Haiti

HAITI: Banana Beignets

Video at the bottom!

INGREDIENTS: 

5 ripe medium bananas, mashed
2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup water (my mom’s preference) or milk (my preference)
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more to sprinkle on beignets before serving
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of salt
optional – pinch of cinnamon and/or ginger and/or nutmeg powder
additional icing sugar to sprinkle on the beignets

DIRECTIONS:

Mix all ingredients until well combined.
You can even prepare in advance and refrigerate.

Take 1 heaping tbsp worth of batter for each beignet and fry in hot oil (in a pan with about 6 to 8 tbsp of vegetable oil).
Do not overcrowd because you need space to flip them (maybe 30 secs to 1 min per side). Add more oil as needed.
I usually fry no more than 4-5 at a time.

Serve generously sprinkled with sugar (I prefer regular sugar over powdered sugar).

If you do not want to use all the batter at once, you can refrigerate any leftover for later use. Also, you can fry in advance and then warm them up (spread on a large cookie sheet) in oven.