Churros! Love the name.
Never tried them before but seeing the pictures I really wanted to. So instead of traveling somewhere where they are sold (wouldn’t mind tho), I made them at home. A churro is basically fried dough pastry.
At this time of the year (usually in February) in Slovenia, a celebration takes place where you dress up as someone or something (like for Halloween) and go around shooing winter. It’s called pust. And most people associate pust with dressing up and DOUGHNUTS. Not those American ones with holes and shiny glaze but a doughnut filled with jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Last year I made them at home because this celebration really puts a lot of people (including me) in the mood for baking doughnuts. Not a fun thing to make, well at least not for me. Don’t get me wrong, I made them filled with vanilla pastry cream and glazed with chocolate (because I’m not a fan of jam at all) and they were really delicious and all but ugh, not excited to make them again. So I thought why not make churros, a lot easier to make and they are fried, so basically the same thing right?
There is also another very typical fried dessert made at the Carnival time but it’s more typical for Italy and that is Chiacchiere-Angel Wings Pastry.
The dough for churros is made in the same way as the dough for eclairs or profiteroles but instead of being piped with a circle nozzle and then baked, it’s piped out with a star-shaped nozzle and fried.
I did also bake some though for a bit of a healthier version, tastes pretty different but delicious nonetheless.
Churro is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, the dough is not that sweet by itself because it only contains 1 tablespoon of sugar, but after frying churros can be rolled in cinnamon sugar (which I did) or sprinkled with powdered sugar. They are usually served with chocolate sauce, so I tried that too but I prefer them just rolled in cinnamon sugar. And just as any fried pastry, churros are best eaten right after being fried.
Baked churro is slightly different, it doesn’t have that typical fried texture, but it’s still crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
One thing to keep in mind is that they puff up a lot when they are fried.
And when baked, they double up in size.
Ingredients
(makes a lot)
150 ml water
100 ml milk
110 g butter
160 g flour
3 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
+ oil for frying (I used 700 ml)
cinnamon sugar (3 tbsp sugar+1 tbsp cinnamon)
85 g chocolate
Instructions
Making the dough
Melt the butter with water and milk in a saucepan. Add sugar, salt, and vanilla. When it boils dump in all of the flour and mix it in until it forms a smooth ball. Remove from heat and wait for the mixture to cool down just a bit so when we add eggs, they don’t scramble. When you add eggs (add one egg at the time, mix it in and then add another one) and start mixing vigorously, don’t panic if the mixture seems slimy, broken up and like it will never come together, it will. Just keep mixing. I just mixed it with a spoon (quite an arm workout) but you can do it with an electric mixer if you wish.
Spoon the dough to a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle. Pick a bigger nozzle for bigger churros and a small one for smaller churros like mine.
Frying
Prepare a plate with paper towels on top.
Heat the oil to 175-180 °C. If you don’t have a thermometer, check if the oil is ready by frying a piece of prepared dough, or bread. If the oil starts sizzling around it, it’s ready and if not, wait for a bit more and repeat the test.
Hold the piping bag a few cm from the oil, squeeze out the dough and break it off with scissors or a knife after the desired length. When you notice churros browning on the bottom turn them once and fry the other side. When they are nicely browned, lift them out and put onto your prepared plate.
Roll your churros in cinnamon sugar or sprinkle them with powdered sugar.
For the chocolate sauce, just melt the chocolate over a bain-marie or microwave. You can also prepare your favorite chocolate sauce or ganache or caramel sauce for dipping the churros in.
For a baked option
Preheat your oven to 200°C. Pipe long strips of the dough onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, spray them lightly with cooking spray (you can skip that if you don’t have it on hand) and bake them for 10-13 min depending on the size of your nozzle. They are baked when lightly browned on the outside and soft on the inside.
Best eaten right after!
Churros
Ingredients
- 150 ml water
- 100 ml milk
- 110 g butter
- 160 g flour
- 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- + oil for frying I used 700 ml
- cinnamon sugar 3 tbsp sugar+1 tbsp cinnamon
- 85 g chocolate
Instructions
Making the dough
- Melt the butter with water and milk in a saucepan. Add sugar, salt and vanilla.
- When it boils dump in all of the flour and mix it in until it forms a smooth ball.
- Remove from heat and wait for the mixture to cool down just a bit so when we add eggs, they don’t scramble. When you add eggs (add one egg at the time, mix it in and then add another one) and start mixing vigorously, don’t panic if the mixture seems slimy, broken up and like it will never come together, it will. Just keep mixing. I just mixed it with a spoon (quite an arm workout) but you can do it with an electric mixer if you wish.
- Spoon the dough to a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle. Pick a bigger nozzle for bigger churros and a small one for smaller churros like mine.
Frying
- Prepare a plate with paper towels on top.
- Heat the oil to 175-180 °C. If you don’t have a thermometer, check if the oil is ready by frying a piece of prepared dough, or bread. If the oil starts sizzling around it, it’s ready and if not, wait for a bit more and repeat the test.
- Hold the piping bag a few cms from the oil, squeeze out the dough and break it off with scissors or a knife after the desired length.
- When you notice churros browning on the bottom turn them once and fry the other side. When they are nicely browned, lift them out and put onto your prepared plate.
- Roll your churros in cinnamon sugar or sprinkle them with powdered sugar.
- For the chocolate sauce, just melt the chocolate over a bain-marie or microwave. You can also prepare your favorite chocolate sauce or ganache or caramel sauce for dipping the churros in.
For a baked option
- Preheat your oven to 200°C. Pipe long strips of the dough onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, spray them lightly with cooking spray (you can skip that if you don’t have it on hand) and bake them for 10-13 min depending on the size of your nozzle. They are baked when lightly browned on the outside and soft on the inside.
- Best eaten right after!
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