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Fifty-two years ago today, Prince was born, a man who changed the face of music as we know it. That’s right, it’s birthday time once again for The Artist Formerly Known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. We here at MicrowaveSurfer would like to honor this momentous occasion. Since Prince is an artist who continually does seemingly impossible things in music, we thought we’d try our hands at doing something seemingly impossible in the microwave…deep frying.

Now, I’m not going to lie, I was a little uneasy about deep frying in a microwave at first. You might even say that I was terrified. I busted out the big silicone oven mitts and hid behind the microwave door the first time I stuck anything into the oil. I’d never done this before, and I had no idea what to expect. Thankfully, everything went according to plan, the oil did not overheat, and no one got burnt. After the fear subsided, which happened after a batch or two finished without any mishap, I began to really enjoy the process. Now, I’m not a huge fan of deep frying things in general, so I’m not sure how often I’d repeat this process, but it was definitely fun, and the results were delicious.

The recipe I used for this experiment is an adaptation of the beignet recipe in Barbara Kafka’s 1987 Microwave Gourmet cookbook. My microwave is quite a bit more powerful than the one used by Kafka in the book, so cooking times had to be adjusted. You may need to do this to our adjusted recipe, as well, depending on the power of your microwave. If you hear crackling or popping sounds coming from the microwave before it is finished heating, your oil is most likely hot enough, and you can stop your microwave and begin cooking. To test if your heated oil is the proper temperature for cooking, you can insert something wooden into it, like a chopstick, or the handle of a wooden spoon. If the oil begins to fizz and bubble where the wood is, your oil is ready for frying. If this doesn’t happen, you should continue heating the oil in small increments until you get this result.

Now, beignets are definitely not a health food, but we can make them slightly healthier by using organic ingredients, sea salt rather than iodized table salt, and honey rather than powdered sugar. Also, we know that some people can’t enjoy the deep fried goodness of the beignets as is. So, for those of you with gluten allergies, we have attempted a gluten-free adaptation, which follows the original recipe, but with two changes.

Raspberry Beignets
(Makes 12 to 15 Beignets)

Ingredients:
½ cup water
4 Tbsp organic unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp sea salt
2 organic eggs
3 cups vegetable oil, for frying
Organic raspberry Jam, for filling
Confectioner’s sugar, for decorating
Honey, for decorating

Directions:

1. In a glass measuring cup, add the water and the butter. Heat in the microwave on high until boiling, approximately 1 minute 30 seconds.
2. Transfer the heated butter-water mixture to a glass work bowl. Add the flour and salt. Process with a hand blender until well incorporated, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, blending for 30 seconds after each addition. The batter should be slightly thicker in consistency than pancake batter.
3. In a large uncovered glass bowl (at least 2 quarts, with sides of at least 3 inches), heat the frying oil on high until it reaches the proper temperature for cooking, about 7 minutes. Test the heat of the oil using the stick test described above before proceeding. Drop the batter by rounded teaspoonfuls into the oil, cooking 4 to 6 beignets in each batch. Cook on high for 1 minute. The oil should boil rather vigorously around each beignet, and they should float to the surface. Using a wire skimmer, turn the beignets over and cook for 1 minute 30 seconds more on high, until golden brown. Reheat the oil for 1 minute 30 seconds between batches, testing the oil using the stick test before continuing cooking.
4. Remove beignets using the wire skimmer to paper towels to drain. Once they have cooled a bit, you can fill the beignets with the jam. If you have an icing tip, this would be a good time to use it, but you should be fine just cutting a corner off of a freezer bag. To fill each beignet, poke a guide hole with a chop stick into the beignet. Fill the pastry bag (or freezer bag) with jam, and insert the tip into the guide hole. Squeeze filling into each doughnut, until you reach desired fullness. Decorate each beignet with honey or powdered sugar, as desired.

*NB- It may be possible to use coconut oil for frying the beignets, but heating times may need to be adjusted. Rely on the stick test to help determine cooking times.

Gluten-Free Rasberry Beignets (Addaptation)
(Makes 12 to 15 Beignets)

Ingredients:
½ cup water
4 Tbsp organic unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 ½ cup gluten-free all-purpose baking flour
¼ tsp xanthum gum
½ tsp sea salt
2 organic eggs
3 cups vegetable oil, for frying
Organic raspberry jam, for filling
Honey, for decorating

Cook these following the directions from the above recipe, replacing the flour with the gluten-free flour, and adding the xanthum gum. These will be puffier and more buoyant during cooking, and heartier when eaten.