New Orleans Begniets and Coffee Au Lait

A visit to New Orleans must include a stop at Jackson Square in the French Quarter for for begniets and Coffee Au Lait. It’s tradition for us.  Today is Mardi Gras – best celebrated in New Orleans in my opinion. And so that reminds me of begniets.

I love begniets. The best place to get begniets is Cafe du Monde in the heart of the French Quarter close to the Mississippi River. The shop hasn’t changed since I moved to Louisiana years ago. Every time we go to New Orleans to sight-see or to go to a show we stop at Cafe du Monde before the leaving the city.

The server takes your order, then brings the begniets and coffee au lait to your table. Always the same service.

Begniets are a pastry dough – sort of a sweet bread and a cross between yeast bread and a biscuit. The dough is rolled out thinly, cut into squares, deep fried and served with powdered sugar. As the sweet bread fries, it puffs up and is hollow in the middle. Best when served hot with powdered sugar. Yum

I tried making begniets at home. One way to do this is to use a prepared mix which the gift shop next door will gladly sell to you..I also made the doughy confections from scratch. Here are my begniets rolled out.And frying.

Ready to eat.

There are two types of recipes for begniets — one uses yeast and includes a period for the yeast bread to rise; the second recipe uses baking powder for leavening. I’m still perfecting the recipe. In the mean time, I’ll enjoy begniets when visiting New Orleans. I suggest you do, too.