I Tried Making Princess Tiana’s Famous Beignets—and Here’s What Happened
In honor of Mardi Gras—aka Fat Tuesday, an annual celebration in New Orleans, Louisiana—I thought I'd take it upon myself to whip up a traditional New Orleans-style dessert: beignets!
When it came time to make the dessert, I knew I wanted to find an authentic and delicious recipe. Immediately, I thought of Princess Tiana and her world-famous beignets.
(The Princess and the Frog via Walt Disney Animation Studios)
After scouring the internet for Princess Tiana's recipe, I landed upon a kid-friendly The Princess and the Frog recipe book featuring several of Tiana's favorite foods to make.
I snagged her beignet recipe, put on an apron and headed to the kitchen to try and recreate her signature dessert. Scroll below to see if I succeeded and to check out the recipe for yourself!
The Ingredients
First thing on my to-do list was to gather the ingredients. Fortunately for me, I had a lot of the components from the time I attempted to make Sprinkles cupcakes at home.
Here's everything you will need to grab if you plan on making this treat for yourself:
- 3 cups flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Vegetable oil (for frying!)
- Powdered sugar for dusting (this stuff gets messy ????)
The Process
Once I had my ingredients prepped and ready, it was time to get cookin'. I started by whisking all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and all the liquid ingredients in a large bowl.
Once both bowls were thoroughly mixed, I poured the dry ingredients into the liquid, and stirred that mixture up.
Once the dough was complete, the fun really began.
I prepped a large surface area with tinfoil so that I could lay out my dough and pat it into a large 1/2 inch thick square.
Make sure to dust your surface with a hefty amount of flour, otherwise you risk your mix being way too sticky. Trust me on this, I didn't have enough flour, and I found myself in one gooey mess.
Finally, I was able to get the dough in a somewhat square shape.
Next, I attempted to cut the giant square into roughly 16 2 1/2 inch squares… not an easy task.
The dough was so sticky that I ended up adding more flour, balling up the dough and making round, cookie-like portions. Good enough!
Now it was time for the main event: frying these bad boys.
If you've never fried food before, be sure to grab a parent to assist you as it can get pretty messy and extremely hot.
I filled up a large saucepan with two inches of vegetable oil and used a thermometer to see when the temperature reached 325°. Once there, I was ready to fry!
I dropped my first three beignets into the pan and watched them sizzle… and burn. I made the mistake of letting my temp get too high.
On my second attempt, I turned the heat down slightly and fried each beignet for three minutes, flipped them and then let them sit an additional three minutes on each side.
Here they are in their golden glory:
The Delightful Results
Once the beignets were fried, I placed them on a rack to dry. The aroma was absolutely amazing. ????
To finish them off Tiana-style, I dusted each little treat with a generous amount of powdered sugar—it's the best part, after all.
Aren't they beautiful?
After sinking my teeth into one of these treats, I must say, I'm quite impressed with the outcome.
Although it takes a little bit of time and patience, especially if you've never fried food before, the result is absolutely delicious.
If you'd like to try making these princess-inspired confections yourself, you can check out the whole recipe HERE.
Tiana would be so proud.
If you're into making character themed recipes, head over HERE and check out these Pokemon-inspired foods you can make at home.