The French – the inventors of choux pastry – have mastered the art of using this very special dough in baking. Long tubes are piped to make ecclairs, small balls are baked and filled with crème patissiere for profiteroles, which can then, for celebrations, be stacked into pretentious towers & coated with toffee to make croquembouche.
The Spanish – the inventors of the afternoon nap – have a much more casual approach to this dough. Deep fry it, dip it chocolate, and eat it for breakfast: Churros.
These are commonly known as ‘Spanish Doughnuts’, semi-accurate because there are similarities: they are deep fried lumps of dough, served as a sweet and in many place with cinnamon. However this description doesn’t do justice to the delectability of Churros – they are so much better than doughnuts. What is special about choux pastry is that it consists of purely butter, water, eggs & flour. Unlike most cakes & bread there is no raising agent, and the dough when cooked relies on the high moisture level (and the resulting steam inside the dough) to create a puffing or rising effect. This is what makes hot, fresh made, Churros literally melt in your mouth.
Like so many things in the Hispanic world, Churros are claimed by many as their own, but ultimately shared by the whole culture, spanning the Spanish speaking world in one form or another. There are a great many variations, including with or without sugar, and with or without stuffing. The addition of cinnamon would seem to be an Australian/Americanism, but personally we think it is delicious so we use it. There are few rules, except that Churros are almost always served as dipping accompaniment to Hot Chocolate, or Coffee. In the spanish speaking world as breakfast or morning snack, but here in Oz normally as a dessert or late night treat.
N.B. Anyone that has visited continental Europe will realise that the term ‘Hot Chocolate’ means something very different from that in Australia – it is not a warm, milk drink that has been made beige by the addition of some chocolate powder. Continental (especially Spanish) hot chocolate it thick, syrupy, and delectably gluggy – the main ingredient of which is good quality melted chocolate. At the Coughing Gherkin, we avoid potential confusion by serving Churros with our Chocolate fudge, for dipping purposes.
Ingredients:
CHURROS
- Vegetable Oil (for frying)
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup margarine or butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 eggs
CINNAMON SUGAR
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup ground cinnamon
CHOCOLATE FUDGE
- 200g dark cooking chocolate
- 140m pouring cream
- 60g butter
- 5ml of dark rum (optional, but strongly advised!)
Method (Churros):
Heat 2cm of oil in a pan to 180degC.
Make the churro dough by heating water, butter and salt in a saucepan; stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball and then remove from heat. Beat the eggs until smooth and then add to saucepan gradually while stirring mixture.
Spoon mixture into a piping bag with large star tip. Squeeze 10cm strips of dough into hot oil. Fry 3 or 4 strips at a time until golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels.
N.B:
At the Coughing Gherkin we have a small domestic deep fryer used exclusively for Churros. Assuming that you don’t have one, the recipe below describes the method for doing it in a saucepan. A fryer is easier, because it will control the temperature, but a saucepan is very possible, just be very careful.
Method (Chocolate):
Put the chocolate in a mixing bowl.
Bring the cream, butter & rum to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Leave to rest for one minute and then whisk until smooth.
