What Makes Cafe Du Monde Beignets A New Orleans Tradition?

There’s a very famous restaurant located in New Orleans in the French Quarter called Cafe du monde and the thing that they are most famous for (at least outside of New Orleans), is the beignet. I’ve never experienced this delicacy, but my sister Jenny has. The classic thing to do when visiting Cafe du monde if you’re from out of town is to have coffee and beignets. 

The beignet is a French pastry that is fried, (kind of like a doughnut) then you smother it with powdered sugar and serve it with coffee. 

The reason I mentioned this is because this Tuesday (2/17/26) is Fat Tuesday, which is traditionally the finale of carnival season in New Orleans, and the whole reason I bring this up is because the Costco bakery had beignets for sale a few weeks ago. 

Now the problem was the original beignets they were going to sell were supposed to be filled with some sort of caramel. But the beignets they wound up offering for sale were filled with chocolate hazelnut filling. 

Why is this a problem? 

The problem arose when the labeling wasn’t correct on the beignets they offered for sale and did not include the fact that a chocolate hazelnut filling was in the beignets and for those with nut allergies; this was a serious problem. 

The bakery pulled them from the shelves, but a week later they went back on the shelves with the proper labeling and now I had a chance to try them out. Now, since I’ve never had an authentic beignet from Cafe du monde in New Orleans, I have no way to make a good comparison, but I have had a doughnut before. So, here we go. 

As I was traveling through the Costco in East Wenatchee, I did notice there were a few things still on sale on Sunday morning. There were a few holdovers from Valentine’s Day, they had some lovely cakes for sale and also some stuffed madeleines that were very tasty. (I’ve had them before) 

Then, lo and behold, I saw them. The beignets that I’ve been looking for, for several weeks now properly labeled as having chocolate hazelnut filling. 22 of the little devils per package, with what I would consider to be a light dusting of powdered sugar. 

I snatched them up along with a couple of other purchases and made my way home, giddy as a schoolgirl, ready to try out my first beignet. 

Time for a taste test. 

I popped open the plastic container, snatched one out and took a bite and my first impression was yes, basically this is a doughnut with a chocolate filling. I will say this; the chocolate filling was pretty subtle. I would also say that your average American male would eat one of these in two bites. Yes, they are small, that’s why there’s 22 in a container. 

In retrospect, I probably should have tried heating them up just a little bit, so it would be more like a true experience of receiving them at Cafe du monde, where they come fresh out of the fryer, covered in powdered sugar and served with hot coffee. 

My next thought as I looked at the container was “holy cow, there are 22 of these things. There’s no way I can eat all of these in one sitting”, that would be wrong (In so many ways.) I wasn’t very confident of their shelf life, so I packed them in small freezer bags and put them in the freezer. 

Then this morning on my way to work, I grabbed a bag out of the freezer, took them to work, and had them for breakfast. To my way of thinking, there was very little difference between the frozen and unfrozen versions. So, yeah, buy your box of 22, put the leftovers in the freezer and enjoy them later. 

I realize this is not the perfect experience of having beignets in New Orleans but it’s as close as I’m ever going to get. Enjoy.