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For this week’s recipe we take a trip to Spain. Although, the origins of the dish are unclear, but it is said that Spanish shepherds while out in the mountains used to make a paste out of flour, water and salt and fry in the open mountain side as a substitute for freshly baked goods. This scrumptious dish has had such humble beginnings.
Although today we’re going to make the Mexican version of the dish. Spanish churros are solely coated with sugar, but Mexican churros are coated with cinnamon sugar.
This dish is best eaten warm, so be sure to fry and eat them immediately. Accompany then with chocolate sauce and note it’s handiness as a finger food it’s clear why this is an iconic dish in Disneyland.
When we say churros its distinctive shape comes to mind. Regardless if we coat it with cinnamon-sugar or not, or we dip with Dulce de leche instead of chocolate sauce, its distinctive ridged shape remains a constant.
Why is it shaped so? The ridges and grooves allow gaps for the cinnamon-sugar to nestle in and not fall off when coated. Now for how to achieve this distinctive shape-we use a star-nozzle. The more closely spaced the prongs, the better. This is because there are more ridges, which give churros their crunchier and crispier texture.
Churros can be both baked or fried, but when you want treat yourself why not go the whole length? The ratio of crunchy exterior to that soft warm interior can only be perfectly achieved when we fry it, so we did. Although feel free to bake your churros if that’s what you prefer and do let us know the results either way.
Here we’ve tried Churros 3 ways. One, of course, is the Classic Churros, but then we have the Churros Doughnut balls and the Churros ice cream cups. The Churros Doughnut balls are fried dough coated with cinnamon sugar and piped with chocolate filling. The churro cups are frozen, fried, and then topped with the delicious homemade 3 ingredient Coffee ice cream. Drooling yet?
So come on let’s jump into the recipe
For cinnamon-sugar coating- In a bowl, add the white sugar and ground cinnamon.
Mix thoroughly. Keep it aside.
For churros- Heat a pan in medium heat, add butter, brown sugar, cinnamon.
Add water and milk and bring the mixture to a boil.
Turn to a low heat setting and then add the All-purpose flour.
Stir it evenly till a solid mass is formed. Switch off the flame and let the mixture cool down completely. This will take about 5-7 minutes.
Then add the eggs one by one into the mixture, and stir them in.
You may use an electric mixer to beat the eggs in, but it is not a requirement.
For plain churros scoop the batter into a star-tipped piping bag to give churros their distinctive shape.
For the churro cups, invert the baking tin, and coat generously with oil or cooking spray, the base, and sides of the cup (refer notes). Pipe the batter around the cups with no gaps.
And place them in the freezer for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
For chocolate stuffed churro doughnut, do not scoop the batter into a piping bag. If you feel the batter has tightened, then add little cold milk by the teaspoon to loosen the texture making it easy to scoop. It can also be achieved by adding 1 or 2 eggs according to the requirements (refer notes).
Take the churros cups out of the freezer after the given freezing time. Dislodge the churros with a knife or any sharp tool, as it will be difficult to separate (refer notes).
Heat a deep pot and fill with vegetable oil.
a) For regular churros, pipe the mixture into the medium hot oil and cut to your desired size in intervals with a scissor.
b) For the churro doughnuts scoop the batter with an ice cream scoop or measuring tbsp and drop in the medium hot oil.
c) For the churro cups, take the dislodged cups and deep fry them. Place the remaining cups back in the freezer while frying the first one.
After frying to a golden-brown colour, drain the excess oil from churros by placing them on tissue paper.
Wait for about 15 seconds and then transfer the churros to the bowl with cinnamon sugar.
Coat the churros with sugar evenly.
For chocolate sauce
Heat the cream for a minute or till it slightly forms its first bubble.
Switch off, and then pour it on the chopped chocolate.
Wait for a minute and then whisk the cream and chocolate in together till no lumps are seen.
For Churros Doughnut balls
For the chocolate stuffed churro doughnut, let the chocolate sauce rest for 10-15 minutes or more till it thickens (piping consistency). Then make a piping bag with a round nozzle, fill it with this chocolate. Poke a hole through the middle of the churro doughnuts with a sharp tool.
Then pipe the chocolate into the hole to fill the churro doughnut.
It is best eaten warm, so be sure to fry and eat them immediately.
For Churros cup
Fill the fried churro cups with Ice-cream or Dulce de leche or chocolate sauce. We had with our homemade 3 ingredient Coffee ice cream drizzled with chocolate sauce.
For Classic churros
Serve this carnival, street, finger food with chocolate sauce and eat them immediately.
Recipe card
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Cuisine: International, Spain
Category: Desserts
Serves: 4
Author: Varunika
Ingredients:
For churros:
Brown Sugar – 1 tbsp
Egg -2
Salted Butter – 1⁄4 cup
Water – 1⁄2 cup
Milk – 1⁄2 cup
All Purpose Flour/maida – 1 cup
Ground Cinnamon – 1⁄4 tsp
Vegetable Oil – for frying
For cinnamon-sugar coating:
Ground Cinnamon – 1 tsp
Granulated White Sugar – 1⁄2 cup
For Chocolate sauce:
Chopped chocolate: 180 grams/1 cup
Thick cream/Heavy cream: 1 1⁄4 cup
For Churros ice cream cups:
Homemade 3 ingredient Coffee ice cream
Instructions:
- For cinnamon-sugar coating- In a bowl, add the white sugar and ground cinnamon. Mix thoroughly. Keep it aside.
- For churros- Heat a pan in medium heat, add butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, water, and milk and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Turn to a low heat setting and then add the All-purpose flour. Stir it evenly till a solid mass is formed.
- Switch off the flame and let the mixture cool down completely. This will take about 5-7 minutes.
- Then add the eggs one by one into the mixture, and stir them in. You may use an electric mixer to beat the eggs in, but it is not a requirement.
- For plain churros scoop the batter into a star-nozzle piping bag to give churros their distinctive shape. Skip to step 10
- For the churro cups, invert the baking tin, and coat generously with oil or cooking spray, the base, and sides of the cup (refer notes). Pipe the batter around the cups with no gaps and place them in the freezer for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- For chocolate stuffed churro doughnut, do not scoop the batter into a piping bag. If you feel the batter has tightened, then add little cold milk by the teaspoon to loosen the texture making it easy to scoop. It can also be achieved by adding 1 or 2 eggs according to the requirements (refer notes).
- Take the churros cups out of the freezer after the given freezing time. Dislodge the churros with a knife or any sharp tool, as it will be difficult to separate (refer notes).
- Heat a deep pot and fill with vegetable oil.
a) For regular churros, pipe the mixture into the medium hot oil and cut to your desired size in intervals with a scissor.
b) For the churro doughnuts scoop the batter with an ice cream scoop or measuring tbsp and drop in the medium hot oil.
c) For the churro cups, take the dislodged cups and deep fry them. Place the remaining cups back in the freezer while frying the first one. - After frying to a golden-brown colour, drain the excess oil from churros by placing them on tissue paper.
- Wait for about 15 seconds and then transfer the churros to the bowl with cinnamon sugar. Coat the churros with sugar evenly.
- For chocolate sauce- Heat the cream for a minute or till it slightly forms its first bubble, switch off, and then pour it on the chopped chocolate.
- Wait for a minute and then whisk the cream and chocolate in together till no lumps are seen.
- For Churros Doughnut balls -For the chocolate stuffed churro doughnut, let the chocolate sauce rest for 10-15 minutes or more till it thickens (piping consistency). Then make a piping bag with a round nozzle, fill it with this chocolate.
- Poke a hole through the middle of the churro doughnuts with a sharp tool. Then pipe the chocolate into the hole to fill the churro doughnut.
- For Churros cup-Fill the fried churro cups with Ice-cream or Dulce de leche or chocolate sauce. We had with our homemade 3 ingredient Coffee ice cream drizzled with chocolate sauce.
- For Classic churros-Serve this carnival, street, finger food with chocolate sauce and eat them immediately.
Notes:
- Here, I used half cup milk with half cup water, feel free to skip the milk and replace it with water. If you are lactose intolerants use any plant extract milk.
- I used salted butter, so I skipped adding salt. You can use unsalted butter, but don’t forget to use salt.
- Similarly, here I used Brown sugar (light), you can use granulated white sugar or even dark brown sugar, but be mindful to increase or decrease the quantity according to the sweetness.
- Coming to the egg, I was very particular, as I don’t want my batter to taste eggy. Gradually add one by one, and incorporate it and make sure it reached the right consistency (refer pic and video) for regular churros and churro cups. For churro doughnuts, the batter should be slightly loose to scoop. If you feel the batter has tightened, then add a little cold milk by the teaspoons to loosen the texture making it easy to scoop (optional). Alternatively, it can also be achieved by adding 1 egg, but as I mentioned early, I didn’t want my batter to smell or taste eggy.
- For the Chocolate sauce, I used thick cream, which had 25% fat. It’s recommended to use heavy cream or whipping cream which has 30-35% fat. Choose the cream of your choice and availability.
- Warm the cream and add it immediately to ease the melting of chocolate. The chocolate has to be chopped into small pieces to ease quick melting.
- Do not overheat the cream, it should either slightly start simmering on the sides or give its first boil.
- For Churro cups, to make the mould, make sure you do not leave any gap while piping. Greasing generously with oil or butter is mandatory as it’ll aid while dislodging. Grease it thoroughly on the base and sides of the cup, before piping. Use a sharp tool or knife to dislodge after freezing time. If it’s not properly greased, you’ll have a tough time. While dislodging, disturb the base from all sides with the tool, this will ease the cup from the tray.