French Mardi Gras Beignet Recipe: Roucettes from Chartres

HaPy MaRdI gRaS!

For the occasion, I made some "Roucettes" to celebrate and share them with everyone. Those diamond shape beignets looking are called "Roucettes" where I am from. I did not have my grandma recipe but I found one on the net from the city I am originally from, Chartres. I will have to make sure that I will make my Grandma's recipe next year. It is a family recipe. She got it from her mother. her name was Madeleine. After all those years, I finally thought about asking my Grandma when I had her on the phone last Sunday. 

Roucettes de Chartres

Click on the link to get to the recipe from La Recette de Cuisine to get the Recettes Gourmandises: Recette de Roussettes de Chartres. The recipe is in French. However, I will get back to you to translate the recipe, put some of my own pictures and add some comments. I had to add way more flour than the recipe called for and did it entirely from scratch. I did not used a food processor to kneed the dough. I really wanted to add this post today for the occasion. If you are celebrating Mardi Gras, Have a Great Day!

Roucettes de Chartres Recipe

Ingredients:                                                                                                               Serving: Around 70 Roucettes
                                                                                                       
- 500 g flour
- 100 g sugar
- 500 ml milk
- 125 g soft butter
- 3 large eggs
- 20 g fresh yeast or 7 g of instant dry yeast
- 5 g salt
- 1 soup spoon of rum
- Oil (for cooking).


Directions:

1. Warm the milk in the microwave until you reach a temperature between 100 and 110 degree Fahrenheit. Add the yeast with a pinch of sugar. Let the yeast raise about 10 minutes. Make sure to use a large bowl.
2. In another large bowl, mix the flour, sugar and salt. Add the eggs, rum and butter. Pour the milk mixture/yeast mixture slowly and stir well to avoid lumps. You should have an elastic dough or a bread dough texture like. The original recipe called for 500 g of flour but I had to add 1.5 to 2 cups of flour to get the right bread/dough texture.
3. Sprinkle some flour on your working surface and knead the dough for 10 minutes.
4. Shape the dough into a circle. Place it in a greased bowl and cover it with a greased plastic wrap as well and let rise for at least 1 hour (minimum) in a warm place or until the dough has doubled in volume. Click on the following link to check my rising process: http://everythingtitia.blogspot.com/2012/11/laetitias-rosemary-bread.html

After  rising way over 1 hour

After kneading 10 minutes and ready to rise

5. Heat your fryer around 350 to 375 degree Fahrenheit. Make sure that you have at least 2 inches of oil in your fryer.
6. Cut a small piece of your dough and roll it with a rolling pin (5 mm thick). Cut the dough in a diagonal with a fluted pastry wheel cutter (do not use a knife) to give them the shape of a rhombus and you have make a roucette ;-)

Rolling and cutting the dough into rhombus with a fluted pastry wheel cutter

Ready to hit the fryer

7. Once you are sure that your oil is hot enough, place the raw diamond shape dough in the fryer. Fry 2 or 3 roucettes at a time for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. They need to be between light to brown color.

Roucettes in the making!

8. Put the roucettes on a paper towel to absorbent the excess of oil and sprinkle with powder sugar.
9. You can enjoy them warm with some extra powder sugar or at a later time. Conserve them in an airtight container up to 3 days or freeze them for few months.

Delicious Roucettes!

• What Do I Think About This Recipe?

Roucettes are time consuming. If you decide to make some Roucettes make sure you have time in front of you. It takes around 45 minutes to prepare the dough between letting the yeast/milk set for 10 minutes to rise and kneading which takes 10 minutes as well. Note that you get the equivalent of 2 loaves of bread for the Rousettes' dough. As far a the rolling and frying steps, it takes around 1 hour and half. Rolling and cutting the dough into rhombuses take a long time. I cut some diamonds in advance as I was waiting for the fryer to be ready but had to stop frying them as I was cutting some more diamonds. I could not be at 2 stations at the same time. Some Roucettes were on the verge of being too brown. If you have someone who can check on the frying as you shape the dough it will save you a lot of time. 

Something that I noticed in relation to dough. After the first cut of diamond shape dough, I collected all the extra pieces left over to form another ball to roll flat again. The dough was very elastic which made it somewhat challenging. If you want more like a bread texture after you fried the Rousettes cut small diamond shapes around 2.5 inches. Longer and thinner Rousettes have just empty inside with a tinny touch of crunch. The best way I can describe the taste of a Rousette: A fried soft piece of brioche. There is rum but you cannot taste it at all. I like my Rousettes with some powder sugar. Some people in France like them with jelly. Here it seems that the trend is: honey and cinnamon sugar.

Click on the following link to get to the King's Cake recipe that I made last year: It is king cake time!

Enjoy!

Laetitia :-)