The Princess and the Frog: Tiana’s Famous Beignets
You know the thing about good food? It brings folks together from all walks of life. It warms them right up and it puts little smiles on their faces, and when I open up my own restaurant, I tell you, people are gonna line up from miles around just to get a taste of my food!
James, from The Princess and the Frog
I’m not ashamed to say that the reason I love Disney’s The Princess and the Frog so much is because of Tiana’s talent for cooking and her determination to open a restaurant. The animation and the songs are fantastic but I just love her obsession for cooking tasty dishes such as gumbo and beignets. It also helps that this is all set in the beautiful New Orleans.
While watching The Princess and the Frog this weekend, I became obsessed over articles online about the famous beignets from Cafe Du Monde. Unfortunately, I have not yet had the chance to visit and try the beignets from Cafe Du Monde but I am determined to figure out the best recipe that Tiana and her father would approve of.
The recipe I have below contains three different types of flour. I was able to find all of these types of flour at Whole Foods. Now, I that there are tons of beignet recipes on the internet but these are really truly something amazing. I feel the flour adds depth and texture and it separates it from fried dough with powdered sugar. While testing the recipe, I took a few notes from the famous Cafe Du Monde. It’s known that they fry their beignets with cottonseed oil since it has a higher smoking point. An unknown variety of flours are used. According to the box mix, it contains whole wheat and barley flour. The end result should have the consistency of drop biscuit dough.
Oh, Tia, you are bonafide genius. I’m gonna need about five hundred of your man-catching beignets!
Charlotte, The Princess and the Frog
Tiana’s Beignets
So here it is, some man-catching beignets from Princess Tiana’s kitchen. I hope you enjoy it!
The Princess and the Frog: Tiana's Famous Beignets
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup - 110F warm water
- 1/3 cup - sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp - dry active yeast
- 1 - egg large
- large pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup - evaporated milk
- 12 oz - all purpose flour
- 2 oz - barley flour
- 3 oz - rye flour
- 1 tbsp - vegetable shortening
- canola oil for frying
- honey as needed
- powdered sugar as needed
Instructions
- Combine your warm water, sugar, and dry yeast. Mix to hydrate the yeast and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, add you egg, vegetable shortening, evaporated milk, and salt. Whisk together.
- In another bowl, sift your flours together.
- Add the egg and milk mixture to the yeast and mix to combine.
- Add half of the flour to the wets and mix to combine. Once the flour is close to being mixed in, add the rest of your flour.
- Stir to combine. Remember not to over mix!
- Once you're done mixing, cover with a towel and let it proof for about an hour. The dough should be soft and quite wet.
- Heat and maintain your oil to 370F
- Heavily dust your work surface and scrape your beignet dough onto the work surface.
- Roll out the dough to 1/4" thick rectangle. Cut the beignets into 2"x3" rectangles.
- Gently place them into the hot oil. Make sure not to overcrowd the pot of oil or the temperature will drop resulting in soggy beignets. Flip and fry them until it turns golden brown.
- Drain and drizzle with honey. Dust liberally with powdered sugar.
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