The word beignet can be roughly translated as ‘fritter’, a generic term referring to a deep-fried dough, and while it is traditionally made from fried choux pastry, they can be made from almost any dough, from sweet bread made with olive oil (chichi au pommes) to brioche made with butter (beignet italien), or even from croissant dough.
Ingredients
- 10½ oz (300 g) caster (superfine) sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthways, seeds scraped
- 35 fl oz (1 litre) canola oil, for deep-frying
Brioche Dough
- 1 lb 2 oz (500 g) plain (all-purpose) flour (‘0’/T55)
- 3½ oz (100 g) caster (superfine) sugar
- 2 teaspoons fine salt
- 2 eggs
- ½ oz (15 g) dried yeast
- 5½ fl oz (175 ml) cold full-cream milk
- 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
- 2 finely grated lemon zest
- 2¾ oz (75 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
How to Make It
- To make the brioche dough, put the flour, sugar, salt, eggs and yeast into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment and mix on low speed until well combined. Add the milk, vanilla and lemon zest and combine, then add the butter, following the method to make the dough (to the end of the first prove). The amount of butter used for this recipe has been drastically reduced from the basic recipe, so it will cook through more quickly, and to offset some of the additional fat that is absorbed during the frying process. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
- Following the dividing and balling steps, divide the cold dough into small 70 g (2½ oz) pieces, then roll them into tight balls. Place the brioche balls on two baking trays lined with baking paper, spacing them about 10 cm (4 in) apart. Cover with a dry cloth and set aside in a warm place to prove for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Put the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla bean seeds in a bowl and mix thoroughly by rubbing the mixture between the palms of your hands. This ensures the vanilla seeds infuse properly into the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or heavy-based saucepan to 170°C (340°F). Working in batches, use the palm of your hand to gently flatten each dough ball before gently sliding it into the hot oil. Be extremely careful not to drop the dough balls from a height or you will splash yourself with hot oil. Don’t fry too many balls at once or the oil temperature will drop and the doughnuts will absorb too much oil. Fry one side for about 30 seconds, then flip them over and cook for another 1 minute, or until golden. Flip them back again to finish cooking the first side. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Toss the hot doughnuts in the cinnamon sugar and serve.
