A long time coming....

I'm ashamed to say it's been a few months short of 2 years since I've blogged! I think about it everyday, I take pictures everyday of everything I'm doing and say to myself "that one's for the blog".... I go home with the intention of writing a blog and well... There's dinner....and after work chats....and don't even get me started on the cat! The biggest distraction in my life!

So what have I been doing all this time? There was the sisters wedding, in which I was maid of honour and cake maker and mum and I became experts in the art of pierogi making. There has been LOTS of working at the cafe just doing what I do and the occasional birthday cake, I taught myself to make macarons, and every now and then treat the customers to some delicious delights that I just HAD to make! 

It's Tuesday and Tuesdays are my favourite day, because its epicure day! Flipping through epicure this morning I noticed a write up on my fav blogger, Not quite nigella and hence the inspiration to blog today and the motivation I needed to hopefully keep it up. I would love to one day have a successful blog and even a cookbook! 

I'll leave you today with these beautifully oozy beignets I made in the cafe this morning, pronounced ben-yay they are like a fried donut stuffed with chocolate and covered in a mountain if icing sugar, taste like heaven and will hopefully become a regular at the cafe. 

Recipe was found at Joy the baker

Beignets

3/4 cup whole milk

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

4 to 4 1/2 cups bread flour, plus about 1 cup extra for flouring the work surface

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Canola oil for frying

Powdered sugar for serving, a lot… about 2 to 3 cups

To start, allow the whole milk and buttermilk to sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes before bringing this recipe together.

Pour whole milk into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat.  Heat until milk is steaming and small bubbles form on the surface.  The milk will be very warm to the touch.  Remove from the heat and pour warm milk into the bowl of an electric stand mixer.  Add buttermilk to the warm milk.  Stir in granulated sugar.  Sprinkle yeast over the milk and sugar mixture.  Stir gently.  Allow milk and yeast mixture to sit for 5 minutes to activate the yeast.  When yeast is active, the tops of the mixture will be slightly foamy and bubbling.

Add flour, baking soda, and salt to the wet ingredients.  Use a dough hook and beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.  Increase speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes.  This is a very wet dough so the dough will stick to the bottom of the bowl as it is beaten with the dough hook.  Try not to be tempted to add more flour, but is you must, add up to 1/2 cup more flour (the mixture will still be wet).   Stop the mixer and use a spatula to scrape the dough from the bottom of the bowl, ensuring that all of the wet and dry ingredients are thoroughly combined.  Remember:  the dough will be sticky.  AKA:  don’t freak out.  Leave dough in the mixing bowl to rise.  Cover with plastic wrap and a clean dish towel.  Allow to rest in a warm place for 1 hour.

Generously flour a work surface with bread flour.  Use a spatula to remove the risen dough from the bowl.  Once dough is on the floured work surface, generously flour the top of the dough.  Gently flatten the dough, fold it in half, then tuck the ends under to create a dough round.  The dough will still be very moist, but as long as your work surface is well-floured, you shouldn’t have any issues.

Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough into a 1/2 to 1/3-inch thick rectangle.  Cover the dough with a clean dish towel and allow to rest for 5 minutes.  Using a bench knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1 1/2 inch squares.  Stop to flour the knife or pizza cutter as you slice.  Try to separate the slices as you cut them so the dough does not stick together after it is sliced.

Place enough oil in a saucepan to fill it to a depth of about 3-inches.  I used 32 ounces of oil in a 3qt saucepan.  Place a candy thermometer in the oil and heat over medium-high head to 375 degrees F.  Place several layers of paper towel on a clean work surface.  Place a cooling rack (if you have one) atop the paper towels.  This will be our cooling and powder sugar station.  Place powdered sugar is a fine mesh sifter to dust the beignets as they come out of the oil.

Gently add beignets to the hot oil.  Try not to overcrowd the pan, I could fit three beignets at a time in my pan.  Fry until golden brown on both sides, flipping them once or twice during frying, about 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove from oil and place on cooling rack.  Immediately dust with a generous amount of powdered sugar.

Before frying more batches of beignets make sure the oil is at 375 degrees F.  Fry until all dough is cooked through and dusted with sugar.  Serve immediately.  These beignets are best (as most things are) straight from the fryer.  These beignets are best the day they’re made, very soon after frying.

To Make the beignets 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.