Fry

Breakfast Churros with Cinnamon Sugar

by:
March 24, 2014
3
2 Ratings
Photo by Alexandra Grablewski
  • Makes Eighteen 4-inch churros
Author Notes

The first time I tasted a churro, I was in Los Angeles with a friend and we stopped at a street cart selling Mexican food. The churros were amazing: sweet and sticky, crunchy outside and chewy inside. I had two orders and I made my friend take me to the same cart every day for the rest of my time there.

The churros are made of a basic light pastry dough, a.k.a. choux pastry. The dough is pretty hearty and sticky, yet forgiving and easy to work with. Dabbing a little bit of vegetable oil on your fingers and utensils will make handling it a breeze.

Excerpted from SWEET PAUL, © 2014 by Paul Lowe Einlyng. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. —SweetPaul

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for frying
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup confectioner's sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, 2 tablespoons oil, granulated sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat.
  3. Stir in the flour rapidly, until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer to a food processor, add the egg, and process until smooth.
  4. Put enough oil in a deep fryer or a large saucepan to reach a depth of 1 inch. Heat until a piece of dough dropped into the oil turns golden after 30 seconds (375° to 400º F on a deep-fat thermometer).
  5. Meanwhile, place the dough in a plastic piping bag or a ziplock bag with a corner snipped off and pipe 4-inch “sausages” of dough onto the baking sheet.
  6. Gently transfer the dough to the oil in batches using a large spatula or slotted spoon. Fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and place on the baking sheet. Repeat until all the dough is used.
  7. Mix together the powdered sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. With a small sifter, sift the sugar mixture over the warm churros.
  8. Serve warm.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Beck85
    Beck85
  • Gemma
    Gemma
  • homie sapiens
    homie sapiens

4 Reviews

Beck85 June 8, 2020
The batter formed like it was supposed to, but they are not a good texture, its hard to describe, but my partner said it had the same texture as a crab stick, and I just think they are too doughy.
 
Gemma May 3, 2015
The+churros+are+spanish,+and+we+eat+it+dipping+in+a+cup+with+thick+chocolate
 
homie S. April 9, 2014
I'm making these now, but this batter is in no way forming a ball...it is liquid like pancake batter. I think it will still be good (after all, it will shortly be fried dough), but the recipe and the directions seem at odds.
 
homie S. April 9, 2014
Yeah, they are tasty buñuelos though!