Friday, July 30, 2010

Chocolate with Francois - Chocolate Beignets without Creme Anglaise

Here we are with another installment of the monthly group Chocolate with Francois. This month we are are making Chocolate Beignets with Creme Anglaise. That is the recipe that Julia of Always...leave Room for Dessert picked for July.  Be sure to stop by her beautiful blog. Its filled with gorgeous photos and fabulous recipes.

Francois says in his book..."This is my version of the American doughnut: a ball of ganache that is dipped in a great beer-based yeasty batter, then fried and served with a creme anglaise dipping sauce instead of icing..."

I read the recipe and seeing that it served 8,  I decided to scale it back. I was also making Chewy, Chunky Blondies that day and knew we didn't need full recipes of two different desserts. And, since the Beignets should be served immediately I decided to just make a few so we could try them, and not spoil our dinner. :)

There are four parts to making these...the batter, the ganache, frying, and the dipping sauce. I decided to skip the creme anglaise. I have made it in the past and while it was delicious, I didn't feel like going to the trouble of making it just to dip a couple of beignets.

I am pretty sure I did my math right with quartering the recipe, but I started having trouble when I added the flour into the beer and yeasty water. Instead of having batter, I had dough. :( I added some more beer until the dough thinned out some and became more batter like.

Then I did the ganache. That turned out fine. I put the little balls in the freezer to firm up before the next step.

I mixed up an egg in a small bowl and put some panko (Japanese bread crumbs) in a another bowl. I added some fresh oil to my fryer and pulled the ganache balls from the freezer. My beer batter had been sitting on the counter and it had bubbled up as described in the recipe.

It seemed weird to dip the luscious ganache balls into egg and then into bread crumbs. After all, that is something that I would usually do with chicken. I tried to then be sure to completely cover the balls with the batter. As I pulled each ball from the batter, I dropped them into the hot oil. Fried them for 2 or 3 minutes, then scooped them out and placed them on paper towels to drain.

I dusted mine with a little powdered sugar. Once I was sure they were cool enough, the hubby and I tried them.

Yummy! The frozen ball of ganache in the center becomes soft and melted. The batter surrounding the ganache is crispy/chewy. The beignets aren't really sweet. But they are delicious! Don't let them cool off and then try to eat them...once cold they become rubbery. They are definitely best served warm from the fryer.

I would like to try these again...perhaps for breakfast some lazy Sunday. And maybe I will make the Creme Anglaise and try them dipped instead of dusted. :) Be sure to stop by CWF to see what the other bakers thought of this pick. Thank you Julia! I really enjoyed these.

12 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh! Sinful for sure! We love beignets and this is a must try! Thanks!

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  2. I love beignets! I just hate the oil clean up that comes after. :P These look deadly delicious, especially the fact that they're filled with ganache!

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  3. We really enjoyed these little delicacies. I actually made them ages ago but forgot to post. Tomorrow - my Beignets will be out in the world for all to see Saturday. They don't look as scrumptious as yours do :(

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  4. Susan,
    I also ended up with dough not batter,but I have never seen a beignet recipe that you can dip into ,so I'm not so sure about the translation of Chef Payard's recipe !! These look delicious !!

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  5. OMG.... these look fabulous.

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  6. wow--these look amazing! sad i couldn't bake along this month!

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  7. Susan, OMGoodness! These beignets looks delicious. I love the centers too. YUM!

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  8. Yours look perfect. Actually, now that I see yours if I had these to do over I would have just dusted with confectioner's sugar too. That is how my favorite beignets are served. I had trouble that my batter was not of dipping consistency, it was just batter and I had to sort of wrap it around the chocolate!! They were fun to make though.

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  9. I need to make mine so i am happpy to hear you can break down the recipe. I only want to make a few as well :) Great tips..and yummilicious!

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  10. Susan, you have a way with baked goods. These look so yummy and so beautiful.

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  11. These look absolutely fabulous! If I had some right now, I probably would eat them instead of dinner.

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Please feel free to comment. I love hearing from others.