Beignets: Doughnuts Gone Posh. – Cafe du Monde, New Orleans, LA

Beignets, as I mentioned, are its most famous attraction. Beignets are another New Orleans classic, unique to the city and not to be missed. Medium sized pillows of doughnut, they are made by making a dough from sugar, bread flour, milk and yeast, deep frying it in oil and burying it in icing sugar.  We went to sample the ones Café du Monde had to offer one evening to see if their acclaim was well deserved. Slightly chewy on the inside, doughy on the inside with miscellaneous, ununiformed sizes of holes marbled within. They arrived rectangle shaped and bent, exactly like pillows folded in half, and upon tearing them clouds of sugar scented steam puffed out to burn slow fingers. Buttery, rich, tongue tingling sweet. They were buried in a small mountain of icing sugar that needed shaking off before eating. I was delighted to find that the powder had melted in sections, adding an oozing texture that smeared on the lips. Puffy, soft and achingly satisfying. They were good and deserve their place on every tourist’s sightseeing rostra for New Orleans.