Recipe: Churros

Eating churros reminds me of two very happy places - Melbourne, Australia, and Spain in general.  

I first had churros off a hole-in-the-wall shop near Flinders Station.  It was a cold evening - don't know why Leon and I are usually in Australia in winter - and I wanted an after dinner snack.  Sharing sugary churros dipped in milk chocolate as we walked back to our hotel was one of those moments that stick in the mind for no significant reason.  When we visited Spain, we just had to try what 'authentic' churros tasted like.  Not much different, except it's usually served with a chocolate drink instead of chocolate dip.  And so it was churros for breakfast or tea, whenever we could find it in Barcelona, Toledo, Madrid or Sevilla - the four cities we visited.

I studied Spanish for fun in Singapore.  For one of my Spanish tutors, churros was very much a part of the New Year, as a snack after the eve's party and specially made by her mother.  When she thinks of churros, it makes her cry because it reminded her of the family she missed so much.  

And now, churros is part of our Midland memory because I learned to make it here!

The wife of one of my colleagues, Fletcher Dean, generously shared a churros recipe that she picked up from chef Rick Bayless' recipe book.  Here it is as I tried it:

Ingredients
2 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Some cinnamon powder and sugar to make cinnamon sugar
1 cup of water (use a cooking measuring cup)
1 cup of all purpose flour

1. Combine oil, sugar, salt and water in a small saucepan and bring to boil on a stove.
2. Remove saucepan from heat once boiling and add in flour.
3. Stir vigorously until you make a dough ball.  Let the ball cool.

It can cool in the pan or on a plate.

4. Stuff the dough ball into a churrera or pastry bag fitted with a 3/8 inch star tip.  I don't know what that is.  Anyway, all you need is something to punch out the dough through a star-shape nozzle.
5. Heat frying oil in a pan.  You need about 1.5inch to 2inches of oil in the pan, and make sure it's at least 8inches in diameter.
6. When oil is very hot, pipe in a strip of dough about 5 inches long. Pinch it off your churrera or piping bag.  We tried cutting it with a butter knife but it was more efficient with fingers.

My churrera domestica from Amazon.com.

7. Cook one strip first to try.  If the oil is hot enough, it will brown nicely and be cooked through.  If the oil is not hot enough, the dough will split.  If too hot, it'll be burned and the dough won't be cook.
8. Once you've got that figured out, you can pipe in the rest of the dough and cook until nicely browned.  Remember that it'll look lighter in the pan but be just right when you scoop it out.

Leon tried to help me by cutting the dough off the churrera with butter knife but had to flick the knife to get the dough to fall off.  Not easy that way.

9. Once your dough turns into churros, pick them out from the oil and set on kitchen towels to drain off some oil.
10. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and serve with chocolate dip or drink.  

We found the churros and chocolate dip to be sweet enough so skipped dusting them with cinnamon sugar.

This recipe makes churros enough for 4 people, but we finished them between the two of us. I now feel a bit sick...luckily we didn't have lunch, and I think dinner will be very light...maybe just water. Arggghh