Lil’ bun and I have made our share of donut holes but we have yet to make an actual baked doughnut! So upon discovering an AMAZING recipe for beignet doughnuts (the French version of our fritters) we figured that it was about time to make a batch. Beignets are traditionally deep-fried and served with a light dusting of icing sugar on top but this is a healthier version of that delicious treat. As noted in the title, these fluffy little doughnuts are baked in the oven which means, you get to have a yumlicious treat the healthy way, in other words they’re a little more guilt free so you can have more of them! (:
Bread recipe
Ingredients (makes 15):
1/4 cup warm water
2 teaspoon yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cold margarine
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk (or 3/4 cup milk + 1/2 tablespoon vinegar)
Baking time!
1. Combine the yeast, warm water and a pinch of sugar in a liquid measuring cup and set aside for 5 minutes to foam. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
2. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs before adding in the egg, yeast mixture and buttermilk. Stir everything together until a dough forms. Knead the dough for 8 – 10 minutes until elastic. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes
3. When the dough is ready, roll it out into a rectangle and cut the dough into 15 squares. Transfer the squares onto a lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
4. Bake at 400F for 10 – 13 minutes until golden.
I think this would be a good recipe for those of you who are just starting to experiment with using yeast doughs because the dough was to work and didn’t end up being overly sticky. Plus, you don’t have to knead it too much for it to rise a significant amount because there were already leavening agents in the dough.
Although I have got to say that we were skeptical at first about these beignets because we have never worked with a yeast dough recipe that also had baking soda and baking powder in it. But, our doubts were put to ease when we took our nicely golden and well risen doughnuts out of the oven. We decided to indulge in our beignets with a bit of jam on the side instead of dusting them with icing sugar because we felt that they needed a little help in the flavor department.