Beignets

The Best Beignet Recipe

With Mardi Gras right around the corner I thought it might be a good time to share my easy to make and impossible to resist beignet recipe! When making beignets (pronounced “ben-YAYs”), there are two different ways you can go about it, the traditional French way or the New Orleans way.
Traditional French beignets are made with pâte à choux (AKA, the base used for gougeres and to make the shells for my cream puffs and eclairs). While it’s unsurprising that the beignets of New Orleans stem from the same French roots, instead of being made steam-raised with choux pastry they’re instead made with a yeast-raised dough that’s very similar to a donut (only airier). Choux pastry has its place in my life, but I much prefer the fluffier, pillowy-soft, yeast-raised New Orleans-style Beignets, and this is what I modeled my version after. Let’s get started.

What You Need for Beignets

Beignets use basic, easy-to-find ingredients, and I just want to briefly touch on a few of them… Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!