Beignets de Carnaval
When the writter Marcel Proust was a little boy, he played a game with Jeanne Weil, his mother. She would read one line from her favorite play, Esther by Racine, and Marcel would read the next. In the play, the Jewess Esther marries Ahasuerus, the good king of Persia. Proust’s mother also married a non-Jew, a Catholic doctor named Achille Proust. Madame Proust’s love of Esther may have extended beyond the text— a favorite sweet was these doughnuts from her childhood, eaten by Jews at Purim, which celebrates Queen Esther. The doughnuts are the same as the beignets de Carnaval eaten by Catholics around the same time of year, just before Lent. These doughnuts and Butterkuchen (see page 351) probably evoked more memories for Proust than did the madeleine dunked in tea in the fictional Swann’s Way. Curiously enough, in an early version of the opening pages of the manuscript, the madeleines were biscottes (dry toast, zwieback, or rusks). The change to madeleines was made later by Proust.
Recipe information
Yield
about 2 dozen
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. Stir in the flour, eggs, salt, granulated sugar, and the butter or margarine, and knead until you have the consistency of a smooth dough. Turn it out, clean and grease the bowl, and put dough back in. Allow dough to rest, covered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until doubled in volume. Punch down, and knead again.
Step 2
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into roughly equal 2-inch triangles or rectangles. Allow to rise for 45 minutes.
Step 3
Heat about 2 inches of the oil to 375 degrees in a deep pan or a wok. Lower three or four pieces of the dough at a time into the hot oil, and fry until they are golden on both sides. Extract them with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
