Churros
Crispy, golden churros rolled in cinnamon sugar and served hot with a rich chocolate dipping sauce — great party food that reheats beautifully.
- Cinnamon Sugar Coating
- 1/4 cup caster (superfine) sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Churros
- 1 cup flour, plain/all-purpose
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon vegetable, canola, or olive oil (not extra virgin)
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2 cups+ vegetable or canola oil, for frying
- Chocolate Sauce
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup thickened/heavy cream
- Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl for the coating, and set aside.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add the oil and boiling water, and mix until just combined — the batter should be thick and gummy, like a wet, sticky dough, not thin or watery.
- Transfer the dough into a piping bag fitted with an 8mm (1/3-inch) star tip nozzle, and set it aside while the oil heats.
- Heat about 2 inches of oil in a small pot, wok, or deep skillet over medium-high heat to 340°F, or until a small cube of bread dropped in takes about 20 seconds to turn golden.
- Pipe 6-inch lengths of dough directly into the hot oil, snipping the dough off with scissors close to the oil's surface to avoid splashing. Work in batches of 3 to 4 pieces at a time; this makes 10 to 12 churros total.
- Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden and crisp, rolling the churros occasionally for even color.
- Remove onto a paper towel-lined plate to drain, then roll each churro in the cinnamon sugar while still warm. Serve hot with the chocolate sauce.
- For the chocolate sauce, place the chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between each, until smooth. Let it sit for 5 minutes to cool and thicken slightly before serving.
Chef's Note: The batter here is deliberately unsweetened — all the sweetness comes from the cinnamon sugar coating and the chocolate sauce, so don't be tempted to add sugar to the dough itself. Snipping the piped dough close to the oil's surface, rather than from a height, is a small detail that meaningfully cuts down on splashing hot oil.
If you don't have a piping bag, simply drop small dollops of the dough straight into the oil for quick churro doughnut holes instead. These reheat beautifully, making them genuinely great party food — for a make-ahead batch, skip rolling in sugar, let the fried churros cool completely, store in an airtight container at room temperature, then reheat in a 350°F oven for about 5 minutes until crisp again before rolling in sugar and serving.
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