It’s the most wonderful time of the year ✏️🍎 - Back to School! 🤣 Well, kind of, and it’s been one heck of a day here (I could use a little G&T) with tech challenges and some frustration, but we’ll get there. For all you teachers out there - 👏🏼 - today could not have been easy!
I try to start the school year off with good intentions: getting up before the kids (nope, not today), providing a well balanced breakfast (meh, managed two food groups), and sending them off with a cheery goodbye (that I aced)! l made up for it tho, with these Baked Churros from @biggerbolderbaking. The dough is quick to make, the piping takes a little time (but it’s great practice for those cake decorating skillz), and they’re baked, so there's no messy deep frying! The first two batches were swiftly devoured and there’s so much dough left that I can do it all again tomorrow! xoxo Kirsty
Ingredients (makes 60 small churros) Recipe adapted from Homemade Baked Churros @Bigger Bolder Baking
For the dough:
1 cup (236ml) water
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons (18g) brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (125g) flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the sugar coating:
1/4 cup (50g) sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
For the Hot Chocolate Sauce:
3 oz (90g) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup (236ml) whole milk
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch or arrowroot
1 tsp cold water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Method
Preheat the oven to 400F (200C). Stack two baking sheets on top of each other and line the top one with parchment paper. This double layer will prevent the churros from burning.
In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, brown sugar, and salt. Cook over medium-high heat until the butter has melted and the mixture starts to simmer. As soon as it simmers, whisk in all the flour, with the cinnamon and nutmeg, until there are no lumps and a doughy ball has formed. Using a wooden spoon, stir the dough around the pot and cook it for another minute over low heat (the mixture will clump and pull away from the sides of the pan), then take it off the heat and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the eggs and vanilla. Using a wooden spoon, incorporate a third of the egg mixture into your dough. Mash it around, loosening up the dough. Add the remaining eggs in two more doses, stirring well to incorporate them.
Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a star piping tip*. I used is a Wilton size 22 piping tip, which pipes finger sized churros. If yours are a little bigger you’ll just need to cook them a little longer. Pipe the dough into finger-sized churros on the parchment-covered baking sheet. To make them as thick as possible, put pressure on the bag and pipe slowly, dragging the tip closely along the paper. I played around a bit and made some squiggly ones too which were just as delicious! Leave a little space between the churros, they won’t expand much.
*If you don't have a piping bag or star tip, just use a plastic bag and snip off the end. Your churros won't have that signature texture but they'll be just as good, and you can play around with the shapes!
Bake for around 12-15 minutes until light golden in color. For smaller churros 12 minutes is enough. Then turn off the oven and leave them in for another 7-10 minutes.
For the sugar coating, combine sugar, cinnamon and salt in a ziplock bag. Take the churros straight from the oven and toss them in the mixture until they are covered. It is best to do this when the churros are warm and fresh from the oven so that the sugar sticks to them.
For the Hot Chocolate Sauce, heat the milk in a heavy saucepan until it simmers. Add in the chocolate and whisk until it has melted. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with water and add it to the chocolate mixture, stirring all the while. Continue to cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the chocolate mixture begins to bubble, then reduce the heat and cook for 2 more minutes, keep whisking, until it thickens. Remove the chocolate sauce from heat and stir in the vanilla.
Serve to hungry children, or eager adults, with little pots of chocolate sauce on the side for dipping! Enjoy!
