Churros are sometimes referred to as a Spanish doughnut and it’s easy to see why they are so enjoyed all over Spain. They are normally sold by street vendors who fry them freshly on the street or in churrerías (specialised cafés). They are usually eaten at breakfast or for a mid-morning snack but they are also often served for ‘merienda’, Spain’s afternoon tea. Fried in hot oil, they are crisp, fluffy and chewy all at once, and we think the best way to enjoy them is to dunk them in some accompanying hot chocolate. Normally, served in a coffee cup, the hot chocolate is thick and dark, almost like a chocolate pudding.
Here the Foodies Larder have served their Churros with Hot Chocolate dipping sauce made from the Organic Hot Chocolate in their March’s Foodies Hamper. If you don’t have that to hand though they’ve included instructions below on how to prepare your own chocolate sauce. You might also want to try your churros sprinkled with some cinnamon sugar. Just mix 2 tbsp of sugar with 3/4 tsp of ground cinnamon.
Doesn’t that sound inviting, definitely worth having a go!
Serves: 2
Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
- 300g all-purpose flour
- 350ml water
- 1 tbsp good quality olive oil
- pinch salt
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 lemon peel
- 500ml olive oil or sunflower oil for deep frying
- sugar to garnish
- 20ml Alternativa organic hot chocolate
- 200ml milk
- 125g dark chocolate
- 50g sugar
- 15g cornstarch
- 500ml milk
Method:
- Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and then add the salt.
- In a saucepan, add you water, cinnamon and lemon peel and bring to the boil.
- When water is boiling, remove the cinnamon and the lemon peel. Make a well in the centre of your flour and then pour the water into your mixing bowl. very quickly beat into the flour with a wooden spoon until lump-free.
- Very quickly beat and stir the water and flour together until it forms a ball.
- Now, transfer your thick dough ball to a pastry bag with a large star tip and proceed to pipe strips about 15cm in length. With these quantities that should give you approximately 12 churros.
- Heat your olive oil in a deep sided frying pan. Once the oil is hot, proceed to cook your churros in batches, 3 or 4 at a time. Fry until crisp with a nice golden brown colour and then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on the kitchen paper-lined tray.
- Garnish with sugar and then serve immediately, as they are much better warm.
- To prepare the chocolate dipping sauce, if you have our Alternativa organic hot chocolate simply dissolve 20ml or two soup spoons of hot chocolate per 200ml of hot milk and stir over a low heat until you have the desired consistency. That will make 1 cup of hot chocolate, enough to enjoy with the number of churros you’ll have.
- If you don’t have our hot chocolate, then you can prepare your own chocolate sauce. First, in a glass dissolve the cornstarch in 250ml of milk.
- In a sauce pan put the remaining milk (250 ml) together with the sugar and bring to a boil over a low heat. Once boiling, add the chocolate and continue to stir whilst it melts.
- Once the chocolate has melted, add the rest of the milk with the cornstarch and continue to stir over a low heat until you have smooth shiny sauce.
Recipe by kind permission of The Foodies Larder
The Foodies Larder is an artisan Spanish Food Hamper business. Based in Andalusia in Spain, each month they put together a curated selection of seasonal food and ingredients sourced from artisan producers around the country for their monthly hampers. A Foodies Hamper subscription provides a steady supply of delicious natural Spanish produce. Subscribers receive a fresh selection of gourmet products every month – each different from the last, and each based on the season. With each months hamper they also provide a menu card with with recipes that show customers how to create the best possible traditional Spanish dishes with each month’s ingredients.