Made From Memory

Dupont’s beignets originate from an old New Orleans recipe. “I went to a used bookstore in the quarter and found an old cookbook, chef Dupont recalls. “It was old and brown. And it did not have measurements in it but used terms like ‘lumps of,’” he laughs.

Dupont has since spent several decades perfecting the dish and no longer needs a recipe. “I make them from memory,” he explains. Dupont shares not only his learned techniques of handling the dough but also the original recipe.

Beignet Ingredients:
2 pinches salt
1 ½ cups hot tap water
2 ½ tablespoons yeast
½ cup cream
½ cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 ½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Technique:
1. Add vanilla to eggs, and yeast to water. Chef Dupont makes his own vanilla extract by keeping vanilla beans in an empty vodka bottle.
2. Whisk yeast and water together.
3. Whisk in two pinches of salt.
4. Add eggs and whisk.
5. Whisk in half of the cream, and whisk in half of the buttermilk.
6. Whisk in sugar. Keep whisking until it dissolves into the water and cream.
7. Add melted butter and whisk.
8. Add flour in stages until the batter is sticking to the whisk.
9. Fold and turn last 1 ½ cups of flour with a spatula.

“The key is not to over flour. After many years of making beignets I realized that I could make it looser and not roll the dough out with a roller,” he says.

10. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 to 40 minutes until it rises. Dupont writes the time he put the dough in the refrigerator on the top of the plastic wrap with a marker to keep track of the timing.
11. Remove from refrigerator, and turn out onto a floured board.
12. Pat out and shape dough with a floured hand, flip and chop it with a dough cutter.
15. Add pieces to a floured tray.
16. Deep fry in frying oil at 350 to 375 degrees, turning each piece when edges start to brown.
17. Remove to a bowl lined with paper towels when brown but still a little doughy inside because residual cooking will take place after beignets are removed from oil.
18. Transfer to a tray Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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