg yay! This makes me so happy! I love that you added honey and powdered sugar on top like princess and the frog, that's so fun! Thank you for review 🙂
Wow! These beignets brought back so many memories for me! I’ve had some amazing beignets in my time, these were up there with them!
These beignets are so fluffy and so good! I could not stop eating them! Thanks for the great recipe!
I've been itching to visit New Orleans lately and your beignets transported me back without leaving my house. Thank you!
I am a beignet connoissuer and these were definitely the best beignets I have ever had in my life - Even better than the ones I tried when I was in New Orleans
I miss Cafe du Monde SO MUCH and thanks to this (surprisingly easy) recipe I was able to make some beignets this weekend that were just as good! Thank you so much!
If we could eat these every day, we would! They were the perfect representation of what I grew up enjoying in Louisiana. We'll be making these again!
I was so happy I could find all these ingredients right here in Kenya. The benigets are very airy, soft and flavorful. Everyone loved them.