French Market Beignets

You can think of them as a Frenchman’s doughnut or as an entremets fritter “from the old mother country,” as the Picayune says. And if once they were cooked by the dozen by “the fat and cheery old negro cook,” today they are eaten by the dozen at Café du Monde, where the French Market joins Jackson Square. You eat them three square pillows at a time, dipping them into an extra bowl of powdered sugar to whiten your clothes along with your face. You wash them down with a cup of French-