More Fun In The Kitchen With A Deep Fat Fryer

Or how I managed to get a burnt finger but a happy stomach.
After consoling myself with the fact that I am not the only big baby in the kitchen when it comes to deep frying food, I once again swallowed my not inconceivable mistrust of hot oil and made Beignets Souffles with Cinnamon Sugar. Sounds complex? Actually not at all. The souffle element is not a souffle as we know it, a precarious piece of food art involving egg whites and and a large degree of trust in your oven. Instead, this recipe just involves making a Choux Pastry (simple enough but you do get a bit of a workout beating the dough) and dropping little balls of the choux into hot fat. They are then coated in the cinnamon sugar and consumed with the knowledge that you are eating something deep fried with no nutritional content whatsoever. To that end, I served mine with fresh pineapple although the original recipe, taken from Rick Stein's Food Heroes, has chocolate sauce drizzled over the little puffs.
I'll come clean. The only reason I didn't make the chocolate sauce was not health related: I simply forgot the chocolate. Paul predictably suggested that they would have been best served with vanilla ice cream. Is there nothing this man wouldn't have a la mode?
The first picture is what we shall refer to as the 'art' shot. I think I was visibly trembling with excitement at the thought of eating sugar coated deep fried dough balls and so I got camera wobble. And for once, the camera wobble looks quite attractive.
Here is what they actually look like, along with a recipe for the Beignets Souffles.
BEIGNETS SOUFFLES WITH CINNAMON SUGAR AND PINEAPPLE serves easily 5 or 6
Ingredients:
75g Butter
225ml Cold Water
95g Sifted Plain Flour
3 Large Eggs, beaten
Vegetable Oil for Deep Frying
50g Caster Sugar (I think that Vanilla sugar would be pretty wonderful too)
3/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
METHOD:
In a large saucepan, melt the butter in the water over a low heat.
Once melted, bring to the boil and sift in the flour, beating madly until the mixture coheres and starts to pull away from the sides of the saucepan.
Leave to cool for a couple of minutes.
Gradually beat in the eggs until the mixture is glossy and thick. This will take some arm work and the mixture will resemble clumpy macaroni cheese for a few seconds but it will come together with a little patience.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a deep saucepan until it reaches 190c on a thermometer. I didn't have a thermometer so had to use instinct, which is why some of the second batch got a bit too browned.
Once the oil is hot, drop in teaspoonfuls of the mixture, no more than 6 in a large pan.
Now watch the fun. They must be cooked for 5 minutes. This seems like a long while because they will start to turn golden brown quite quickly. However, you will see that at least once throughout the cooking period, maybe half way through, they will split open and expand, seemingly growing second and third stomachs (if only we had that option). They will double, triple, quadruple in size so you will need to do several batches.
After five minutes, remove them from the heat using a slotted spoon and drain briefly on some kitchen paper. Keep them warm in a low oven whilst you finish off the mixture.
To make the sugar, simply mix the sugar with the cinnamon. Pour the sugar mixture into a shallow dish and roll the warmed beignets souffles until well coated.
Serve with some fresh pineapple or chocolate sauce, or, I suppose, Ice Cream.