Beignets with Chocolate-Chicory Sauce

Brown Sugar Kitchen

I've made beignets from a mix before, but never entirely from scratch. In this recipe, I made a mistake in the very first steps, but even so they worked out okay and tasted great. I'll likely make them again just to see if the dough works out a little better, without being quite so sticky.

We had leftover dough, so when we made these the second time I rolled them out and cut them into rough squares, which is how you get them at Café du Monde, the most well-known beignet spot in the US. I think we liked them better that way!

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather
[00:07]: today we're going to be making beignets
[00:09]: with chocolate chicory sauce
[00:10]: from uh tonya holland's brown sugar
[00:13]: kitchen
[00:15]: and this is going to take a little while
[00:16]: we're going to have them for brunch so
[00:18]: we need to get rolling because it's
[00:19]: already like 10 o'clock and
[00:21]: they they're a yeast bread so they have
[00:23]: to rise for an hour so we're going to go
[00:24]: ahead and get
[00:25]: the dough rising before we do everything
[00:29]: else even though in the recipe
[00:30]: she has making the sauce first this
[00:32]: makes more sense to me
[00:34]: so we have a mixer with a paddle
[00:38]: attachment
[00:39]: and we're going to add
[00:42]: some eggs we have some
[00:47]: uh oh evaporated milk so we need a can
[00:50]: of evaporated milk for this i'm gonna
[00:53]: use this it will work this time i swear
[00:56]: this key
[01:01]: put the whole can in
[01:07]: and then some salt
[01:13]: all right we're just gonna mix this up
[01:14]: until it just sort of comes together
[01:16]: it won't take long all right
[01:20]: now uh we've already
[01:23]: sort of proofed our yeast
[01:26]: this was the yeast and just
[01:29]: a little bit of warm water that we let
[01:32]: sit for five minutes
[01:34]: plus some we're going to put this in
[01:36]: here now
[01:39]: and we have some melted butter which i'm
[01:42]: also going to use my spatula to put in
[01:43]: here
[01:47]: and now we let's see oh we're just going
[01:50]: to
[01:52]: stir it in all right
[01:56]: that is fine
[02:02]: now we're going to on low we're going to
[02:05]: add about
[02:06]: half of this flour that i've already
[02:08]: pre-measured
[02:10]: in this bowl so i'm going to go ahead
[02:12]: and turn the mixer on low
[02:14]: and on stir and
[02:17]: my mixer register the lowest setting and
[02:19]: try to put in half of this flour
[02:24]: all right i'm gonna scrape down the
[02:26]: sides
[02:28]: try to get the flower off the top of my
[02:30]: paddle attachment
[02:31]: because that always happens when you do
[02:35]: this
[02:40]: back to stir and the rest of our flour
[02:43]: goes in
[02:47]: all right so i'm going to just scrape
[02:49]: this down and make sure i get all of the
[02:51]: flour into it and then we're just going
[02:53]: to keep
[02:53]: mixing until it kind of comes to a ball
[02:56]: but it's going to be sticky so
[02:58]: mine looks really sticky so we'll see
[03:01]: what happens
[03:07]: at about five minutes in i'm starting to
[03:09]: be um starting to think i'm not sure i'm
[03:12]: going to get
[03:13]: a smooth ball out of this and i might
[03:16]: need to add more flour
[03:18]: and go for a little while longer all
[03:21]: right
[03:23]: this has been 10 minutes and i am sure
[03:26]: i'm not going to get a ball out of this
[03:28]: it's looking a little bit better but not
[03:29]: entirely i'm gonna add
[03:32]: like a small spoonful of flour at a time
[03:35]: until i get
[03:36]: a bowl a bowl until i get a ball
[03:39]: a smooth ball but still sticky so i
[03:41]: don't want it like super dry
[03:42]: but i want it all come together off the
[03:45]: sides
[03:49]: okay i've added about
[03:52]: seven more just standard table
[03:55]: spoons so like a teaspoon i don't know
[03:58]: my guess is about another quarter cup of
[04:01]: flour
[04:02]: um and it's still kind of sticking to
[04:04]: the sides but i'm going to call this
[04:06]: good
[04:07]: and i'm going to oil up the bowl that i
[04:08]: had my flour in
[04:10]: and put this dough in it cover it with
[04:13]: plastic wrap
[04:14]: and let it rise for one hour
[04:17]: so my bowl is oiled and i'm just going
[04:19]: to put this in there as well as i can
[04:22]: um
[04:25]: it's very sticky still
[04:30]: there we go i'm not going to bother
[04:33]: making it a whole bowl because we are
[04:35]: not
[04:36]: actual a whole ball because we're not
[04:38]: actually going to roll this
[04:39]: out so sticky is probably
[04:42]: fine even this sticky um
[04:47]: but if you've never had beignets they
[04:49]: are basically just
[04:50]: a fried doughnut but not in a donut
[04:53]: shape
[04:53]: so um in
[04:58]: louisiana in new orleans cafe du monde
[05:01]: is sort of the
[05:03]: uh well-known place that does beignets
[05:06]: and they're usually sort of
[05:08]: rolled out and cut out into squares but
[05:11]: that is not what this recipe
[05:14]: has you do with this dough um
[05:17]: so i will be interested to see how
[05:21]: they turn out that is interesting
[05:25]: very well developed gluten it feels like
[05:29]: in there
[05:30]: um very sticky stick together kind of
[05:33]: dough
[05:37]: and beignets are fried um
[05:40]: [Music]
[05:42]: so they're a yeasted like a yeasted
[05:44]: donut that is
[05:45]: fried in oil so we're gonna do that
[05:49]: and the other thing about this recipe is
[05:52]: the chocolate chicory sauce
[05:56]: chicory is a
[05:59]: sort of a coffee substitute
[06:03]: it when you brew it it turns out a
[06:05]: little bit like coffee
[06:07]: but uh cafe du monde as i
[06:11]: as i that i mentioned already with the
[06:13]: beignets um
[06:16]: uses a mixture of chicory
[06:19]: in their coffee so
[06:23]: and we're going to use some of that
[06:24]: coffee in the sauce
[06:26]: so while this rises i'm going to get all
[06:29]: ready
[06:30]: for my chocolate chicory sauce
[06:33]: and we will meet you at the stove when
[06:36]: we're ready to make it
[06:37]: so got everything ready for my chocolate
[06:39]: chicory sauce and
[06:41]: the chicory is going to come from this
[06:44]: cafe du monde
[06:45]: coffee you can find it ground in a lot
[06:48]: of grocery stores
[06:49]: across the united states don't know
[06:50]: about other places but
[06:52]: any coffee that has chicory in it is
[06:54]: fine but
[06:56]: this is what i could find
[06:60]: and so we're going to make a chocolate
[07:01]: sauce with this so my chocolate
[07:04]: is supposed to be bittersweet chocolate
[07:06]: so i have some of these
[07:08]: bittersweet chocolate chips that i had
[07:10]: on hand and then this
[07:11]: is a 72 percent cacao bar
[07:15]: you want to chop it i didn't touch the
[07:17]: chips but i
[07:18]: chopped the bar up it's about half and
[07:21]: half because that's just
[07:22]: happened to be what i had and here we
[07:25]: have some heavy cream
[07:27]: that i'm going to put over
[07:31]: medium heat there we go and i'm going to
[07:34]: add
[07:35]: the coffee the chicory coffee
[07:42]: and i'm going to add one cinnamon stick
[07:46]: and just just add sugar to this
[07:50]: the sugar is supposed to go in the in
[07:52]: the bread
[07:54]: and i did not put the sugar in the bread
[07:55]: how did i not put the sugar in the bread
[07:57]: so i made
[07:58]: a big mistake so
[08:01]: i've got some sugar here that i was like
[08:03]: wait there's no sugar in the sauce so
[08:05]: why do i have sugar here because i'd
[08:07]: already measured out all of my
[08:08]: ingredients
[08:09]: um and i realized that i was supposed to
[08:11]: put the sugar
[08:12]: with the yeast and the water in
[08:16]: the dough
[08:19]: so i'm gonna go and uh mix this
[08:22]: into the dough by hand and we'll see
[08:24]: what happens i don't know
[08:26]: i'm very sad but we're gonna let this
[08:29]: come up to a simmer on medium heat
[08:31]: while i'm doing that makes this makes
[08:33]: sense as to why my dough might have been
[08:35]: a little bit
[08:36]: too sticky and dry because sugar
[08:40]: absorbs water so
[08:43]: that makes sense mixed it in it doesn't
[08:46]: mix in very well at this stage
[08:48]: we'll see what happens if i have to
[08:50]: remake this i will i'm sure
[08:52]: we'll have enough of the sauce left over
[08:55]: because i doubt my kids are even gonna
[08:57]: touch this sauce honestly
[08:59]: um okay
[09:04]: so we're still we're still waiting for
[09:07]: this to come up
[09:09]: to a simmer and uh like i said there's
[09:12]: no sugar in this sauce so i think it's
[09:13]: going to be a fairly
[09:15]: uh bitter chocolate sauce but we'll see
[09:18]: i can tell i'm almost at a simmer
[09:20]: because i can kind of see the top of it
[09:23]: moving a little bit
[09:27]: bubbles coming up but it's not quite
[09:28]: breaking the surface yet
[09:37]: smells very nutty i think the uh the
[09:40]: chicory
[09:41]: uh provides a bit of a nutty flavor to
[09:43]: the coffee
[09:45]: i would call this a simmer we're getting
[09:46]: a bubble sort of all over
[09:48]: starting to come up but it's not a full
[09:50]: boil which is what we want
[09:51]: so i'm going to turn this off and we're
[09:53]: going to pour this into our
[09:55]: chocolate in a heat proof bowl that was
[09:58]: very important
[10:00]: and we're going to let this sit for two
[10:03]: minutes
[10:03]: undisturbed it's been sitting for two
[10:06]: minutes
[10:07]: and i'm gonna yeah it's not very hot up
[10:09]: here move this here so you can see
[10:12]: i've got to find the cinnamon stick
[10:15]: there it is and we're just going to take
[10:18]: that out
[10:20]: i'm not going to use that again
[10:27]: we're going to whisk just until it's
[10:31]: smooth
[10:32]: it is definitely a bittersweet sauce not
[10:34]: a very sweet sauce but it's
[10:36]: delicious and hopefully our beignets
[10:40]: will turn out as sweet as they are
[10:41]: supposed to be
[10:44]: and uh this will be a good
[10:46]: counterbalance to that
[10:49]: all right now we are supposed to keep
[10:52]: this in a warm place until we're ready
[10:54]: to serve
[10:54]: i'm just gonna put it in my warming
[10:56]: drawer with the dough
[10:57]: and when we're ready to serve it'll be
[10:60]: there
[11:01]: so because i made a big mistake with my
[11:04]: dough i'm gonna let it go for maybe a
[11:06]: little bit longer because i sort of
[11:08]: mixed
[11:08]: mixed it up a little bit after it was
[11:11]: about 15 minutes
[11:12]: so i'm going to let it go a little bit
[11:13]: longer and before i
[11:15]: take it out and fry it up but we'll be
[11:18]: back when we're ready to fry up the
[11:20]: vinegar
[11:22]: so my dough has been rising for about an
[11:26]: hour since i added the sugar so
[11:28]: it looks really good it looks uh very
[11:30]: well risen
[11:32]: and spongy so that's good and now i have
[11:36]: to punch that
[11:37]: down and i'm sure i will get
[11:40]: really messy when i do but that's okay
[11:45]: so i'm just going to
[11:49]: punch the air out
[11:54]: and there we go that's good
[11:57]: so this recipe has you
[12:00]: scoop the dough into the oil so i have a
[12:04]: have a scooper she says about a
[12:05]: tablespoon it's about what this is it's
[12:08]: my smallest disher
[12:10]: so i'm going to do that however the ones
[12:13]: in the book
[12:14]: those look like they've been rolled out
[12:16]: and cut out like
[12:18]: i've seen before in fact i think i had
[12:20]: the box of beignet mix from cafe du
[12:22]: monde at one point
[12:23]: and that was roll it out and cut it out
[12:25]: into squares and then fry it
[12:27]: whatever i have my
[12:31]: oil this is uh i use grapeseed oil
[12:34]: generally she says to use canola oil
[12:36]: whatever our neutral flavored vegetable
[12:38]: oil
[12:39]: you like or whatever oil you want to fry
[12:42]: in this i'm sure is fine
[12:44]: um as long as it can withstand
[12:47]: 365 degrees which is what we're trying
[12:49]: to bring this up to
[12:50]: uh she says a small saucepan i have
[12:54]: a small saucepan a large saucepan i'm
[12:57]: using
[12:57]: my cast iron small
[13:00]: 10 inch skillet um just
[13:04]: because that's what i wanted to use
[13:07]: and i have a an infrared thermometer
[13:11]: that i'm using
[13:12]: to judge the oil temperature it works
[13:15]: pretty well
[13:17]: i like the cast iron for frying because
[13:19]: it doesn't it holds heat once it takes a
[13:22]: while to heat up but once it heats up it
[13:23]: holds the heat longer so it doesn't
[13:25]: the oil doesn't drop temperature when
[13:27]: you add things
[13:29]: to it as quickly
[13:32]: so i'm gonna we're still
[13:35]: only about 2 15. so we've got
[13:38]: i'm gonna put it up to medium high and
[13:41]: then we'll
[13:43]: keep an eye on it uh the other things we
[13:46]: need to
[13:46]: prepare i have some powdered sugar
[13:51]: and some cinnamon and we're just going
[13:52]: to mix this up
[13:55]: i've got a fork just to kind of
[13:58]: break up clumps if i can a little bit
[14:01]: she doesn't say you have to sift it
[14:03]: and we're going to dredge the beignets
[14:06]: in this
[14:07]: so um
[14:10]: it's not really that important i don't
[14:12]: think
[14:14]: it would be prettier if you a bit and
[14:15]: you might sift a little bit over top
[14:19]: just to make it look nice also
[14:22]: it doesn't look like there's cinnamon in
[14:24]: her
[14:25]: sugar in the book but you know
[14:29]: it's a pretty picture all right
[14:32]: so that's ready and i'm going to fry
[14:37]: my beignets here and then i've got a
[14:39]: baking sheet with i've got about
[14:41]: three layers of paper towel to drain
[14:44]: them on
[14:45]: we're gonna fry the beignets for about
[14:47]: one to two minutes
[14:48]: about two minutes on one side turn them
[14:50]: over um
[14:51]: another minute on the other side and
[14:53]: then let them rest for 30 seconds before
[14:55]: we dredge
[14:58]: i'm them gonna need a plate to put them
[14:59]: on after they're done
[15:01]: yes we're at 360 so we're almost there
[15:05]: up all right 363 i'm gonna call it good
[15:08]: and i'm gonna start
[15:11]: dishing never
[15:12]: tried this with a yeasted dough but
[15:16]: okay these are going to be
[15:23]: very sticky
[15:28]: not sure about this they are certainly
[15:31]: not going to look like the ones
[15:34]: in the book
[15:41]: this is definitely done
[15:47]: it's almost turned over
[15:58]: let's see what my oil temperature's
[16:01]: doing
[16:05]: staying about 350 which is
[16:09]: good which is not bad
[16:12]: but all right
[16:16]: okay
[16:22]: i'm going to go ahead and dredge these
[16:24]: first two
[16:25]: [Music]
[16:28]: in the cinnamon sugar
[16:32]: you want to get them while they still
[16:33]: have a little bit of oil
[16:35]: on the outside and they are hot
[16:40]: there we go so it'll stick
[16:43]: and i'm just going to just
[16:47]: keep cooking them like this until
[16:50]: i've made as many as i think we're going
[16:52]: to eat you can save this dough
[16:55]: um in the refrigerator and then bring it
[16:58]: up to room temperature
[17:00]: for about 30 minutes before
[17:04]: you cook them
[17:09]: so it is it can be sort of a make ahead
[17:12]: thing
[17:17]: and
[17:21]: there we go i'm gonna go ahead and
[17:22]: dredge these and then
[17:24]: i'll show you what they look like when
[17:26]: we're completely done
[17:36]: on this episode of cooking the books
[17:37]: with heather you watched me make the
[17:39]: beignets with
[17:40]: chocolate chicory sauce from tonya
[17:42]: holland's brown sugar kitchen cookbook
[17:44]: and i had a another fail with this
[17:48]: recipe
[17:48]: uh i just did not add the sugar when i
[17:51]: should have
[17:52]: um my dough was extra sticky i would
[17:55]: like to make
[17:56]: this again uh
[17:59]: just to see what happens if i add the
[18:02]: sugar at the correct time if my dough is
[18:04]: is as sticky as it was when that
[18:07]: happened
[18:08]: also i might the next time i would
[18:10]: probably try
[18:11]: weighing my flour she does include
[18:15]: weight measurements as well as cups
[18:19]: in all of her recipes which is great if
[18:21]: you like
[18:22]: cooking with the scale everybody should
[18:24]: have a kitchen scale
[18:26]: anyway i do i like it but it's not
[18:29]: my default mode of cooking cups
[18:33]: it's just what i grew up with you know
[18:34]: cups and and
[18:37]: ounces and and that kind of thing
[18:41]: so anyway i would like to do it again
[18:44]: the right way
[18:45]: but even though i had a bit of a fail it
[18:48]: still worked out
[18:50]: uh they were still really tasty i am
[18:54]: a little disappointed that they don't
[18:56]: look anything like this when you make
[18:58]: them the way she says in the book
[19:01]: but it does make an awful lot of beignet
[19:04]: which is why
[19:05]: i did not make them again
[19:08]: just to see because we still have some
[19:10]: dough in the refrigerator
[19:12]: i'm going to probably see if i can roll
[19:15]: that out a little bit
[19:16]: and cut it out and maybe make them a
[19:18]: little bit more look a little bit more
[19:20]: like that
[19:23]: but they were delicious we ate all of
[19:26]: the ones that i made
[19:27]: uh the chocolate chicory sauce was great
[19:31]: it had just enough coffee flavor but it
[19:34]: was a
[19:34]: nice dark chocolate flavor
[19:39]: we really liked it whole family enjoyed
[19:41]: it
[19:42]: uh and so and that also made an awful
[19:45]: lot of the chocolate chicory sauce so
[19:47]: i'm gonna have to figure out what we're
[19:49]: gonna do with the rest of it
[19:51]: after we're done with the beignets so um
[19:56]: yeah i'm not sure about that we'll see
[19:59]: anyway if you enjoyed watching me make
[20:02]: this please give me a thumbs up hit the
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[20:06]: something else
[20:21]: [Music]
[20:24]: you