Beignets on the Quick

I love beignets.  You know, those sweet, heavenly pillows of fried dough heaped with powdered sugar just waiting to fall in your lap.  I especially love the beignets at the Café du Monde in New Orleans French Quarter.  No words to describe!  Well, you know how sometimes you need just a little something to top off the meal.  Nothing huge or heavy, just a little something.  We kind of fell on this one night when my daughter was wanting something sweet and happened to find biscuit dough in the frig.  I normally don’t purchase commercially prepared biscuit dough because of all the additives and also since it is so darn easy to make biscuits from scratch (see Farmhouse Biscuits) but for some reason I had these.  So my daughter got the bright idea to cut these “canned” biscuits up and fry them then douse them in powdered sugar.  Oh, my!  Café du Monde doesn’t need to worry but they were wonderful on a different level.

Here is what she did:

Cut up the canned biscuits into either halves or quarters.

Fry them in hot canola oil until golden brown.  Remove to drain on paper towels.  Top with either powdered sugar, glaze or chocolate ganache.

Glaze:

1/2 c. powdered sugar in a bowl

whisk 1 – 2 T heavy cream until smooth and slightly runny.

Drizzle over beignets.

Chocolate Ganache:

Pour 1/2 c heavy cream into a microwave safe bowl.  Heat in microwave until just beginning to bubble.  Carefully remove (it will be hot!) and add 3/4 c chocolate chips.  Allow to sit for a few minutes then whisk until the ganache is smooth and all the chocolate chips have melted.  Drizzle over beignets, ice cream, cheesecake, brownies, or anything because as we all know, everything is better with chocolate!