Beignet storage, are simple enough pastries synonymous with New Orleans creole cuisine. Creole cuisine is on the whole a conglomeration of many dishes originating from many communities many of them off-continent.
These include West African dishes, Caribbean foods, Spanish recipes, French influences, Amerindian dishes, and most dominantly, South American cooking.
The word ‘beignet’ is French and refers to the American equivalent of a ‘fritter’ or a small pastry nearing a donut. Beignets are much simpler than donuts in the sense that donuts are made of a multitude of ingredients while beignets are particularly more conservative in comparison.
Beignets are made from unleavened dough where the basic ingredients are flour, water eggs, and butter.
They can also be made of the same mixture but with yeast included to make it rise in which case the beignets are made of leavened dough but no more embellishment is associated with this particular pastry.
The recipe is just as uneventful and the most authentic way to make this has been described as basically mixing the ingredients into a dough, letting the dough rise overnight Beignet storage it has yeast, and deep-frying little square-shaped portions of the rolled dough the next morning. The finished product is simple but incredibly soft, airy, delicious and to make it decadent and tasty, is often dusted with powdered sugar.
Beignets are best eaten while still hot and with tea or coffee.
Beignet storage, Feel free to cut your hot beverage with a dollop of milk, honey, or both and some freshly plucked mint leaves.
Delicious!
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How to store leftover beignets
Assuming you have gone a tad too far with your beignet measurements and prepared one too many beignets, it would be practical to reserve them for later.
In fact, beignets sit quite well without going stale or changing flavor so feel free to make plenty of them and have some to enjoy in the coming days.
There are three ways you can store cooked beignets;
- You can let them sit on the counter at room temperature
- You could refrigerate them or
- You could freeze leftover beignets
Here’s what you need to know for you to choose a storage method for your surplus beignets.
Option 1: Leave them on the counter
Foods go bad due to microbial activity in or on them so the greater the number of microbes in and on the food the faster food goes bad.
At room temperature, food is susceptible to spoilage, and leaving food out is considered unsafe at best.
Fried foods and in particular pastries are not as delicate as fruits and vegetables because they have significantly fewer microbes in them as a result of deep-frying.
The high temperatures of the process kill or denature most of the microbes in and on beignets leaving them with little microbial action to cause speedy deterioration.
Beignets can be stored on the counter for approximately two days with any more being a touch-and-go experiment.
On the third day, the beignets will be in the early stages of going bad. Within the first two days, they should be fine and ready to eat once they have been reheated and dusted with powdered sugar.
In order to store them on the counter you will need to do the following;
- Do not dust powdered sugar on the entire batch you have made. Only dust what you are consuming since storing beignets with the sugar layer on top of them will encourage microbial action making them go bad faster.
- Let the beignets cool down while covered in a napkin. Not in an airtight container.
- Wrap the beignets individually in absorbent paper such as napkins to prevent them from sweating and getting soggy.
- Place the wrapped beignets in an air-tight container and let them sit on the counter. They should be good for the subsequent two days and upon reheating, dust them with powdered sugar and enjoy.
Option 2: Refrigerate them
Cooked beignets can be refrigerated for a maximum of five days if they are stored carefully.
- Let the hot beignets cool on the counter and once they are at room temperature, individually wrap each in paper towels.
- Ensure they are not powdered before storing them in the fridge.
- Place the beignets in an air-tight container and place them in the fridge.
- You can retrieve only that which you intend to eat and leave the rest in the fridge.
- They should be good for the next five days. Any further and they may be too dry to taste great even with heating or they may have gone stale.
- If they were made with yeast, it would be best to let them sit at room temperature since the yeast could crystallize and make the directly heated beignets taste off.
- Before heating, allow them to thaw away the extra cool temperatures and then heat them in your preferred method.
Option 3: Freeze them
Frozen beignets can remain safe to consume for up to two months. Beignet storage intend to have beignets for breakfast over the next few weeks, then your best bet would be to freeze them. Make plenty of the scrumptious pastries as you would like and follow the following steps to freeze them:
- Allow them to cool at room temperature before placing them in the freezer.
- Wrap each one individually to prevent them from caking together.
- Place them in the freezer and as with the previous methods ensure they have no powdered sugar on them.
- Retrieve only that which you mean to consume and let them thaw out until they are soft and pliable.
- Heat them up and enjoy.
Finally…
Beignets are best enjoyed straight out of the deep fryer since the sugar will adhere best while the beignet is at its softest. Reheated beignets may not achieve the soft texture they had immediately following the frying process but they may be good enough and come close to the fresh item.
Sugarless beignets are a good substitute for donuts which are made using multiple synthetic sugars, flavors, additives, and over-processed wheat flour.