Little Pillows of Delicious

The story begins about a week ago when I asked my colleague Andrew to bring me back a present from his work trip to New Orleans. Lucky for him, he brought me back the below amazing gift.

If this photo is an indication of anything...it should be that this will be a photo heavy post.

So since this alligator, er.. crocodile...gator type animal oven mit is from New Orleans it only seemed right to make something from the lovely south. Beignets it is!

What is a beignet you ask? A little pillow of delicious. I'm not a pro but after making these I believe these are donuts without holes. I digress.

If you're going to make these you'll need some equipment. You'll want this equipment so you don't burn down your house or make it smell like the floor of McDonalds. And because Hubs wanted to avoid both of these inevitable situations he picked me up, what I like to call, "Baby Mini Fry Daddy." Another handy tool Hubs picked up is a Flipper. The Flipper is clutch if you like your finger prints so, yeah. Yay for that!

Here are the ingredients and the recipe I used now that all the equipment was available:

• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water (don't get crazy with boiling or ice water people...somewhere in between. Why? No f-ing clue)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 envelope active dry yeast (there is a different in yeast types...that's all we'll say about that)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup evaporated milk (different then cereal milk)
• 7 cups of bread flour (don't even think about using all-purpose, self rising, normal human flour)
• 1/4 cup shortening (fatty fatty. No literally it is fat)
• Oil, for frying (you'll need about a quart)
• And at least 5 cups of powdered sugar

Mix water (not hot you fool!), sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Now that I am looking at this recipe and retyping it...I just noticed it said let sit for 10 minutes. I did not do this. Whoops.

Ten minutes later, in another bowl, beat the eggs, salt and evaporated milk together. Add the egg mix to the yeast mix that's been sitting there for 10 minutes.

Sift the bread flour into another bowl - be sure all of your bowls, spoons, etc. are clean in your kitchen...you'll be using many items.

Add three cups (why three? no flipping clue) of flour to the mix until mixed. Add shortening and continue to add in flour. It is crazy sticky. So please don't underestimate the amount of flour you'll need to put the dough on to knead until smooth...and not so sticky.

Spray a large bowl (larger than you think you'll need) with non stick spray and put the dough in it. And here's the kicker. Cover it with a dry dish towel and set aside in a warm place for at least 2 hours. Shocked and annoyed? Yup, ya are.

Here are a few things that I did in those two unexpected hours I had to kill last night:

• Take out the trash
• Strip the bed
• Two loads of laundry
• Mop the basement floor (it is always dirty...no one ever goes down there but it is always so flipping dirty!)
• Put away newly washed clothes and remake bed while re-watching the episode of The Office when they're at the beach and they wrestle in the sumo outfits - classic
• Wash and put away the 24 dishes and spoons used to get to this point
• Um....I think that was it.

Two hours later the dough in the bowl is doubled in size and spilling over the sides of the bowl.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface so it's a 1/4 inch thick. The dough is really springy so when you roll it out flour will go everywhere meaning onto your feet.

After the dough is rolled out preheat your fryer to 350 degrees and cut the dough with a pizza cutter. Depending on how big your fryer is cut them to 1x1 or 2x1 pieces.



Ta-da!



I don't know how else you tell that oil is ready unless you have a fryer that tells you. I got nothin' for ya' otherwise.

So now that the little squares are ready...it is time to go outside! Here's a few photos to show you what I was dealing with in the elements.



Reptile friend loves some fried goodness





Joey served as quality control while Sammie did a
million laps around the backyard following my shadow.




These don't take long to golden up on each side and you can do several at a time without fear of creating  MEGA BEIGNET. When their light brown on each side toss them into a paper bag with some paper towels in it. And then after lots of frying, flipping, splattering and so on later take out the paper towels and dump in the powdered sugar and just shake the crap out of the bag.

Pillows of delicious in a bag people!!

A quick lesson learned from this morning however - if you put these lovelies into a bag and let them set overnight they will look more like glazed donuts. These seem like they are best made and served in the same 12 hours. Noted.

Also a shout out to Mom for my sweet new apron. That's right, it has the name of the blog on it. This just in the blog is now known as, "Face Plant into Fatty Goodness." Just kidding. :)

Yum,

Laura