Sunday Brunch by Marielle & Albert Gutierrez
The Culinary Adventures of Escapay & ImMarielle:
Choux Fritters (that's a really long title!)
Originally published December 11, 2011
A piano player, a writer, and a baker walk into a
bar. The bartender says, "Hey, you trio! Get out of here, we don't
serve your kind!"
"Why not?" asked each member of the trio. The
bartender looks at them up and down.
"Because we don't serve anyone from New Jersey!" the
bartender says.
While we, the NJ Trio, are individually known for
our unique talents, each of us can play the piano,
write creatively, and bake/cook...sort of. Reuben's the bona fide
baker, while Albert is the improv cook, and Mariel is a spectacular
supervisor and taste-tester! So if you get the three of us together
in a kitchen and tell us to go wild, you can bet we will entertain
your taste buds with our crafty concoctions.
That is why even with Reuben a-bakin' down in Walt
Disney World, the remaining NJ Duo still gets their treats on. When
we were given the opportunity to share our own culinary talents on
Sunday Brunch, we decided to make something fried, sweet, and dipped
in chocolate. Fortunately, a recipe in Cooking with Mickey and
the Disney Chefs included all three: Choux Fritters!
Choux Fritters are essentially like the beignets
made by Tiana in 2009's The Princess and the Frog. The light
and fluffy dough does not contain yeast, and instead relies on high
moisture and steam when cooking. This is what makes it puff and
airy. You can find Choux Fritters at the Royal Street Veranda in New
Orleans Square, Disneyland. Or, you can read on about how we made
these delicious miniature French cruellers in the comfort of our
humble labyrinth of an abode. And we even had Oswald and Perry help
out, as you can see in the pictures below.
WARNING: Be prepared to absent-mindedly eat half the
batch while reading this article!
You will need the following ingredients and tools.
Since it's only the NJ Duo here to enjoy these treats, we halved the
recipe found in Cooking with Mickey.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup (half-stick) butter or margarine
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup all-purpose flower, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups vegetable oil
Sugar (Confectioner's or White)
Dipping Chocolate
Tools:
Mixing bowls
Measuring cups
Flour sifter
Stand Mixer
Saucepan for frying
Spatula & Spoon
Slotted spoon
Whisk
Yield: 18 fritters
First, make sure all your ingredients are measured
out. Then, take a lovely picture like this one.
Perry helps out by holding our measuring cup of water.
Actually, you don't need to take a picture, but when
else do you have an opportunity to turn eggs into mouse ears?
Next, you want to combine the butter, boiling water,
flour, and salt in your saucepan. Do this over moderate heat, and
make sure to beat the mix vigorously with your whisk. The butter
will help keep the mixture from sticking to the sides of your
saucepan, but it's still important to beat until it forms a ball.
When it forms, remove from heat and cool slightly.
Spoon the dough ball into your mixer and turn it on,
at a low speed at first. Add the first egg and change the speed to
moderate - high. Add the remaining eggs one at a time, making sure
to beat each egg into the mixture well before adding the next. Once
the eggs are added, your dough should look like this:
The dough will be finished mixing when it can hold a
shape in a spoon, since it will take that form when dropped into the
hot oil. Heat your oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Be prepared for a
few loud pops of oil, and turn on your kitchen's vent. Dip the spoon
into the oil, then spoon out a batter, which you'll drop into the
oil. After a couple minutes, turn over the fritters and cook until
both sides are brow. Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon
to help drain and into a bowl or plate lined with paper towels.
Perry holds our saucepan steady for us!
Now the fun begins, as we add either sugar or
chocolate to our choux fritters. Disneyland only uses sugar in their
recipe, but we wanted to take it to another level. And what better
level than chocolate? While Marielle was working on the frying side
of this recipe, Albert was melting some chocolate in his
chocolatiere, an electric melting pot. Immediately after you drain
the oil from the fritters, dip them into the chocolate or sprinkle
with confectioner's sugar. Check out the end results here:
Perry and Oswald enjoy their fritters!