baked churros

I am a proud visitor of the yearly National Folk Festival in Canberra, where my family and I have spent every Easter for over a decade. The music is awesome and perfectly folky and each year we return home with a couple of new CDs. The highlight of the festival used to be the daily churros I would have, dipped in rich Italian hot chocolate. Until the churro stalls stopped coming.

 

I have always been a lover of all things doughnutty, however I can’t stand frying, I’ve fried churros a few times before and always end up with a few minor burns, dough all over my hands and a plate of tasty yet too-greasy churros. When I came across this baked version in my frequent trawling of the Sprinklebakes blog, I knew I had hit the Spanish jackpot, particularly since I was planning a Mexican themed 18^th birthday dinner (churros are Spanish, close enough?). My friends devoured them, perhaps because I am unusually pushy when trying to get people to eat my food and I peer pressured them into it, but the general consensus was that they were delicious.

I made a chocolate and cinnamon sauce to accompany them, since I have a fairly deep seated belief that there is no better combination than churros, cinnamon and chocolate. I also made a Kahlua and chocolate mousse, as one dessert is never enough.

 

Churros…
75 grams butter
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup water

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius
2. In a medium saucepan, stir together brown sugar, water and salt. Place over medium heat and add butter. Heat until butter is melted and mixture is boiling.
3. Remove from heat and add flour, stirring with a wooden spoon until combined
4. Combine eggs and vanilla, scramble with a fork
5. Add eggs to the dough in the saucepan and stir until eggs are incorporated and mixture resembles mashed potatoes
6. Pipe dough into thin lengths , using a large French star tip. Use scissors to cut dough from the piping tip
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until puffy, then use the grill until churros are toasted and crunchy, watch them carefully!


To coat…
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:
1. Combine sugar and cinnamon
2. When churros are straight out of the oven, roll them in the sugar mix