Recipe - Beignets French Market Doughnuts

1 pack Active dry yeast
1 One half cup Warm water (100115 degrees
F)
One half cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
2 lg Eggs
1 cup Evaporated milk
7 cup Flour
One fourth cup Vegetable shortening
Oil for deep frying
Confectioner's sugar for
dusting (or burying,
depending on taste)

Put the warm water into a large bowl, then sprinkle in the yeast and a
couple teaspoons of the sugar and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Let
proof for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the sugar, salt, eggs, and evaporated
milk. Gradually stir in 4 cups of the flour and beat with a wooden spoon
until smooth and thoroughly blended. Beat in the shortening, then add the
remaining flour, about 1/3 cup at a time, beating it in with a spoon until
it becomes too stiff to stir, then working in the rest with your hands.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight in a greased
bowl.

Roll the dough out onto a floured board or marble pastry surface to a
thickness of 1/8 inch, then cut it into rectangles 2One half inches by 31/2
inches with a sharp knife. Heat the oil in a deep fryer to 360 degrees F.
Fry the beignets about 3 or 4 at a time until they are puffed out and
golden brown on both sides, about 23 minutes per batch. Turn them over in
the oil with tongs once or twice to get them evenly brown, since they rise
to the surface of the oil as soon as they begin to puff out. Drain each
batch, place on a platter lined with several layers of paper towels, and
keep warm in a 200 degree F oven until they're all done. Pronounced
"benYAYS", these are the rectangular doughnuts (no holes) served fresh and
hot around the clock at Cafe du Monde in the French Market. (Another former
French Market coffeehouse, Morning Call, moved to ... Metairie. Ugh.) When
you hear people talking about "goin' fo' coffee an' doughnuts", this is
what they mean. Cafe du Monde is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is
usually quite busy at all hours.

These aren't terribly difficult to prepare at home. Even though there's a
CDM Beignet Mix (just add water, and it's as "easy as
undeuxtroisquatre", as the box says), it's not available out of New
Orleans, and making this from scratch is fun. The yeast dough must be
prepared in advance and refrigerated overnight. It seems that for home
preparation the dough works better in the large quantity given here, enough
for about 5 dozen beignets. Don't worry, though ... the dough keeps well
under refrigeration for about a week. Just cut off some dough when you want
to make beignets roll it out, cut it up, and fry for about 3 minutes per
batch. Don't forget the powdered sugar, lots of it. Or, just invite enough
people over to eat all 5 dozen.

Serve, of course, with piping hot cafe au lait made with Community Coffee.

Serve 3 beignets per person, sprinkling heavily with powdered sugar, and
serve hot with cafe au lait.

Typos By Jim Kirk captain@iquest.net by somebody@somewhere.com
Posted to MMRecipes Digest V4 #280 by Jim Kirk captain@iquest.net on Oct
24, 1997