Those little French doughnuts....
 
 
Beignets
 

1 c. hot water

1/2 c. butter

2 tsp. grated lemon peel

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. flour

4 eggs

Vegetable shortening for frying

 

combine water, butter, lemon peel and juice, and salt in a saucepan.  Bring to a rolling boil.  Add the flour all at one time.  Beat bigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves sides of pan and forms a smooth ball.  Remove from heat.

Quickly beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition.  Continue beating until mixture is thick and smooth.

Drop batter by one-half teaspoonfuls, a few at a time, into hot fat.  Deep fry only as many doughnuts at one time as will float uncrowded one laryer deep in fat. Fry about 6 minutes, or until uniformly browned.

Turn doughnuts as they rise to surface and several times during frying. Remove with slotted spoon and drain over fat for a few seconds before removing to absorbent paper. Serve hot sprinkle with Vanilla Confectioners sugar.

 

 

 

Strawberry-Banana Buttermilk Sorbet

4 c. fresh strawberries, hulled (but I like using frozen strawberries when making this dessert and that is what I did today)

4 ripe bananas

2 c. sugar

2 c. buttermilk

Puree strawberries, bananas and sugar in blender. (You can do this with your food processor but a blender will give you a smoother mixture.)

Add buttermilk and blend well.  Pour mixture into 9x12-inch baking dish and freeze 1 hour (center will still be mushy).

Remove from freezer at the end of this hour and transfer mixture to your blender. Whip until it is fluffy smooth.

Pour back into your baking dish, cover with foil.

Return to freezer and freeze for at least 4 more hours before serving.

Notes:

This is my combo dessert using the two recipes above, #2 and #3.

Place a portion of the banana casserole in the bottom a cocktail glass and top with the sorbet. If you have it, place a mint leaf for garnish, along with one strawberry to top off the sorbet.

***I suggest using a Martini or Cosmopolitan glass. Makes for a very pretty presentation.

 

I serve this dessert with dessert wafer called Oblaten. They are pictured here below. Oblatens are a crisp almond wafer that also have delicate hint of lemon flavor.

 I keep these on hand for all ice cream or frozen desserts such has sorbets and granitas. The ones I use are the Carlsbad Oblatens.