reference

[PaulaJK]

Within the past 6 months or so, someone wrote a fabulous

post describing tricks to making chocolate beignets/fritters.

I've tried 'the search' but can't locate it....it's probably buried

in another topic. Would anyone remember the specific reference

or the technique,...I think it may have involved freezing

choc. ganache...but was the fritter batter plain or made w. yeast?

I've had trouble getting my plain batter to stick to the chocolate.

Thanks

Edited January 15, 2006 by PaulaJK (log)

[tan319]

I think this is the link, yeasted is better for ganache.

Beignets

This might also be interesting.

Thor choc lollipops

I've always thought plain batters were more for fritters.

[chefette]

Not familiar with the post to which you refer, but in the Balaguer book, there is a great chocolate filled fritter/buyol

page 120

Essentially a milk based sweetened choux

pipe into a mold, or just round up

shove a couple pistoles of chocolate into the heart, cover, freeze, unmold, fry and serve

Yummy hot fritter with molten chocolate center hot from the fryer

I left out the spice mix and you can of course vary that to your immediate needs

Edited January 15, 2006 by chefette (log)

[etalanian]

There are two kinds of beignets: The yeast-raised kind like they serve at Cafe du Monde, and the real French kind, made by deep-frying pate a choux. The former is tasty. The latter is exquisite. I have made this kind of thing with the pate a choux dough, and it is delicious. The centers were ganache, frozen before pinching them into the dough.

[K8memphis]

Oh my my my these sound soooooooooo good. Ok lemme get this straight. Choux batter

(but maybe use that one recipe that chepeon said was her favorite by Pichet Ong---it has sweetened condensed milk in it)

Oh oh oh, I was thinking you baked them, then filled, then fried. But you make the batter, pinch unbaked batter around frozen ganache balls then fry??? Do you freeze the ganache filled batter balls??? Could you??? I think Chefette says yes.

Oh these sound wonderfully dangerous--ho ho ho fried chocolate!!! I can't wait to try these!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, umm, what is the size of the finished product-ish?? I'm thinking about the size of a large donut hole????

[etalanian]

I think you can make them any size you want within a reasonable range. If they are too big the frozen ganache might not get hot throughout. I think the size of a doughnut hole is good.

I have frozen them overnight so I can just fry them quickly for a dinner party dessert. I usually take them out a few minutes before frying them. I use a fairly dense ganache: 8 ounces of dark chocolate to 2 ounces of cream. I freeze the ganache balls before inserting them into the choux paste. Be sure you pinch the dough so it completely seals the ganache inside. Any holes and the ganache will leak out and cause a terrible mess.

I don't understand the mentions above that say the ganache is "dipped" in the "batter." Maybe their pate a choux is much thinner than mine, or maybe they aren't using a choux paste. But I tried the Pichet Ong recipe and it was the same consistency as the one I'd been using. I'm going to try filling the Pichet Ong pate a choux this weekend if I have time. I want to try it also with chocolate instead of ganache.

Let me know if you have any epiphanies when you make yours.

Eileen