Friday, June 5, 2015

Bacon and Egg Doughnuts! Perfect for Real and Made-Up Holidays

I’ve always wanted to try making some kind of sweet/savory bacon-studded fritter using pâte à choux, also known as that stuff you make cream puffs with. It’s such beautifully rich, eggy dough, yet fries up to a surprisingly light, puffy texture.

Today is National Doughnut Day, as you know if you’ve been on Twitter in the last 48 hours, and so I decided to give it a go, and called it a "doughnut" in a cheap attempt to garner extra National Doughnut Day web traffic. That's also why I keep mentioning National Doughnut Day.

I went full breakfast theme, and topped mine with a little maple syrup, but feel free to get your beignet on, and cover them with a pile of powdered sugar. That’s not my preference, due to the mustache issue mentioned in the clip, but people with hair-free lips seem to like it.

Whether you’re going to surprise dad with a plate of these for Fathers Day, or you just want to tell your friends and co-workers you made bacon and egg doughnuts, I hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for 8 to 10 small Bacon and Egg Doughnuts:
(this is a half a recipe, so I would highly recommend doubling everything)
6 strips bacon, sliced, browned, cooled, and chopped (save some for the tops)
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp cold water
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch of fresh nutmeg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
vegetable oil for deep frying
maple syrup to garnish

- Fry at 350 F. for about 7 minutes, turning often, until puffed and well-browned
* If doing in batches, hold in a warm oven

15 comments:

Unknown said...

If I just skip the bacon does this become a regular beignet recipe. I was looking for a great recipe for them and I thought this could work, or are they too eggy even without bacon?

Unknown said...

I can't wait to make these!!!!!!

History PhD said...

You can make so many delicious things with choux paste

Anonymous said...

I gave them a go! Definitely a once in a while calorific luxury. But anytime a recipe is worth doing, I like to get the weights. So here they are:
water: 135g; butter 60g;salt - 1g, sugar 18g; flour 75g
They were delicious but I held myself off at 2 (unless I run all those calories off).

rotunder said...

Chef, love your work. Just a question about the nutmeg, as I recall it is well.. a nut... but do you have to break off the shell outside or just grate the whole thing? Thanks, Jackson.

Chef John said...

you just start grating! :)

Don Gringo said...

I gave these a go today and wasnt too happy with the results. I ended up with some grotesquely deformed balls, most burned a little too much on the outside yet still a bit undercooked on the inside. Was a bit more of a hassle then I wanted to deal with as well. One and done for me but CJ is still the man.

Unknown said...

Can you do this as a popover instead of frying

rodentraiser said...

I finally made these today and you would not, could not believe what I went through while I was trying to cook them. I made a million mistakes but these turned out delicious and light as a feather.

Don Gringo, your heat may be too high. Mine did the same thing and I turned the heat way down, cut the poor misshapen things in half, and threw them back in the pot. NOTE: these will indeed turn themselves over IF 1)your hot grease is deep enough and 2) these are actually round. Mine wasn't and they weren't, with the result that I had to turn them myself. BUT, when I put them back in after being cut in half, they turned their little selves over as nice as could be. Unfortunately, it was the wrong way with the cut sides up. I finally had two forks and the tongs on them, holding them down in the pot like I was trying to drown them, just so they would cook on the cut side. But this did get them to cook all the way through (they were probably too scared not to).

Still delicious.

Anyone remember On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder? Her mother made what she said were 'vanity cakes' and I'm wondering if these are something like that. She said they were "not sweet, but rich and crisp.". They were called vanity cakes because they were all puffed up, like vanity, with nothing inside.

MJC said...

I made these for my kids breakfast, so I added 50% more sugar, substituted 1/6 cup of cocoa powder instead of bacon, and went with powdered sugar instead of maple syrup. They were a big hit! One note of caution: don't get greedy with the scoop size. I made the first two too large and the center stayed too doughy. Switching to a smaller scoop made a big, delicious difference. :) nice flexible recipe, Chef John! :) Thanks!

Joe said...

I just made these for our annual Baconfest and won 1st prize! You made me fifty buck, Chef John. Thanks!

Dreampie said...

I made these, but baked them rather than deep frying, and they turned out delicious, and hasslefree! Made them with about a tablespoon of dough, and baked at 400F 15 min., or until golden. Great appys or with soup.

Unknown said...

Wow...complete lack of directions...pretty sure you don't just dimp it all on a bowl and mix.

Devil's Advocate said...

To Kevin Snow, I'm aware that this is a late reply, but did you watch the video of this recipe?

The Willy Mayes of Bolognese said...

if I can think something up, Chef John has already done it.
good on you