Spain- Churros

A Little History:

Churros are a small Spanish like doughnut which is traditionally fried and covered with cinnamon and sugar. The history of the churros is unclear, but most people believe that Spanish shepherds made them in the mountains as an alternative to fresh baked goods as churros were easy to make in the mountains and would last longer than other baked goods. Many people compare churros to doughnuts as they are fried and have a similar texture but churros actually is not like a doughnut at all as a churros batter is a choux like batter. 

Ingredients:

• 60 grams of  butter
• 150 milliliters of butter milk (or if you don't have any butter milk 150 milliliters of milk with a good squeeze of lemon juice) 
• 70 grams of plain flour 
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2-3 eggs
• Vegetable oil to fry

For the coating:

• 100 grams of caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon

 Method:

Now in this recipe you have to do a lot of things quickly so I would suggest weighing everything out in advance and to have it all at the ready.

1. First of all, make the coating for the churros, pour the sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl stir a few times until all combined. Thats the easy part!

 2. Put the butter and the buttermilk in a pan over a medium heat and allow the butter to melt. Once the butter has melted, turn up the heat and bring to the boil, then immediately remove from the heat and add the flour, salt and cinnamon and stir like crazy until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan, leave to cool to body temperature. Whilst it cools, prepare a piping bag with a star nozzle on the end.

3. Once the mixture is cool (and it must be cool otherwise you will scramble the eggs), add the eggs one at a time, beating really really really hard after each egg. You will see that the mixture will become more shiny and glossy than a models hair, which is what you want. Then place the mixture in the piping bag. Top tip, to stop the pan moving about whilst you are beating the eggs, pop a tea towel underneath the pan.

4. Now for the tricky part, frying. Put the oil a pan and wait for it to heat up, to check if the oil is hot enough put a little bread and if it turn brown in about 50 seconds the oil is hot enough. Pipe a 15 cm strip of the mixture into the pan at a low height so the oil doesn't splashback, cook for two minutes of each side, then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon when golden brown. Pat the excess off the churros with some kitchen paper and then put in the bowl with the cinnamon and sugar and coat. Repeat with all the mixture.

You can serve the churros like this, but if you want to be extra luxurious, you can serve with a hot chocolate sauce.

Ingredients:

• 165 milliliters of double cream
• 100 grams of dark chocolate 
• 25 grams of butter
• 1 tablespoon of golden syrup

Method:

1. Grate the chocolate and put it to one side (I know its hard to not eat the chocolate but if you do, you won't have any to make this recipe is and then you will get sad and eat something else to make yourself feel better!) 

2. Heat the cream in a saucepan until just boiling, then add the chocolate and the butter and leave for five minutes DON'T YOU DARE STIR IT!

3. After five minutes, stir everything until it combines and looks glossy and yummy. Then add the golden syrup and mix a few times until all combined, then pour into cups, glasses, jugs, whatever you want. I chose these cute little tea cups that I brought for a production of Alice in Wonderland and I love the pattern, so the chocolate went in!!!

Although they may be super unhealthy, they are super delicious!!! My next blog will be a top ten list of my favorite cookbooks!!!!

Thanks for reading!!!!