The fried dough pastry often served with powdered sugar in Louisiana is called a beignet.
A beignet is a deep-fried pastry with French roots that became especially associated with Louisiana and New Orleans. Louisiana-style beignets are commonly made from yeast-leavened dough, cut into squares or rectangles, fried until puffed and golden, and covered generously with confectioners’ sugar.
Unlike many doughnuts, a traditional New Orleans beignet has no hole in the center. The dough’s French connection reflects the history of French colonists and Acadian settlers in Louisiana. The pastry is now strongly linked with café culture, particularly the city’s French Quarter.
Café du Monde, founded in New Orleans in 1862, helped make beignets internationally recognizable, especially when served with café au lait. Bread pudding is baked rather than fried, pralines are nut candies, and king cake is a decorated Carnival pastry—so none is the pastry described here.