New Orleans Beignets, Gluten Free

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake up the yeast

   Stir the warm water, yeast, and a tablespoon of the granulated sugar together in a large bowl. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes, until the surface turns foamy and smells like bread. If nothing happens, your yeast is dead or your water was too hot — start over, because the whole recipe hinges on this.

2. 2

   Build the wet base

   Whisk the remaining granulated sugar, evaporated milk, egg, melted butter, and vanilla into the yeast mixture until smooth. Make sure the milk and egg are at room temperature; cold liquid will sluggish the rise and firm the butter back into flecks.

3. 3

   Mix the dough

   Whisk the gluten-free flour blend, xanthan gum, and salt together in a separate bowl, then add it to the wet ingredients. Mix with a paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes — there's no gluten to develop, so you're just beating the batter smooth rather than kneading it. The dough will be noticeably softer and stickier than a wheat dough, closer to thick cookie dough. Don't fight that by adding more flour; the extra starch will fry up dry and sandy.

4. 4

   Rest, then rise

   Scrape the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, smooth the top with a wet spatula, and cover. Let it sit for 30 minutes first — this hydration rest lets the rice flours and starches fully absorb the liquid, and it's the difference between a smooth dough and a gritty one. Then let it rise somewhere warm for another 60 to 90 minutes. Gluten-free dough won't fully double; look for a visibly puffed, domed surface with a few bubbles breaking through. Finish with at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, or overnight, which firms the dough enough to roll.

5. 5

   Roll and cut

   Work straight from the fridge while the dough is cold and firm. Roll it between two sheets of parchment dusted with gluten-free flour into a rough 12 by 16 inch rectangle about 1/4 inch thick — the parchment is non-negotiable here, since this dough will weld itself to a bare counter. Peel off the top sheet, cut into roughly 3-inch squares with a pizza wheel, and transfer them to a floured sheet pan. Let them rest 20 minutes while the oil heats.

6. 6

   Heat the oil

   Pour the oil into a heavy Dutch oven to a depth of about 3 inches and heat to 360°F on a clip-on thermometer. Temperature is the whole ballgame here: below 350°F the dough drinks oil and turns greasy, above 375°F the outside browns before the inside puffs. Set a wire rack over a sheet pan nearby.

7. 7

   Fry in small batches

   Slide 3 or 4 squares into the oil, easing them in away from you. They'll puff more modestly than wheat beignets and the edges may stay a little rustic — that's normal and they'll still be hollow inside. Fry about 90 seconds per side, a touch longer than the wheat version, since gluten-free dough needs the extra time to set and browns more slowly. Pull them when they're a deep even gold and feel light for their size. Resist adding more than a few at a time — a crowded pot drops the oil temperature and you'll get pale, flat, oily beignets.

8. 8

   Drain, sugar, devour

   Lift the beignets to the wire rack and let them drain for about a minute, then bring the oil back to 360°F before the next batch. Pile the warm beignets on a plate and sift powdered sugar over them with an absurdly heavy hand. Eat these right away — gluten-free fried dough stales faster than wheat, and the window where the crust is shattery and the inside is steamy is roughly ten minutes wide.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  An overnight rest in the fridge is the single biggest upgrade you can make. The cold dough rolls out cleanly without springing back and the long ferment adds real depth of flavor.

• 2.

  Evaporated milk is doing specific work here — its concentrated milk sugars give beignets their signature tender crumb and fast browning. Whole milk works in a pinch but the result is noticeably plainer.

• 3.

  If your beignets puff on one side only, the dough was rolled unevenly. Roll from the center outward, rotating the dough a quarter turn between passes.

• 4.

  Dust the squares with as little flour as you can get away with. Excess raw flour sloughs off into the oil and burns, which darkens the oil and flavors every batch after it.

• 5.

  Keep the fried beignets in a single layer, never stacked. Trapped steam softens that delicate shattery crust in under a minute.

• 6.

  Save the trimmed dough scraps, press them together gently, and fry them as cook's treats — rerolled dough never puffs as well, so don't bother re-rolling for the real batch.