Recipe:Beer Beignets

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One good recipe: Beer Beignets

By Gretchen McKay / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Beer Beignets

 

PG tested

Each year for the Steel City Big Pour beer, food and art festival, the PG food team -- yours truly, plus food editor Bob Batz Jr. and homes editor Kevin Kirkland --  prepares a beer-themed treat for the crowd. This is no small task: about 1,600 people attend each of two sessions at Construction Junction, and after hours of sampling various local and regional brews, they’re hungry. And they want their eats quick. 

Over the past three years, we’ve garnered what we think is a well-deserved reputation for creating really tasty, sample-sized, beery desserts: chocolate porter and pumpkin ale milkshakes, stout-and-sauerkraut chocolate cake, pumpkin ale cheesecake and maple syrup and porter-poached apples, for which Kevin peeled bushels of Granny Smiths by hand.

For last week’s pour, we kept to the dessert theme with an indulgent southern treat: beer beignets. 

A favorite eat in New Orleans (they’re the official state doughnut of Louisiana),  these deep-fried dough balls couldn’t be easier to make. The dough rises overnight in the refrigerator, and cooks in hot oil in just a few minutes.  

We served them with powdered sugar and a beer icing made from confectioners’ sugar mixed with beer.  Any beer will do -- the more flavourful, the better.

Ingredients:

1¼ teaspoons active dry yeast

1 tablespoon plus 1/3 cup sugar, divided

3/4 cup warm beer (about 105 degrees)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1/2 cup evaporated milk or buttermilk

3 to 3½ cups flour

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter

Oil for deep frying

Powdered sugar for dusting

In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast, 1 tablespoon of sugar and the warm beer; stir until thoroughly dissolved. Set aside for 10 to 15 minutes until mixture is frothy on top. Using a hook attachment on your mixer, add the rest of the sugar, salt, the egg and the evaporated milk.

In a separate bowl, add the nutmeg to the flour and stir until combined. Slowly add half the flour mixture into the wet mixture and mix until smooth. Add in the coconut oil or butter and mix on medium speed until incorporated. Reduce the speed and add in the remaining flour, kneading until smooth and elastic. Transfer dough to bowl sprayed generously with nonstick spray, then cover with plastic wrap and place in the the fridge overnight. Remove dough from fridge and allow to come to room temperature before frying. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 2- to 3-inch squares.

Heat oil in a deep pot to 360 degrees. Once oil has reached the right temperature, fry 2 to 3 beignets at a time to avoid overcrowding in the pan. Turn them over as needed to get an even, golden-brown color. Remove and drain on a paper towels, then top with a generous sprinkle of powdered sugar and serve immediately.

Makes about 50 beignets.

-- Adapted from hecooksshecooks.com

 

September 7, 2014 7:38 PM