BEIGNETS TWO WAYS
A traditional NOLA favorite can be reinvented the next morning as top-notch cinnamon rolls.
By James Norton and Becca Dilley
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James Norton / Heavy Table
I guess this is the issue of the Hearth that I let my family take over all the difficult parts of the magazine. My daughter came up with an incredibly tasty vegetarian pate (see Neva’s Pizzazz Sauce, above); my wife Becca took an old favorite recipe that always overproduces and improvised a brilliant way to make use of the excess.
For whatever reason, all the beignet recipes out there are huge. These tasty, powdered sugar-dusted rectangles of New Orleans goodness seem to only come in batches big enough to feed 15-20 hungry guests, and it’s not all that often you have 15-20 hungry guests who need feeding.
Enter the following brilliant hack. Half of your beignet dough goes into making beignets. The other half, at a later time or day, gets rolled out into a sheet, appropriately filled, rolled up into a tube, sliced into cinnamon rolls, baked, and iced with a cream cheese frosting.
These cinnamon rolls are pretty close to ideal: really fluffy and tender while still maintaining their shape and substance. These aren’t overly stiff or bready, they’re easy to tear and share, and they taste remarkably good served warm with freshly made icing.
James Norton / Heavy Table
BEIGNETS AND FIRST-RATE CINNAMON ROLLS
7 Cups of flour
1 large (10 oz.) can of evaporated milk
1 1/2 Cup of warm water
1 pkg (2 1/2 tsp) yeast
1/2 Cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/4 Cup Crisco
Put the yeast in the warm water.
Add the milk, sugar, salt, eggs and then mix.
Beat in 4 Cups flour, then add the Crisco.
Stir in the rest of the flour (3 Cups) in 1/3rd Cup increments. Let the dough rest for at least an hour at room temperature so it can rise.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Bring out of the fridge about an hour before you roll it out and fry it.
Roll out fairly thin and cut into 2.5" x 3.5" diamonds or rectangles.
Heat oil to 350 F and fry until golden brown on both sides, cover with powdered sugar while hot and enjoy with Cafe au Lait.
James Norton / Heavy Table
NOTE: You’ll find that half of this recipe makes enough to feed 8 people or more. So, take your unused half dough and roll it out into a big sheet. Preheat your oven to 350 F.
Spread the dough sheet with a filling of: 5 oz. of room-temp butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp kosher salt. Roll into a log, and cut into 10-12 cinnamon rolls. Put cinnamon rolls in pan, and cover with tinfoil - cook, covered, for 30 minutes. Uncover and finish for 15-25 minutes, until they’re browned and starting to get a little crispy.
James Norton / Heavy Table
Let them cool for 15-20 minutes, then frost with: 4 oz. cream cheese blended with 2 tsp vanilla and 5 oz. powdered sugar until smooth.
