Churros and chocolate

It was one of those cold and rainy days. Shivering and longing for something hot to warm my insides. I ended up craving for churros. Piping hot churros, rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture and dipped in a rich chocolate dip. Aaaaah. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted some physically in my hands, and not mentally in my mind.

The churros making process

Deep frying the churros dough

I've always wanted to make churros from scratch, but didn't dare to cos I sorta have a fear for deep frying things. Well, the only thing I've ever attempted to deep fry in the kitchen was tonkatsu (Japanese pork cutlets coated with panko crumbs) and I can count the number of times I actually made it. The amount of oil used for frying, plus the thought of deep fried food = super bad for the body made me reluctant to deep fry anything in the kitchen.

Somehow, I wanted to strike churros off my to-do list. It's been on it forever (together with creme brulee and souffles). So here's to my first step in stepping outta my comfort zone and frying up some delish churros (essentially choux dough).

My my, I love how my churros turned out so adorable. Pardon me for being a food geek, but looking at those little neat straight lines in the pan, I felt like a proud first-time parent. Am I weird or am I weird?

And how can I forget about the chocolate. Oh, the chocolate. The churros themselves were really tasty. Rolled in cinnamon sugar thoroughly, the little nooks and ridges on each stick due to the star tip helping in adhering more of the lovely cinnamon sugar mixture onto each individual piece.

The additional step of dipping the cinnamon coated churros into thick chocolate just brings the entire churros eating experience to another level. Envision chewing into a slightly crisp dough exterior encasing soft pillowy innards. Add in the warm homey tones of cinnamon to the mix, and don't forget about the part on licking your fingers as there is bound to be some thick melted chocolate dip residue... Mmmmmmm.

Perfection on a rainy day.
 

Cinnamon coated churros with chocolate dip
makes ~ 30 churros


Churros (adapted from Aran at Cannelle et Vanille)

40ml water
40ml whole milk
35g unsalted butter
pinch salt
large pinch sugar
100g flour
2 eggs
vegetable oil (for frying the churros)
cinnamon sugar (for coating the churros)

Place water, milk, butter, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring this to boil. Add the flour all at once and stir vigourously with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a smooth ball.
Transfer dough to the bowl and using an electric mixer, start mixing with a paddle attachment. When most of the steam has evaporated, add the eggs one at a time. Mix until it comes together to a smooth thick mass.
Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Heat the vegetable oil in a wide pan that has tall sides till 170C. When it reaches the temperature, pipe the batter into the oil and cut with scissors. Do not overcrowd the pan with too many pieces at one go (I fried four-five MAX each time). Fry them until golden brown. Remove the churros from the oil and roll them in cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately. Or keep warm in oven at 150C while you prepare the chocolate dip.

Chocolate dip (adapted from Ellie at Almostbourdain)
110 g good quality plain dark chocolate
100 ml full-cream milk

Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and melt in microwave in 20s intervals for about a minute. Stir every 20s interval, remove from microwave when chocolate has melted. Bring the milk to the boil in a small pan. Pour over melted chocolate and whisk to mix. Divide into a few small individual cups. (This is really rich, I had plenty of leftovers - and it was spreadable consistency. So I combined cold milk and a heaping tablespoon of the "spread" and reheated it again to make hot chocolate at work. ^^)