QUIZINE IN QUARANTINE is very excited to bring you a snack popular all across the Americas. See below to learn how to make CHURROS!
How the churros came into existence is hotly debated. Some claim Spanish shepherds living high up in mountains with very limited access to bakeries, created this phenomenal snack by frying. This claim is perhaps supported by there existing a breed of sheep across the Iberian peninsula called ‘Navajo-Churro’. The horns of these sheep look an awful lot like the churro.
The alternative version of events is that the Portuguese discovered a similar food in Northern China called ‘You Tiao’. They excitedly brought this food back to Europe, where their Spanish neighbours caught wind and added their own take to things. Whether it was the Chinese, Portuguese or Spanish that came up with this goody, one thing is for sure, and that is the conquistadors of the early modern era exported this food to the new world as they conquered territory across the globe.
Today the churro remains an extremely popular dish across the Americas, modern-day versions have gone undergone some really cool variations like being stuffed with cheese of guacamole. On a trip to Brazil a few years back, I enjoyed some churros on the streets of Rio De Janeiro where they were filled with dulche de leche.
INGREDIENTS
250ml water
100g unsalted butter
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
For coating:
30g sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
Chocolate sauce:
50ml milk full fat
20m milk for chocolate sauce
1. Add water, salt and butter to pan.
2. Mix until butter melts.
3. Add flour into buttery mixture and mix until it forms into a dough
4. Take the dough mixture of the heat and allow to cool approx 20 minutes.
5. The next stage is to add your eggs, make sure you’ve allowed sufficient time for your dough to cool otherwise your eggs will cook in the dough and ruin everything!
6. Add one egg at a time and stir the mixture whilst doing so. Depending on how fluffy you want the mixture to be you can add between 1 and 3 eggs. Two is probably best in our opinion.
7. Beat until the texture of the mixture becomes nice and silky.
8. Add mixture to piping bag, attach the star nozzle.
9. Pipe strips of dough into a hot pan and fry until a beautiful golden colour.
10. Once the churros are cooked, chuck them straight into a bed of sugar and cinnamon for coating.
11. Leave churros to cool.
Chocolate sauce
12. In the meantime make your chocolate sauce, mix chocolate and milk and melt in microwave (or on stove).
TIP: You can use any chocolate you like but for the best result, use dark chocolate and full fat milk!
13. Now dip a churro in that chocolate sauce and enjoy!
Watch how it’s done below: