Ah… SuperBowl Sunday with the Chicago Bears vs. Indianopolis Colts. It was quite a game but the clear winner were my churros!
Churros are a fried pastry dough, similar to doughnuts, that are most popularly associated with Spanish or Mexican snacks. Traditionally made churros have ridges because they are squeezed out from a large star tipped extruder (like a cake decorating tip on a larger scale.)
[pic of the churros I made are coming soon – I was in a rush and forgot to take pics, but I’ll be making more tomorrow]
Below is the churros recipe I used that resulted in crunchy logs of dough, covered in cinnamon sugar. I didn’t have a large enough cake decorating tip that would be appropriate to create the signature ridges. Instead, I made them in free form using a small corner snipped from a ziploc bag. They resembled funnel cake strips but still very tasty, nonetheless. You could use the same recipe to make funnel cakes and then sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Churros Recipe:
Vegetable or canola oil for frying
1 cup water
1 stick (or 1/2 cup) of margarine or butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1 gallon storage ziploc bag
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
— Prepare to fry the churros by heating oil in a pan (1 to 1 1/2 inches) to 360 degrees.
— To make the churro dough, heat the water, margarine and salt to a rolling boil in a 3 quart pan.
— When it comes to a rolling boil, lower heat and stir in flour. Mix thoroughly until the mixture forms a ball; about 1 minute. Take off heat.
— Beat all the eggs in a bowl and add to the pot. Stir thoroughly until the mixture is completely incorporated.
— Snip a corner from the ziploc back. Note: the size cut you make will determine the size and cooking time of your churros.
— Spoon mixture into the ziploc bag – careful, it might be a little hot.
— Above the oil, squeeze the dough through the snipped corner and allow the dough to fall through in free form fashion. Trying to get logs may be difficult but free form worked best for me.
— Allow the dough to fry up until golden, turning them once.
— Drain the churros on a cooking rack set over a cookie sheet… or paper towels.
— In a baking pan or container, combine sugar and cinnamon and toss drained churros in the sugar mixture until well coated.
— You can omit the cinnamon sugar coating and choose to keep them plain. The churro dough has no sugar so you might want to sweeten it up either way. If you prefer it plain, I suggest making dipping sauces like strawberry, caramel, chocolate or even honey to add the sweetness.
Yum!