When we saw a homemade churros recipe on Youtube we could not resist the urge to run to the kitchen to make it. Especially because the recipe is not complicated, there is no need for any special equipment and we had all ingredients at home!
My family loves churros. Especially those sold by street vendors in parks (they are quite common here in Brazil). Plain or with dulce de leche, still warm, they are irresistible!
While travelling we have tried some as well. In Buenos Aires we had churros with hot chocolate at the famous Café Tortoni. And at Disneyland we had the largest ever. It was over a foot long. But the Spanish churros we've only seen on TV!
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Every time we saw churros being made it was with a special equipment, and they would have that characteristic shape, so we never bothered to make churros at home. We have made funnel cakes and mastered beignets and we were quite happy with the result.
But some days ago, while watching some of the channels we follow on Youtube, we came across a recipe that was hard to resist!
The host/cook had us when he said you don't need to spend a lot of money to go to Spain or Disneyland to have great churros. And when we saw that the recipe was easy to prepare, there was no need for special equipment and we had everything at home, we decided that was the day we would make homemade churros!
You can find the recipe that inspired us to make it here. We added more sugar, flour and changed a few other things and came up with our own recipe!
📋 What are the ingredients for churros?
To prepare this churro recipe, you'll need:
- all purpose flour
- sugar
- eggs
- butter
- vanilla extract
- salt
- vegetable oil
- ground cinnamon
- dulce de leche and/or chocolate sauce for serving
- piping bag with a star tip (1/2 inch opening)
🍳 How do you make churros from scratch?
Churros are made with a choux pastry. Choux pastry is a dough made with flour, water, sugar, eggs and butter that is first cooked and then baked or, in this case, fried.
Just follow these steps to make them.
📓 Step-by-step instructions
Here are step-by step instructions to make churros at home:
To make the dough, place water, sugar, butter, salt and vanilla extract in a medium pan over medium heat to boil (1).
Once it boils, add the flour (2) and mix until all the water is incorporated and there are no flour lumps (3).
Remove from heat and add the eggs and egg yolk (4).
Mix well. It will seem that the eggs do not incorporate, but keep mixing - do not give up (5).
Continue mixing until you have a smooth dough (6).
Place the dough in a piping bag with a star tip.
If you don't have a piping bag:
- You can use any clean sturdy plastic bag. Cut a 1/2 inch hole in one of the corners and use it as a piping bag.
- Another way is to roll the churros by hand, placing a piece of dough in a working surface and, by rolling the palm of your hands over the dough, make it into a 1/2 inch thick, 5 to 6 inch long strips.
Place the oil in a frying pan over high heat (it should be about 1 inch -2.5cm- deep).
Mix sugar and ground cinnamon in a large bowl.
When the oil is hot (360F - 190C) pipe the churros directly in the oil (7).
When it is about 6 inch long (15cm), cut the dough and pipe another one.
Fry untill golden brown.
Remove the churros from the oil and place them on a plate lined with paper towel. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, coat them with the sugar and cinnamon mixture.
🍫 What to serve it with
Churros are traditionally served with a chocolate sauce, for dipping. But here in Brazil they are usually served filled with dulce de leche or with a dulce de leche sauce for dipping.
In both ways, they are first rolled in sugar and cinnamon, and they are also delicious just sugar covered, without any sauce.
If you want to make your dulce de leche at home I have 2 recipes: slow cooker dulce de leche, and other made dulce de leche.
📖 Recipe
Other recipes you might enjoy are Beignets and Condensed milk donuts.
Homemade Churros
Ingredients
Churros
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup water
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
Coating
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
For frying
- 2 cups vegetable oil soy, peanut, cottonseed
Instructions
- In a medium pan place water, butter, sugar, salt and vanilla extract and bring to a boil over medium heat.
- When it boils, lower the heat, add the flour and mix until combined.
- Remove from heat, add the eggs and egg yokl and mix well. It may seem that the eggs do not incorporate, but keep mixing untill you have a smooth dough.
- Put the dough in a piping bag with a star tip - I suggest one with 1/2 inch opening (if you do not have a piping bag, take a look ate the notes).
- Place oil in a frying pan over high heat - oil should be about 1 inch (2.5cm) deep.
- Mix sugar and ground cinnamon in a bowl.
- When the oil is hot (370F - 190C) pipe the churros directly in the oil. When it is about 6 inch long (15cm), cut the dough and pipe another one.
- Fry untill golden brown - see notes.
- Remove churros from the oil and place them in a plate lined with paper towel.
- As soon as they are cool enough to handle, coat them with the sugar and cinnamon mixture.
- Serve churros with warm dulce de leche and/or hot chocolate sauce.
- If you don't have a piping bag, you can use any clean sturdy plastic bag. Cut a 1/2 inch hole in one of the corners and use it as a piping bag.
Notes
- Another way is to roll the churros by hand, placing a piece of dough in a working surface and, by rolling the palm of your hands over the dough, make it into a 1/2 inch thick, 5 to 6 inch long strips.
- How long it takes for the churros to fry will depend on their thickness. 3 minutes for 1/2 inch thick and 5 to 7 minutes for 3/4 inch thick.
Why do all your pins show churro cupcakes then when you click on it it's a recipe for traditional churros?? :'(
Hi Amanda,
I'm sorry about that! I've been updating all posts and some of them are not coming back to the blog for several reasons, so these posts are being redirected to posts with similar content.