Beignets

A special event favorite of ours are these delicious puffs of heaven called beignets.  They are essentially the French version of donuts.  My recipe has evolved considerably over the years…starting with white flour, white sugar and evaporated milk and ending up here with a lot more nourishing whole foods. I have not been brave enough to try these whole grain, but have increase the amount I have used over time.  Still with more than half whole grain, they are nice and light because the dough puffs as they fry leaving a pocket of air in the middle.

This was the first time I tried powdered sucanat on them and the flavor was different for sure, but just as good.  I am thinking I might try infusing the sugar with a vanilla bean next time.  I also realized Sunday morning I didn’t have any cheap oil in the house, so I had to use my $10 bottle of extra light olive oil. I would love to fry these in coconut oil, but the oil gets grimy from the flour that comes off the dough, so it isn’t really reusable.  I am going to look for a refined coconut oil that is less expensive for next time, any suggestions?

2 cups warm milk

4 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/3 cup honey

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup teff

3 cups sprouted spelt flour

2 cups white flour

1 tablespoon yeast

1 quart oil for frying

1 cup sucanat, powdered.

Place milk, butter, eggs, vanilla, honey, nutmeg, salt, teff and flours with yeast on top in mixing bowl and knead with dough hook for 4 minutes.  Transfer dough to large bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.  Roll dough out on flour to ¼ inch in thickness, cut into 2-3 inch squares (or what ever size and shape you want) with pizza cutter.  Heat oil to 400 degrees in a 5 quart, wide bottom pan (or fryer.)  Place 5 to 6 pieces in oil at a time, once they start to puff turn promptly with tongs. Let brown slightly and turn back onto first side to brown.  Remove from oil and place on paper towels to cool slightly.  Repeat with remaining dough.  Toss in a bag 10 at a time with powdered sucanat, shake and transfer to a serving dish.  Repeat with remaining beignets. Enjoy!

This post is shared with whole food for the holiday's, tempt my tummy tuesday, tasty tuesday and gnowfglins tuesday twister.