Sunday, September 25, 2005

Clouds for breakfast

This morning I made sweet, airy clouds also known as beignets. These little squares made from an enriched yeast dough puff up tremendously when fried. Look at how light they are inside! I wish the camera had captured the whiff of steam as my husband pulled this apart. Immediately after this photo he popped the beignet into his mouth with a very satisfied grin.
Yesterday I made the dough, which calls for a rest overnight to develop flavors and allow the yeast to work. This morning I rolled out the enriched dough so it was thin enough to expand well. Then out came the pizza wheel to cut them into two inch squares, and finally a dip into hot oil. The boys watched in amazement as each flat square ballooned and became golden. Their eyes were riveted as I lifted the almost round puffs onto the draining rack and finally gave all a dusting of powdered sugar.

Breakfast fit for a king and two very hungry princes. Hot, crisp, light puffs with a thick dusting of powdered sugar, a ginger and cardamom scented honey for dipping, and whipped Ibarra hot chocolate for sipping and dunking. My youngest decided we were all eating clouds, and I can't really argue with him. What a wonder, eating clouds for breakfast.
at

13 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:22 AM

    Your beignets turned out so lovely. Clouds indeed!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lauren12:44 PM

    Those look pretty authentic and delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous1:07 PM

    These look great. How fun that you are still cooking along with the Armature Gourmet competition. That sauce sounds very good also...Yummm

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:07 PM

    i'm glad you decided to stick with the contest even though you're not IN it.

    i'm coming over to your house next saturday morning so you can make me some beignets for breakfast :) :) :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous9:26 PM

    Kathy,

    These look fantastic. Reading all these beignet entries is definitely tempting me (something my Melissa will be happy to hear). I totally need to make a batch soon.

    ReplyDelete
  6. s'kat4:41 AM

    Those look great, Kathy, and I'd be interested in hearing what recipe it was that you used.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kathy9:52 AM

    Well, here's the recipe I would have worked off of if I had been in competition form: http://starchefs.com/chefs/pastry/JJessup/html/index.shtml (subbing something else for bananas and playing with all componants because I'm just apt to do that in general). Since I wanted something simple, I went with this: http://www.abigslice.com/beignets.html. I ended up halving the recipe and adding a bit more flour. The key to getting maximum puff seems to be temperature (hovered around 370 degrees) and thickness (1/8 inch yielded best results).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:33 AM

    Yum!

    I think "clouds" is a very accurate description!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous1:23 PM

    Yum!

    -David L.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous2:02 AM

    Pillows. Talk about sweet dreams.

    I'm so glad you're continuing with this. You were my winner for the first leg, and it's great you're willing to keep doing the work to keep raising money.

    BTW, your rolls last time were absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to have to try that recipe, myself. It made me hungry just looking at them.

    ReplyDelete
  11. s'kat7:45 AM

    Thanks, Kathy!

    ReplyDelete
  12. ~drew emborsky~2:58 PM

    Wow, those look yummy!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous8:05 PM

    Those look just like what I'd get at Morning Call or Cafe du Monde if either of those joints were open.

    Thanks for the attention to New Orleans food. I hope that in the next six months or so, we can get back up and running, and you can come experience it first hand.

    ReplyDelete