when you eat donuts in new orleans, or you eat them at the cafe du monde, or you would like to.
Traditional square donuts introduced to America in the 18th century are perfected at this famous French Quarter coffee shop, where a stack of perfectly hot, freshly made donuts comes out, often accompanied by a hot cup of coffee and radicchio. coffee with milk.
Reading: Beignets cafe du monde recipe
Sure, underneath all that powdered sugar it’s just a simple dough recipe, but how you put these 8 common dough ingredients together is what determines if your fritters are delicious, café du monde fritter puff clones , or just boring fried squares of dough.
We want the good stuff, so let’s do it right. we’ll start with the yeast…
First, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and sugar solution. let it sit for 12-15 minutes and it should look foamy like this.
if not, check the expiration date of your yeast. if the yeast is new, the water was probably too hot and you can do step #1 again with less hot water.
Once the yeast has bloomed well, whisk together the egg, milk, salt, and half the flour. stir until just mixed, and no more than that.
you can notice I’m using whole milk in there, not evaporated milk.
If you’re familiar with fritters, you probably know that most fritter recipes, including cafe du monde knockoffs, call for evaporated milk. Evaporated milk is milk that has had 60% of the water removed before canning, giving it a more intense flavor than whole milk, but still tastes like canned. I think whole milk tastes much better, which is a good reason to use it here, but there’s more to consider than that.
cafe du monde began making fritters in 1862 using a classic recipe that the french brought to new orleans in the 18th century. evaporated milk wasn’t invented until 1891, so it’s impossible that evaporated milk was used in the original formula. the restaurant most likely used a traditional recipe created before canning was invented, with milk straight from a cow. Sure, there’s a slim chance they were originally using sweetened condensed canned milk in the recipe, which was invented in 1856, but I doubt it. especially after watching this video…
In this screenshot, taken through glass at the cafe du monde while the fritters were being prepared, several gallons of whole milk can be seen on a counter near the mixing bowl. letting cold milk come to room temperature is exactly what you’d want to do before adding it to a batter that needs to be kept warm, so I think there’s a good chance this whole milk is intended for batter.
bottom line: the original recipe contains whole milk, not evaporated milk, so that’s what we’ll use.
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after mixing all that, add the melted butter. even if you don’t overdo it. just a light stir is enough.
now add the rest of the flour.
stir the dough with a large spoon until you can’t move it anymore, then…
Put your gloves in there and help combine all the ingredients so you can get the dough out of the bowl for the next step.
Knead the dough on a well-floured surface with the palms of your hands until the dough is smooth and lump-free.
Form the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, then cover with a towel or plastic wrap.
Now you can catch up on your programs as the dough will need to rest for a couple of hours until it doubles in size.
while the dough rests you should start preparing your oil. cafe du monde, and any other restaurant that makes traditional fritters, will use cottonseed oil for frying due to its neutral flavor.
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for decades, cottonseed oil was the only vegetable oil used for cooking in the us. in the US, until soybean oil took over in the 1940s after cotton shortages in World War II.
You can certainly use other oils to fry your fritters, but cottonseed oil is a must if you want the ultimate trick. And you’ll want it to reach the exact temperature Cafe du Monde uses: 370 degrees F. if you fry them in a pan on the stove, use a thermometer. or you can use a fryer, which regulates the temperature better.
Your dough has rested and now it’s time to roll it out. use a rolling pin to roll out the dough on a well-floured surface until it is about 1/4-inch thick.
Use a pizza wheel or sharp knife to cut the dough into 2 1/2-inch squares.
Drop the squares of dough into the hot cottonseed oil and cover each square with a tablespoon of oil. continue basting for about 45 seconds, then turn them over and repeat the basting. after another 45 seconds or so, flip the fritters over again, continuing to turn as needed to get an even golden brown color on both sides. the fritters will fry for about 3 minutes total.
drain the fritters on a rack or on a plate lined with paper towels.
finally, when the fritters have been drained, arrange three on a plate, top with a storm of powdered sugar and serve immediately while warm.
— todd wilbur, the food hacker
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