Gluten Free French Beignets – Light and Airy New Orleans Donuts

Name: Gluten Free French Beignets
Prep time: 13 min
Cook time: 21 min
Total time: 34 min
Ingredients: 1 recipe Gluten Free Cream Puffs (recipe here); OR; 1 recipe Gluten Free Dairy Free Cream Puffs; Confectioners' sugar (for garnish and sweetness)

This recipe is nothing like Yeast-Based Gluten Free Beignets (the ones that are popular in New Orleans, usually made from biscuit dough). Instead, they are Gluten Free French Beignets, popular in France. This dough creates light and airy pastries that have a marshmallow-like texture inside the shell, similar to churros. I don’t know anyone who would stop at just one. They’re just so light!

Beignet is pronounced (ben yay).

If you ever make pate a choux dough (cream puff dough) and it’s too runny, just refrigerate it and make these beignets. It’s best not to have a runny dough, but it still works. Sometimes there’s too much moisture in the air and it just works out differently.

See Gluten Free Cream Puff Recipe or Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Cream Puff Recipe.

Gluten Free French Beignets

When you want to serve something impressive but have little time, these gluten free French beignets are the way to go. All of your gluten-eating buddies will be your best friend.

Course Breakfast, Desserts, Snack

Cuisine French

Ingredient Keyword butter, eggs, flour

Prep Time 13 minutes

Cook Time 21 minutes

Total Time 34 minutes

Servings 13 beignets

Ingredients

1 recipe Gluten Free Cream Puffs recipe here
OR
1 recipe Gluten Free Dairy Free Cream Puffs
Confectioners' sugar for garnish and sweetness

Instructions

Preheat a deep-fryer, deep pot, or Dutch oven with at least 3 inches of oil to 375ºF. Lay a couple of plates out, lined with at least 3 paper towels each; set aside.
Make the pate a choux dough in the above cream puffs recipe but do not place it in a piping bag nor bake them.
Once the oil is hot enough, using a 1-1/2-inch wide cookie or ice cream spring-action scooper, add 3 to 4 round scoops of dough to the oil. Alternatively, use two serving tablespoons, one to scoop up the dough and the other to scrape the dough off of the other spoon. Leave lots of room for them to expand to double their size. (If you overcrowd the oil they will not brown well and will turn out very greasy as the temperature of the oil drops from all of the cold dough.) Fry for 7 minutes, flipping, rolling, and dunking the dough often to brown evenly.
Using a slotted spoon or spider spatula, remove the beignets from the oil and allow excess oil to drip back into the pot or deep-fryer. Transfer to the paper-towel-lined plates to drain for 2 minutes.
Dust the beignets that you plan on serving immediately with confectioners' sugar. If you have leftovers, allow them to remain at room temperature, covered with paper towels, or store in a paper bag. Do not seal them in an air-tight container unless you place some paper towels in the container to absorb any moisture. It's really best to leave them out at room temperature to dry. Then dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.