A recipe for churros: easy to make, dangerously easy to eat
- Serve this satisfyingly crunchy fried dessert with hot chocolate or a similarly sweet dipping sauce
- The dough can be kept in the fridge so simply fry as many churros as you can consume immediately
If the only churros you’ve eaten are the stick-straight frozen type, you’re in for a treat when you taste the home-made version. Churros are easy to make, and dangerously easy to eat. What I love about them is that there’s a lot of surface area, which means more crunch.
After they’re fried and drained briefly on paper towels, dredge the still-hot churros in plain granulated sugar, or mix in some ground cinnamon. They can be served with hot chocolate, or dipped in chocolate sauce or caramel sauce.
Churros
I made these recently for a Hanukkah dinner. Unlike traditional Hanukkah sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), churros are made with a dough that is similar to pâte à choux (which is usually used for cream puffs and eclairs) and does not contain yeast, so you don’t have to worry about it overproofing.
This means there’s no need to fry all the dough at once: you can keep it in the piping bag in the fridge, and whenever you’re in the mood, just fry as many churros as you can consume immediately. Like so many other fried foods, churros are best when eaten fresh.
100 grams unsalted butter
1/8 tsp fine salt
130 grams plain (all-purpose) flour
Finely grated zest of one orange
3-4 large eggs
Cooking oil, for frying
Granulated sugar, for dredging
Ground cinnamon (optional)
1 Put the butter in a saucepan with the salt and 150ml of water and place it over a medium-high flame.
2 Heat until the mixture comes to a full, rolling boil then turn off the flame and add the flour all at once. Immediately start stirring, taking care to moisten all the flour so there are no dry spots.
3 Turn the flame to medium-low and stir constantly with a sturdy wooden spoon until the mixture forms a thick mass and comes away from the sides of the pan. Continue to stir constantly for about 30 seconds, to slightly dry out the mixture.
4 Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir with an electric mixer on low speed for several minutes so some of the steam dissipates. (Or, stir by hand with a wooden spoon.)
5 Grate the orange zest directly into the bowl and mix it in thoroughly.
6 Crack one of the eggs into the bowl and mix until it is completely incorporated. Add two more eggs the same way, letting each incorporate fully before adding the next.
Susan Jung‘s Hanukkah recipes for latkes and fried doughnuts
7 Lightly whisk the last egg and add it to the mixture a little at a time until it reaches the correct consistency: it should be glossy and smooth, and when you press it with your fingertip and lift, it should form a medium-soft peak. It might not need all of the last egg.
8 Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star tip. The paste can be piped immediately, left at room temperature for several hours, or refrigerated for longer storage.
9 Pour cooking oil to the depth of about 5cm in a wok or pan and heat to 175 degrees Celsius. Have a pair of kitchen scissors at hand; dip the cutting edges of the scissors in the oil, so the dough doesn’t stick to them. Put some granulated sugar in a shallow dish, mixing in some ground cinnamon, if desired.
10 Pipe the mixture directly into the hot oil, cutting it into the desired lengths by snipping the dough with the oiled scissors. Pipe in enough of the mixture so the churros have room to “swim” in the oil; do not crowd the pan.
11 Fry the churros on one side until pale to medium brown, then flip them over and fry the other side until done, about two to four minutes.
12 When they’re ready, lift them out of the oil and blot them briefly on paper towels, then dredge in the sugar. Put the churros on a dish and serve with hot chocolate, or chocolate or caramel sauce.
