Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch salt
• 1 cup flour
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 golden delicious apple, finely diced
• 1/2 Anjou pear, finely diced
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1/2 cup sugar
• The seeds of 1 vanilla bean

Procedure

Begin with the choux pastry: bring the water and butter and sugar and salt to a boil. Take the pan off the heat, and add the flour in all at once—stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat to low, and set the pan back on the heat. Stir for less than a minute until the dough comes away from the side of the pan. Turn the dough out into a bowl, and allow it to cool just slightly. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, until they are fully absorbed in the dough. Finally, stir in the apple and pear.

Meanwhile, heat a saucepot halfway full with vegetable oil. Test the temperature with a drop of dough: the dough should sink, start to bubble, and slowly rise to the top.

Use two teaspoons to drop little beignets into the oil. They will take from 5-8 minutes to cook—you want them pale golden, puffed, and split (cooked choux pastry will develop a "scar" on the side when it puffs). Drain on a paper towel, and toss with vanilla sugar (recipe follows).

Vanilla Sugar

Scrape the vanilla bean into the sugar and mix!