Churros Craze

I am on a churros binge!

If you google binge, it will define it as an "a period of excessive or uncontrolled indulgence"... which is exactly what I am going through. I am also shamelessly admitting on this blog that I had churros a grand total of sixxxxxx times last week - four times at the office (makes you wonder how I get any work done!), and a further two helpings homemade.

It all started when this new restaurant at the office started serving scrumptious all-day desserts. (I've even had the chef personally fry a plate of churros for me at 10am brunch, so I kid you not when I say all-day.) If you are ever in the vicinity of KL Sentral, give Copper a try for their fabulous rose-favoured Pavlova, Crème Brûlée and of course - Churros, served with dark chocolate dip and chantilly cream. *drool*

Copper's version of churros. The dark chocolate was simply heavenly, and when you then dip it in the chantilly cream.... *sigh* dream dessert!

And so the weekend rolled in and I was salivating for more churros. Since driving to the office was a tad too much effort even for churros, I decided to try making some at home. A colleague commented that the churros we had tasted sangat lemak, probably from eggs, so I looked for a recipe that included the use of eggs. Jamie Oliver didn't use any, so I didn't use his. In the end I settled for Martha Stewart's recipe. Oh my, the recipe was super easy to do, it made me wonder why people charge a bomb for these strips of fried dough! So if you not already on this sweet-crispy bandwagon, get on it immediately because it is so easy to recreate at home!

Churros (recipe adapted from Martha Stewart):

1/2 cup (1 stick or ~113gm) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons granulated sugar (I used normal daily kitchen sugar, not caster)
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup all-purpose flour (I used normal daily flour, not superfine cake flour)
3 large eggs
Vegetable oil, for frying
Confectioners' sugar (icing sugar), for dusting

Method of Preparation:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup water, butter, sugar, and salt; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, and sift in flour, stirring for 1 minute.
2. Transfer flour mixture to bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat the mixture for a few minutes to cool it down. (You do not want to cook your eggs with the hot mixture, scrambled egg churros is not cool!) On low speed, add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition; spoon mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a large open-star tip.
3. Heat 4 to 5 inches oil in a large fryer/skillet. Holding pastry bag a few inches above the oil, squeeze out batter, snipping off 4-inch lengths using kitchen shears. Fry, flipping once, until deep golden brown all over, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer churros to a paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain.
4. Roll churros in confectioners' sugar (and ground cinnamon if desired). Serve immediately with Chocolate Dipping Sauce.

Chocolate Dipping Sauce:

50gm dark good quality chocolate (I used Beryl Gourmet Dark Compound)

13gm butter

30ml milk

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, using the double boiling (bain marie) method. This is my own recipe, so feel free to tweak it to your own taste buds. Add castor sugar as needed, if the chocolate sauce is too bitter for your liking. If you are more adventurous, there are other recipes available on the web that use red chilli, orange zest and even hot paprika!

This is the consistency of the flour mixture. Beads of water developing at the side of the mixer bowl, due to the heat of the mixture.

One recipe yields this much batter. I suggest you split the batter into two piping bags, instead of into one like mine! Don't forget the open star tip!

The first few tries, I simply couldn't get the batter to fall straight. I kept getting curvy wavy churros sticks. Oh well, they're going into my tummy, anyway!

I was surprised when the churros started to plump up! Next time I will use a smaller star tip, to get cute and thin churros sticks. Slimmer churros means less calories in a stick hence a slimmer me too! *denial*

My homemade churros, dusted with icing sugar.

I grated some dark chocolate onto the chocolate dipping sauce too - you can see some stray pieces that landed on the churros. Super delicious!

I whipped up two batches last weekend, and it was a big hit with Hubby and Ian. Aiden surprisingly, didn't really want any - totally anak Melayu. Bagi makan cekodok pisang laju pulak! But it was an absolute joy watching Ian eat his churros. He would clutch the stick firmly in his hand and enjoy his churros while watching TV. When he had gnawed his churros down, he didn't know how to continue eating the churros that was in his palm grip, but whenever we tried to help him, he would yelp as if to warn us not to take it away from him! In the end he finally figured out how, but not after many many attempts, much to our amusement!

Om nom nom nom!

Churros are best served hot. They lose the crunchiness once they cool, so get everything ready and in place (even your guests!) before you fry them. Enjoy!