Churros (a spanish doughnut)

Introduction

Churros is a bit like doughnuts, in that the recipe is very similar, but instead of a pre-formed shape, Churros is piped into hot oil and thus takes the profile of the piping nozzle. Churros is traditionally served hot at breakfast and made to order, with thick hot chocolate. For those like me, it will fill you up and you are likely to leave lunch until the late afternoon.

Ingredients

Olive oil for frying

Vanilla caster sugar and icing sugar for dusting

Dough:

100g self-raising flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

55g butter

3-4 eggs, beaten

Method

Gently heat the butter in 175ml of water until the butter has melted, then bring quickly to the boil. Immediately remove from the heat and quickly add the flour in one go and beat vigorously until smooth. Return to the heat for around 30 seconds, still beating. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Gradually beat in the eggs until mixture is a smooth, thick glossy paste.

Using a deep fat fryer or a deep frying pan, heat the oil to the point that a drop of dough mixture, when dropped in, will rise to the top and fry rapidly (around 190 oC).

Spoon the dough mixture into a piping bag, with a nozzle of choice (ideally no wider than 1 cm) and pipe a length of mixture into the hot oil, using a knife to cut off the mixture at the required length. Be adventurous in the shapes formed with each length: spirals, rings even horseshoe shapes. Fry for about 3 minutes, turning over once, until golden brown. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to drain off the excess oil and dust with the sugar mixture. Serve hot.