Here it is National Bagel Day, a day when I should be making the bagels from The New Yiddish Kitchen and showing them off on the interwebs and instead what do I do? I make beignets.
I know, I’m a terrible person, I’ve said it before and I’ll stand by that fact. But in addition to being a Jewish girl who loves a good bagel, I’m also a Southern girl who would sacrifice life and limb for a good beignet. Or a sopapilla. Or both.
While they are made a little differently, sopapillas and beignets are similar in texture and similarly adored across the Gulf Coast states. I like to think of them both as little donut pillows which are known to make people exceptionally happy. Except for that whole grain thing. That’s a problem.
If you know me you know that I am all about the recreation of things that are off limits now due to dietary restrictions. It’s like a challenge that I need to tackle so that I can show the world that I can eat good stuff too. And also for the simple fact that I want to eat all my old favorites and am hell bent on figuring out how to.
So yes, here I am on National Bagel Day making beignets. But who could blame me?! Oh, and I took it a step further and made them heart shaped because Valentine’s Day but feel free to not be ridiculous like me and just make them the good old fashioned way!
Ingredients:
- 1 packet quick acting yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees)
- 1/4 cup 100% maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup coconut milk (or almond milk or flax milk)
- 3 tablespoons melted sustainable palm shortening
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- 1 cup cassava flour
- 3 tablespoons coconut flour
- Light olive oil or avocado oil for frying
- Additional cassava flour, arrowroot, or tapioca for dusting
- 1/4 cup maple sugar or organic corn free powdered sugar
- Combine the yeast, water and maple syrup in a bowl. Give it a quick stir and allow the yeast to froth, about 5 minutes.
- While the yeast blooms, combine the coconut milk, egg, and salt in a bowl. In a 3rd bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients.
- Now pour the egg and milk mixture into the dry bowl and stir to combine.
- Next pour the yeast mixture into the other combined ingredients and stir once more.
- Heat the frying oil in a large skillet, about an inch deep over high heat
- Take the dough and roll it into a ball by hand. You can add a bit more cassava flour if the dough is still sticky, 1 tablespoon at a time, working it in.
- Roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper until it is about 1/8 inch thick. If your beignet dough is too thick it might not puff.
- Now cut it in desired shape. I used a heart shape cookie cutter. Traditionally you would cut it into squares using a pizza cutter or knife. The squares can be around 3×3 inches.
- In small batches, fry the beignets, using a slotted spoon to flip them over after about a minute. There are two tips I learned: 1. if the oil is not hot enough, your beignets will not puff. 2. You need to flip them before they burned because hot oil also cooks them quickly!
- You can flip them back and forth a few times but I recommend leaving them on the original side until you see the exposed side begin to puff. Then you can flip them, knowing they will fill with air or at least have some good air bubbles.
- After they are done frying, remove them with a slotted spoon and place them on a towel-lined plate.
- Combine the maple sugar with a bit of tapioca, arrowroot, or cassava flour and then sift it over the beignets.
- Serve warm!
Holy yum! These beignets look like perfection! Im totally digging the heart shapes and would much rather eat these than a bagel even if it is national bagel day!
Shut the front door! These are going to make my hubby love me all over again! Seriously!
I was excited about your new cookbook and would love to use cassava flour for grain free baking do you have recipes with cassava without needing eggs? my bakingrecipes turn out gummy and I can’t use eggs each of severe egg allergies.
There are several bagel recipes without eggs in the book – typically to bake without eggs using cassava flour, you’ll need another flour or two to cut the gumminess.
Hi I tried making the bagel recipe but the bagels fell apart into chunks as they were boiling in the water. They started cracking then just fell all apart before they finished boiling. I added the vinegar but this still happened. Then I just baked what I had and they were mostly gummy, even after waiting. There were some parts that were cooked through and tasted good but not sure what I did wrong. The dough was like soft playdough consisitency and a little sticky. Should I have added more flour? Thanks!
Did you use Otto’s brand flour? I have not ever had the bagels fall apart so I am wondering about each of the individual ingredients and curious if those might have made a difference. It shouldn’t have been sticky really, more doughy than anything. A little more flour MIGHT help but I wish I could see/feel the dough to know for sure!
Yes, I used Otto’s cassava. I was so disappointed. Does the vinegar in the water affect it all? Maybe I had too much water to vinegar ratio? I will try again and use a little more cassava flour. the starches were bob’s red mill brand. Has no one else had this issue? Oh, and off of this recipe, I also tried the chocolate bread roll in the book too (can’t remember what it’s called) and I guess I didn’t roll the dough thin enough because when I went to roll it up, it wasn’t very long and I definitely couldn’t twist it up or anything, so I just baked it as a log that I had and it was gummy inside. Do you know the approximate dimensions the the rolled out dough should be for this to work?
I added more cassava and they didn’t fall apart this time and weren’t as gummy but still had some gummy parts to them. Are you supposed to dry them before baking them?
Just wanted to let you know I have made the bagel recipe a couple more times and had to tweak the amount of cassava but I finally got it to work. I live in Houston, TX and it is very humid here and so I think that may have caused the issues. I had to add 3-4 tablespoons more of cassava to get it really like clay I guess but they turned out great. However, I am wondering if all of the other recipes that are in the book for cassava need to be adjusted as well—adding more cassava than what is written maybe to avoid the gumminess for where I am living? I tried making the chocolate swirl loaf using the amounts as written and it too was very gummy and it wasn’t solid enough as a dough to grab and twist it. I could barely roll it into a log shape and that was pretty much it so maybe I need to add more cassava to that recipe as well? If you were able to twist yours then mine wasn’t solid enough because you definitely couldn’t do that and I really really want that recipe to work because even though it was gummy and wet, it tasted great so I can only imagine how great it will be once I can figure out if I need to adjust the ingredients. I know you said you are from Texas, anywhere around Houston?
I am from Houston! 3rd generation Houstonian in fact. But I haven’t cooked there or lived there in years and years! Cassava flour is definitely gummy by nature so the other flours help cut that. In fact you can balance it by adding more of the almond flour in the bagels for example. I wanted to confirm you are using Otto’s? That makes a difference too. As for the babka, the issue might also be that you need the psyllium husk to be powdered. If you have the whole husk just grind that right up with a coffee grinder and it should work much better and allow you to twist the bread much more easily!
Oh, one more question, I didn’t see a baking temperature for the chocolate swirl loaf, I assume it is for 350?
Yes! Typo! Bake at 350!
thanks for the info. Yes I use Otto’s only and I did make sure to finely ground the psyllium. I haven’t retried the recipe yet since I just used the last of my cassava on the chocolate chip bagels—yum!!!!! I will let you know how the babka turns out. Maybe I will add some almond flour instead of more cassava to see if it helps with gumminess. Thanks!
Sorry to keep asking about the cookbook recipes but I want to make the bagel dogs but am I supposed to wait a minimum of 30 minutes to eat them after they bake like you are supposed to do with the bagels? I don’t want them to be gummy or anything. Also, do they freeze well after baking like the bagels do and if so, can you place the frozen bagel dogs directly into the toaster oven or do they need to thaw first? Thanks!
Just after making the bagels you want them to sit. You could eat the bagel dogs right away I think. I have not frozen the bagel dogs, just the bagels but I would probably try rebaking from frozen if you didn’t have time to thaw. Hope that helps!
I have a mission for you–lol!!! I just saw PUMPKIN BAGELS!!!! Oh my and I love your bagels in the cookbook so just wondering, have you attempted anything like this yet? I think that may be worth experimenting with, especially now that we are going into pumpkin season relatively soon 🙂 ……mmmm
I will keep that in mind!!!
When does the shortening go in on the Beignets?
Hi Kristin, I don’t use shortening in this recipe. Just olive/avocado oil.
One of the ingredients is 3 Tbl sustainable palm shortening, is that needed?
Try this recipe instead: https://predominantlypaleo.com/grain-free-paleo-beignets/