Croisseignet Croissant Beignet Fried Pastry Treat

(kwa sen yay, rhymes with Target), my hybrid of a croissant and a beignet.

A beignet is the famous fried dough pastry from New Orleans and traditionally served with a cup of their cafe au lait.

From NYC, there is a hyped up croissant and donut hybrid that seems to be very popular now, enough so that people will line up like it is Black Friday to score their limited ration of the day's goods. Well, I am not hip or trendy enough to stand in line so this is my take on things.

My creation is a cross between a croissant and a beignet. Why a beignet? A relative visited New Orleans and bought a box of beignet mix for me. I am not hip or trendy enough to wear those tourist emblazoned T-shirts that people usually bring back. I do have a few Robot T-shirts though, can't get enough of those...

And to kick things up a notch, I guess you could use pork fat in the recipe but let's go with lots of butter.

CAUTION. This instructable involves deep fat frying...oil and water do not mix. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Know what you are doing.

Step 1: It's a Good Thing...

I have a box of this authentic New Orleans Beignet mix.

It says to add in some water and mix.

You can look up the recipes and even find youtube videos of how to make the croissant or beignet dough but if you did it from scratch you would need yeast, eggs, milk, flour, salt, sugar, and some flavorings, maybe vanilla

This box contains:

Ingredients:Enriched wheat flour, enriched barley flour, milk, buttermilk, salt, sugar, leavening(baking powder, baking soda, and/or yeast), natural and artificial flavoring.

hmmm, sounds good...

For this special recipe, you also need

a stick of two of butter, depending on how big a batch you are making.

frying pan or skillet for deep fat frying. I use vegetable oil but use oil that has a high smoke point since you want to get the temp pretty high at 370 degrees F.

For the topping, just powdered sugar

Step 2: Butter Up...

Mix the mix and put aside, better if you let it rest in the fridge and chill it a bit. Since this dough ddn't seem to rise, I am guessing this is not the yeast version.

Lamination or alternating layers of dough and butter is the secret to the fine multi-layer crust. This is how you make puff pastry.

Take your stick of butter. Slice it up lengthwise in 1/8th inch thickness. Eyeball it.

Flatten out dough into a squarish rectangular shape.

Lay out the layer of butter and cover over with dough by pulling up the spare dough around the edges.

Reshape into a long rectangular shape.

Step 3: Merrily We Roll Along...

You may find the need to constantly dust everything with reserved flour to keep things from sticking.

Take your official ibles Comfort Food Contest rolling pin and roll out to flatten.

Fold it in thirds like a letter.

Roll out and flatten into a long rectangular shape.

Fold it in thirds like a letter again.

Roll out and flatten.

Place in the fridge to rest for about 15 minutes. You want to keep the butter layers cold and solid as you work it.

Rinse and repeat about 2 more times. Those mathematically inclined can figure out the exponential increase in layers of dough and butter..

Cut dough into traditional square shapes.

You can use your Robot shaped cutter if you have one. If not, make one.

Put aside to rest after you separate all the cut pieces.

Step 4: The Deliciously Dangerous Part...

Heat up your oil to 370 degrees F. This is the higher temp range of deep fat frying so be extra careful.

Gently place in a few squares of the dough.

They will pillow up and you will need to flip them over to cook evenly.

When browned, take out of the fryer and drain on paper towels.

Step 5: Nom, Nom...

Serve immediately with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar and have that dang coffee ready...wait, I gotta make that myself...

For more continental flair, you can serve it with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream and strawberries.

Enjoy!