Breakfast & Brunch
Queen Fritters (Beignets, French Doughnuts)
By Yankee Magazine|Apr 21 2002|
Yield:
About 18 fritters
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
vegetable oil for deep frying
fruit, preserves, or marmalade
confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
Put the butter in a saucepan and pour the water over it. As soon as water again reaches boiling point, add the flour all at once and stir until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan. Remove from heat and add unbeaten eggs, one at a time, beating mixture thoroughly between addition of eggs. Heat oil to 375 degrees F. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls and fry until well puffed and brown. Drain. Make an opening and fill the hollow inside with preserves. Sprinkle the top with confectioners’ sugar.
As a New Orleans native I was horrified at this recipe. It is actually a sopapilla. A BEIGNET is deep-fried SQUARE dough that puffs then you drain and sprinkle with powder sugar ONLY. Use a good funnel cake recipe. Mix according to directions, roll out, cut into squares, LET REST 20 minutes. THEN deep fry on HIGH heat. ENJOY! Lessez le Bon Temps Roulle!
I have made this recipe for years, but just sprinkle with powdered sugar and don’t place preserves in them. As a Pennsylvanian of Pennsylvania Dutch extraction, I can tell you that a funnel cake recipe won’t work as stated in the prior review. Funnel cake is a batter that is poured into hot fat and cannot be rolled and cut into squares as it is liquid. You can pour it into the hot fat though and it will puff up just like beignets and, served with confectioners sugar, is quite good
In all actuality, this is a French recipe for cream puffs. I have made them many times and if you place them on a cookie sheet at 425 degrees for 15 minutes and then reduce it to 325 degrees for 25 minutes they will puff up without all the oil and grease. Remove from oven and split. Turn off oven and place them back in to dry for 20 minutes. Fill with your choice, I fill with vanilla custard and top off with regal chocolate syrup.