In a pot on medium/low mix water and milk. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Turn stove off and stir in the dry yeast and let stand for about 10 minutes until the yeast starts to work.
Put about 2 cups of the flour in a large bowl and then mix with the yeast milk mixture, egg, butter and salt to form a fairly liquid dough. Add the remaining flour (1 cup) and knead (the dough will still be quite soft and sticky).
Dust the work surface well with flour and before placing down the dough. Cover hands in flour and fold the dough over itself several times to form a smooth ball.
Next, place the dough ball in a well-oiled bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for about 90-120 minutes until doubled in size.
Filling:
While the dough is rising, prepare the filling.
Mix about 3-4 tablespoons of the milk with the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla extract and egg yolks in a bowl.
Put the rest of the milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove the pot from heat and stir in the milk-starch mixture. Then place back on the stove and cook until a thick pudding forms.
Once thick, remove from the heat and stir in the Amarula.
To prevent the pudding from developing a skin, place a piece of cling wrap directly on the surface and allow to cool completely.
TIP: You can also prepare the filling a day earlier.
Beignets:
Prepare a pot with oil for frying the beignets.
Dust the work surface well with flour again and place the risen dough on it.
Pull/roll out the dough into a rectangle of about 40x25cm – really make sure that there is a little flour underneath so that nothing sticks. Then cut the dough into 5cm wide strips and cut these strips diagonally into diamonds.
Heat the oil/fat in the saucepan to around 175°C and fry the fritters in it for several minutes – they should have risen nicely and be golden brown in colour. TIP: Don’t pack too much into the fat at once – it should be a maximum of 2-3 per round.
Remove the beignets from the oil and drain on a paper towel.
Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough. TIP: Please do not pick up leftover dough and knead or roll it out again – unfortunately this does not work with this type of dough.
Allow the finished fritters to cool slightly.
Put the Amarula filling in a piping bag with a piping tip and fill the beignets with it. TIP: Don’t apply too much pressure or the beignets will burst.
Serve the finished beignets, dusting generously with powdered sugar beforehand.
