TikTok's Copycat Beignets Are Made With A Familiar Store-Bought Ingredient
It's pretty common for different cities, especially in the United States, to have dishes that they are most well known for and ones that you have to have when you visit, such as key lime pie in Key West, deep dish pizza in Chicago, and philly cheesesteaks in Philadelphia. For New Orleans, it's beignets, which are square fried doughnuts that are normally topped with powdered sugar and are considered a delicacy by some in New Orleans. Beignets typically measure about two inches by two inches and can also be topped with different icings. Interestingly, beignets were named the official donut of the state of Louisiana in 1986.
Most New Orleans locals know about Cafe du Monde, which is a very famous coffee shop known for its beignets and coffee; that's actually all that can be found on the menu, too. It's very common for beignets to be eaten with cafe au lait, which is dark roast coffee served with chicory and milk at Cafe du Monde. Obviously, not everyone can travel to New Orleans to have authentic beignets, and not everyone has the time to make beignets from scratch. Luckily, there are a few copycat recipes for beignets on TikTok that greatly simplify the process, resulting in a delicious fried treat with just a few steps.
Copycat beignets can be made with Pillsbury crescent or biscuit dough
A TikTok user shared their beignet recipe hack for a simplified version of the yummy dessert and it starts with a store-bought ingredient that should be familiar to most of us: Pillsbury crescent dough. For the beignet recipe hack, the crescent dough sheet is what's used rather than the crescent dough rolls that come precut. The dough sheet is cut into little squares and then fried in oil until golden and puffed up. After draining the oil from the fried bits of dough on a paper towel, the original poster of the TikTok above places the fried dough into a plastic container, tops them with powdered sugar, and shakes the container until all of the beignets are coated.
In a different copycat beignet recipe, a TikToker uses Pillsbury Grands! biscuit dough in the honey butter flavor, but they say that any flavor of premade biscuit dough will work. Each biscuit is cut into fours and then separated in half for a total of eight dough pieces. The biscuit dough pieces are then fried in oil, drained on a paper towel, and rolled in powdered sugar, just as in the TikTok mentioned first. A majority of the commenters were loving the copycat beignet recipe hack, with one person writing, "Girl I had know [sic] idea you could make beignets like that! Thanks for the tip!" These copycat beignet recipes will definitely save you time in the kitchen.