From Diana Rattray,
Your Guide to Southern Food.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

If you've been to New Orleans, you've likely enjoyed beignets and cafe au lait at Café du Monde. The "Picayune Creole Cookbook" credits the early French colonists for bringing the tradition to New Orleans, and tells a story of how the early Creole cooks responded to hungry children "...handing a beautiful golden beignet, piled with snowy sugar, to the expectant little ones." The cookbook's version of beignets is simply a plain batter to be used as the basis for fruited fritters.

Calas, another New Orleans tradition, is a breakfast fritter mixed with cooked rice, flour, sugar, and spices, and then deep-fried. According to "The Dictionary of American Food & Drink," the word Calas was first printed in 1880, and comes from one or more African languages, such as the Nupe word kárá, or "fried cake." African American street vendors sold the fresh hot calas in the city's French Quarter, with the familiar cry, "Calas, belles, calas tout chauds!"
The first beignet recipe (below) is best refrigerated overnight, which makes it especially easy to cook for breakfast.

Recipes

French Market Doughnuts (Beignets)
Creole Style Beignet Batter
Calas
Banana Fritters
Creole Calas
Corn Fritters
Fresh Fruit Fritters
Rice Fritters (Calas)
Fresh Corn Oysters

Related Recipes and More Fritters and Doughnuts

Banana Fritters and Cinnamon Sauce
Pain Perdu
Sopaipillas
Cream Filled Doughnuts
Honey Dipped Doughnuts
Corn Fritters with Ham
Cinnamon French Toast
Jelly Doughnuts
Bread Machine Cinnamon Buns

Cinnamon Rolls and Sweet Rolls
Doughnuts and Fritters
Yeast Breads Index
Pancakes and Waffles
Muffin Recipes
French Toast Index
Quick Bread Recipes