Print the recipe card!   beignets

Beignets, I know, are usually deep fried.  So I’m going to be in trouble with someone for deciding to bake them {there goes my shot at working at Krispy Kreme or Cafe Du Monde} but we’ve found the results “baked” are still very tasty and as long as they’re warm my kids don’t seem to care whether they’re fried or not, they gobble them up them anyway.  The good news is that by cutting out the oil for the deep frying, this doughnut “wanna be” becomes a reasonable food storage planned treat.

makes 20 beignets

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Ingredients:

1 1/8 c. warm water

2 1/4 tsp. yeast

2 tsp. + 1/2 cup sugar

1 can evaporated milk

1 tsp. salt

2 TBS whole egg powder

7 cups flour

1/4 cup shortening powder

3/4 cup powdered sugar

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Instructions:

Put the warm water in a bowl, sprinkle the yeast and 2 tsp. sugar and stir to dissolve.  Let proof for 10 minutes.  While waiting, combine all dry ingredients separately in a large bowl and set aside.  Pour the can of evaporated milk into the proofed yeast mixture.   Add this liquid to the dry mix and stir until it becomes too stiff to stir, then working in the rest of the flour by kneading.  Cover the bowl and allow to rise a minimum of one hour or overnight.

Roll the dough out onto a floured board to a thickness of 1/2 inch, then cut into desired sized squares with a pizza cutter.  Transfer dough squares to a greased baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes being very careful not to over bake.

Cover in powdered sugar and serve.

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Making the dough…

Cutting and baking…

Once baked, cover in powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

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Notes:

• Variation:  sandwich pudding or jam in between two 1/4 inch pressed dough squares (pinched closed) before baking for “filled” beignets.
• I’ve been waiting for a chance to test my sun oven out on a recipe asking for 400 degrees, curious of what would happen.  I don’t question anything calling for 350 but the 400 has had me guessing.  As you can see from my pictures, on this 60 degree day I only achieved 300 degrees in my sun oven.  The beignets still baked completely, albeit they took 4 times as long to cook (40 minutes).  Additionally, after the 40 minutes the bottom trays were still not completely done and needed another 20 minutes.  Good to know!