Growing up in Texas means a familiarity with a delicious puffy, light, fried dough dessert by the name of Sopapilla; growing up in Texas also means frequent trips to Louisiana, which means an abiding love for those rich fried dough desserts known as beignets. What these two have in common is fried dough (duh), powdered sugar, and finger licking goodness. Sopapillas are traditionally served with powdered sugar and honey, you can also top them churro style with cinnamon and sugar, or go super decadent with some drizzled chocolate.
Let’s be real, y’all, how can you go wrong with fried dough? The answer: you can’t.
For most of the country, Thanksgiving means a staple menu of Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans of some casserole state, and pies of the pecan, sweet potato, apple, and possibly chess variety depending on your level of southern-ness.
For our family, Thanksgiving is a time to get together and laugh, remember loved ones, and eat; but we don’t eat a set menu, oh no… we’ve had themed Thanksgivings, we’ve had random Thanksgivings, and the one thing that holds true and strong is that Thanksgiving is when our family gets together and cooks together.
Everyone has a hand in it, and there are no limits. If you want to bring a gallon of ice cream and 20 spoons, fried chicken, black eye peas.. whatever.. bring it and we’ll eat it. We will laugh over it, and we will make memories with it. Our Thanksgiving table always has room for one more; one more dish, one more person.
We use Grands!® for our Monkey Bread recipe and our easy doughnut holes, so we know that we love them in desserts, coated in sugar, and fried… this past week, we had sopapillas at a Mexican restaurant, so the kids and I brainstormed and decided to throw caution to the wind to see if this would work.
Using Grands!® to make sopapillas creates a hybrid sopapilla-beignet creation and they’re ridiculously easy, crazy delicious, and pretty much going in our rotation for sleepover foods, party foods, kid-friendly holiday recipes, and just because.
The Grands!® flaky layers biscuits separated, flattened, and fried up are simultaneously light and airy like a sopapilla, but rich and doughy like a beignet… top them with powdered sugar and honey and you have a melt in your mouth dessert with a delightful crunch.
Monkey kept sneaking them every time I turned my back, and Princess ate several and tried to take them to her cheer coaches!
I can’t wait for the kids to make these for our Thanksgiving feast this year, and maybe for breakfast, too 😉
Quick and Easy Sopapilla Beignets
Ingredients
- 1 tube Pillsbury Grands!® flaky layers 8 biscuits
garnish
- powdered sugar
- cinnamon sugar
- chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat 2 inches of oil to 300°F in a cast iron skillet
- Open a tube of Pillsbury Grands!® Flaky Layers biscuits
- Separate the Pillsbury Grands!® Flaky Layers biscuits, and then peel the biscuits in half - the layers make this really easy.
- You can roll each section with a rolling pin or flatten them pizza dough style into a thin circle of dough
- Drop the dough into the hot oil, 2 at a time.
- Turn over after 1 minute, or when the dough has puffed up and turned golden brown, repeat, and remove from the hot oil when golden and crisp on both sides.
- Place the dough on a paper towel lined surface to absorb the oil
- Top with powdered sugar, honey, nutella, chocolate, syrup, or just eat as is
Do you ever go non-traditional with your Thanksgiving menu?
