Easy Homemade Beignets
These easy homemade beignets are absolutely divine! They’re light and fluffy, with the perfect amount of sweetness. So delicious and easy to make!
Each year my family makes a bucket list of fall activities, and we have so much fun crossing off all of our favorites as the season progresses. We add things like visiting the pumpkin patch, going apple picking, decorating Halloween cookies, picking up hot chocolate, and going for a drive to see the leaves. One of our favorite items on the list is making homemade doughnuts!
We usually make these homemade Krispy Kreme doughnuts (which are totally delicious!) but this year we decided to change things up and try beignets instead. They are one of our favorite treats, but I’ve never made them successfully at home in the past. We had some recently at one of our favorite local doughnut shops (Nola Doughnuts) and I’ve been craving them ever since!
While I was in the midst of my beignet cravings, I stumbled across this beignet recipe from Bless This Mess on Instagram, and it was kismet! They are so simple and easy to make, and absolutely delicious. The insides are soft and pillowy, and the outsides are just slightly crisp. They are really fun to watch as they cook, because they puff up so much, and develop huge air bubbles. I’m not generally a fan of deep frying things, but it’s definitely worth making an exception for these doughnuts! (Although… my husband recently bought himself a deep fryer, so you may be seeing more fried recipes around here soon, if he has anything to say about it!)
This recipe makes 24 good-sized beignets, so there are plenty to share with friends or just enjoy by yourself over several days. (I won’t tell if you don’t want to share them!) They only lasted two days at my house, but they were still fresh and delicious the next day after being stored loosely covered at room temperature. I’m sure they would be even better warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds. If you love beignets like we do (or if you just love delicious treats) you definitely need to try these!
Easy Homemade Beignets
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 – 3 1/2 cups flour
- confectioners sugar for dusting
- oil for frying
Instructions
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the water, yeast and sugar. Let stand for five minutes, until foamy. Add the eggs, oil, and salt, and mix to combine. Add two cups of flour and mix, then continue to add the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is only slightly sticky to the dough. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise for one hour.
- Toward the end of the rise time, preheat at least two inches of oil in a pot or a deep fryer to 350. Gently deflate the dough and separate it in half. Roll each half of the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle that is about 9 inches by 12 inches and 1/2 inch thick. Cut each rectangle into 12 3 x 3 inch squares. Fry the beignets, 3-4 at a time, for about one minute per side, or until deep golden brown. Let the beignets drain on paper towels for a few minutes, then dust liberally with powdered sugar on both sides. Serve hot.
