Molly Cookie

Beignets disguised as Cinnaminions

Jul 18, 2010 Breads, Desserts, Snacks

The fun thing about having kids around is that you make things that you wouldn’t normally think to make. For example, I never would have thought, on my own, to try and make home made Cinnaminions.

“What’s a Cinnaminion? That’s a weird word. I think you’re making things up!” you might say.

I-Hop has been promoting these sugar coated iced donut things for a while and calling them Cinnaminions, a play off of Despicable Me‘s Minions, which are the little yellow guys you see running around on all the previews.

These guys right here:

Well, it’s a good thing that Toni is around. She loves Cinnaminions, and while she was with my mom one day they decided to try to make them at home. When I heard about it, I decided I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to taste help with these little treats.

My mom decided to use a recipe for beignets and decorate those with sugar, icing, and sprinkles. Beignets are basically fried dough that you can top with sweet things like powdered sugar or icing, much like a doughnut, but it’s slightly more chewy than a doughnut would be. The outside of the beignet gives a little tug when you bite into it and pull. The inside is perfectly fluffy and soft. Beignets are French treats traditionally filled with fruit, but we made them without filling and they were delicious.

Let me tell you, these may be simple looking treats but they are really, really tasty. We ended up using powdered sugar on some, icing only on some, and a cinnamon/sugar mixture with icing on others. There were 3 different varieties and they were all great. I’m always looking for little fun desserts that go great with coffee, and let me tell you these are perfect.

There’s a small downside. As you can see, this recipe makes a LOT of these beignets, (about 50 2×2 inch squares) and they are really only good on the day you make them. I really don’t have any suggestions for keeping them longer than about 12 hours once they are fried. You can however, keep the dough in the refrigerator and fry them as you want to eat them. The directions for that are below, but I don’t think the dough will keep longer than a day either. Maybe you can get two good days out of them if you do it that way.

The other way to keep them good is to just put them in your belly. That will do it.

So, on a day when you’re having company these are the perfect treat. Toni, my parents, and I loved them.

Buttermilk Beignets from Epicurious.com

Makes about 4 dozen beignets

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 1/2 cups bread flour plus extra for flouring work surface
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Peanut oil for frying
• Confectioners’ sugar for serving, as much as you think you’ll need—then double that!

Directions

Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until small bubbles form at the surface. Remove from the heat, add the buttermilk, and then pour into a stand mixer bowl. Whisk in the yeast and the sugar and set aside for 5 minutes. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed, using a dough hook, until the dry ingredients are moistened, 3 to 4 minutes. Increase the mixer speed to medium and continue mixing until the dough forms a loose ball and is still quite wet and tacky, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the dough aside in a draft-free spot for 1 hour.

Pour enough peanut oil into a large pot to fill it to a depth of 3 inches and bring to a temperature of 375°F over medium heat (this will take about 20 minutes). Line a plate with paper towels and set aside.

Lightly flour your work surface and turn the dough out on it. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour, gently press to flatten, fold it in half, and gently tuck the ends under to create a rough-shaped round. Dust again and roll the dough out into a ½-inch- to ¹/³ -inch-thick circle. Let the dough rest for 1 minute before using a chef’s knife, a bench knife, or a pizza wheel to cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares (you should get about 48).

Gently stretch a beignet lengthwise and carefully drop it into the oil. Add a few beignets (don’t overcrowd them, otherwise the oil will cool down and the beignets will soak up oil and be greasy) and fry until puffed and golden brown, turning them often with a slotted spoon, for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to the prepared plate to drain while you cook the rest. Serve while still warm, buried under a mound of confectioners’ sugar, with hot coffee on the side.

*Molly Note: While the beignets were still warm we topped them in three different ways. Here are the things we used.

1.  We made icing, using confectioner’s sugar and half and half. Make the icing by using about 3/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar with about 3 tablespoons half and half. Mix them together. Add more half and half or powdered sugar to get the desired consistency. The icing went on some beignets by itself, and we also drizzled it on some that had cinnamon and sugar.

2.  We made a cinnamon/sugar mixture (about 1 cup sugar and about 3 tablespoons cinnamon). We rolled beignets in this mixture until they were evenly coated, then topped them with drizzled icing and sprinkles.

3. We dusted some beignets with powdered sugar. Those were perfect just like that.

Put sprinkles or icing on any of them to make them extra wonderful!

Make ahead:
The beignet dough can be made up to 8 hours in advance of frying. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking spray. After cutting the dough, place the beignets on the paper and place another greased sheet of parchment paper, sprayed-side down, on top. Wrap the entire baking sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The beignets can be fried straight from the refrigerator.