recipe of mardi-gras doughnuts (recette des beignets de carnaval)

Tomorrow, it will be Mardi-gras. As I told you in my last article about Mardi-gras traditions, in every household, you can find Mardi-gras doughnuts. If you want to taste them, I am giving to you the recipe. 

For about 40 doughnuts

Ingredients

   500g flour (500g de farine)

  100g melted butter, 90 g sugar (100g de beurre fondu,90 g de sucre)


  3 eggs, 5tsp fresh creme, 1 pinch of salt (3 oeufs, 5 cuillères à café de crème fraîche, une pincée de sel)


  1packet of baking powder (= 15g), 1 tsp orange-flower water (1 paquet de levure chimique, 1 cuillère à café d'eau de fleur d'oranger)

1 lemon peel (1 zeste de citron)


Iced sugar (made by myself) (sucre glace, fait par moi-même)

Preparation

  
Mix all ingredients in a big bowl.
Mélangez tous les ingrédients dans un saladier.

 
                               

Knead well the pastry to get it smooth. 
Pétrissez bien la pâte pour la rendre lisse.
 
Leave the pastry during one hour at room temperature.
Laissez la pâte pendant une heure à température ambiante.
 
One hour later, spread it very thinly.
Une heure plus tard, étalez-la très finement.

 
Cut up the pastry making a shape: for example rectangle, triangle, circle, star, etc. My tips: Do a notch inside the doughnuts.
Découpez la pâte en faisant une forme : par exemple en rectangle, en triangle, en cercle, en étoile. Mes conseils : faites une entaille à l'intérieur des beignets.

Make the doughnuts frying in hot oil.
Faites frire les beignets dans de l'huile chaude. 

 
When fried, sprinkle them with iced sugar.
Quand ils sont cuits, saupoudrez de sucre glace.

Enjoy!

Mardi-gras event

Sorry! it is a long time that I haven't written something. But I am so busy! I have a bit of time to tell you how french people celebrated Mardi-gras event until the end of the eighties.

Mardi-gras (or carnival day) is the Lent's Eve, everybody knows that! For children, it was a very important day. After school, we disguised in our favorite hero, in princess, in an animal and so on. Ready, we went out with our brothers, sisters and friends in the streets of our village and knocked out the doors. People opened the door and tried to recognize who was behind each mask. Some did that when they know children in the village. After, they gave us coins, treats, mardi-gras doughnuts. We were very happy with our full of treats bag!  Somebody welcomed children very warmly but some weren't happy to see us. So, we knew where to knock out. We enjoyed a lot. When the night come, we went home and showed to our mum what we collected. My mother didn't want us to eat to much sweets. It was a good reminder.

These are our heroes mask that we wore for Mardi-gras event

 In these masks, it wasn't comfortable because we were hot and some difficulties to respire (although there were two holes to breath). Every 5 minutes, we had to take it off, to have fresh air but we enjoyed all the same!

Nowadays, the sweets collection does not exist. No children disguised in the street. But I am sure they enjoy eating good Mardi-gras doughnuts.
YES! Because when Mardi-gras comes, French people cook doughnuts with a variety of shapes: rectangle, circle, triangle, lozenge... You can buy them at the bakeries too. When it was time to cook them, I enjoyed with my mum, my sisters and my brother to make them.

There is another event in relationship with Mardi-gras that many cities or towns in France organize. It is the carnival. You can see some people disguised on the carnival floats or escorting them, wandering in the streets accompanied by the music. It is very colourful, exciting. You are sure to have a good time!