My relationship with apples can be perfectly summed up by this Oatmeal comic. So at any given moment I have at least one or two apples lying around at home, that wait to be eaten, but always end up shriveled and a bit sad. The great thing though is that the slightly shriveled apples are perfect for those apple beignets with vanilla sauce. A beignet is basically a fancy pancake, where you whip up the egg whites seperately and fold them into the dough. It makes for a very light and fine texture I love very much. Give it a try!
If the vanilla sauce is too much of a hassle for you, you could easily eat the apple beignets as they are or eat them with some maple syrup. Go easy on the syrup though, since the beignets are already sweet enough. Enjoy!
Apple beignets with vanilla sauce
Ingredients
For the vanilla sauce
- 1 vanilla pod
- 150 ml milk
- 50 ml heavy cream
- 2 egg yolks
- 40 g sugar
- 1 tbsp white wine
- salt
For the beignets
- 1 apple peeled
- 1 lemon
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp sugar
- 100 g flour
- 130 ml milk
- 1 tbsp butter
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
First prepare the vanilla sauce
- Cut open the vanilla pod and mix the seeds with the milk.
- In a small sauce pan heat the milk together with the cream, the white wine and the whole vanilla pod. Bring it to a boil briefly and then take it off the heat. Let the vanilla infuse the milk for 10 minutes. Then take out the vanilla pod.
- Heat big pot full of water over high heat.
- In a metal bowl whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until it's lighter in colour and very creamy.
- Place the metal bowl in the pot of hot water, turn down the heat to medium and while whisking constantly, add the vanilla milk bit by bit to the egg mixture.
- Keep whisking until the mixture starts to thicken. Don't take your eyes of off it, or you'll have scrambled eggs. When the sauce coats the back side of a spoon evenly, take it off the heat and place it in a bowl full of cold water to stop the cooking process. Set aside.
Now prepare the beignets
- Core the apple with an apple corer and cut it into thin slices, around 4-5mm thick. Sprinkle them with a couple of drops of lemon juice and set aside.
- Separate the egg yolks and egg whites of two eggs
- In a bowl whisk together the egg yolks and sugar, until creamy and fluffy.
- Add the flour, milk and zest of the lemon, mix well and set aside.
- In another bowl whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Carefully fold the beaten egg whites into the dough mixture.
- Heat a little knob of butter in a non-stick pan over medium heat.
- Dip the apple slices into the dough until they are well coated, take them out with a spoon and cook them over medium heat on both sides until they are golden brown.
- While they are cooking, mix the sugar with the cinnamon in a flat bowl and dip the cooked apple beignets into the mixture until they are evenly coated.
- Serve warm together with the vanilla sauce.