day 34: beignets, buttermilk biscuits and blueberry muffins, oh my

Today, we made beignets, which reminded me of home a little bit. Chef True said he'll go for seconds and thirds in the same day when he is at Cafe du Monde. Really? They're good and all...but that good? That's like Pink's on La Brea. They're okay hot dogs, I guess, but not line up around the block good. James and I went to our old room to use the deep fryer while Chef Brown was giving a lecture. He nonchalantly asked if we were making beignets, as if he didn't know. We decided to bring him a plate...only to get beaten to the punch by some anonymous person who'd had the same idea.  Chef A said these came out great, and that was it, really. I guess there really isn't that much to say about beignets. Just remember to hold your breath while you eat these.  Otherwise, you will be inhaling some powdered sugar and looking like you have issues with drugs.

This is what we've all been waiting to make for at least a week now, the blueberry muffins. I think the biscuits were a bit more fun to actually make, because we had to fold in the butter as opposed to just dumping all the ingredients together for the muffins. But wow, they are delicious! I topped half of mine with crumb topping, and half with crystal sugar. I wish I would have reserved about half of my blueberries to put right on top so they would look more blueberry-y...next time, I'll do that. Chef A said these came out great, too.

The buttermilk biscuits were a lot of fun to make, and the most challenging of the three, because we had to work with the ingredients while they were very cold. Because I wasn't paying attention while mising my ingredients, I chopped all my butter up into cubes instead of just using the box grater, which would have been a bit faster. Either way works, but I did have to stash all my ingredients back in the walk-in and then work on my muffins while the butter re-chilled. I wondered how people were getting their biscuits out of the cutter so nicely when mine was so sticky and started falling over when I panned them. I just forgot one simple step...to dust my cutter with some flour, d'oh! I really liked how you folded the dough over itself to get those beautiful layers.  Chef A said I had a nice, even brownness, and she could see the layers so I worked my dough correctly.  She was also right about how you can definitely tell the biscuits that were made out of the scraps...I'm looking right at you, lower-right! These things made me want a box of Popeye's fried chicken, and red beans and rice.