Welcome Once Again To My Recipe Blog, Fellow Foodies!
This week, inspired by my visit to "Phat Pac's Mexican Diner" I did the review about last week, I thought you might like to have a go at a classic Mexican sweet treat, with some really easy to make dips I came up with.Churros are gorgeous light finger doughnuts, Dusted with vanilla sugar. They're served all over the place in Mexico and are eaten at any time of day. At breakfast, dipped in hot chocolate, as a midday snack with strong coffee or as a tea-time treat.
The main difference with them to doughnuts is that they contain no yeast, so don't require any proving.
The first time I made them was for Mexican night at the Bank Bar ( We did a special night every month there, from Indian to "new European", and they always sold out. In fact, we were usually fully booked a month in advance, before people even knew what we were cooking! ).
I was amazed at how unusual the method for making them is, and how easy they are to cook. You have to be a bit careful when you're frying them as you have to get close to hot oil with your hands. I've used a deep fat fryer for mine but you can get just as good results using a wok, the temperature is easier to control with a deep fat fryer but, if you have got a temperature probe to monitor the oil in the wok, then they should turn out just as crispy on the outside and light and fluffy in the middle.
The three dips I'm doing for you are ridiculously easy! and they go perfectly with the Churros.
So, lets start with the Churros recipe:
Equipment:
Deep fat fryer, or wok, or deep sided frying pan.
Medium sized saucepan.
Piping bag with wide "star" nozzle.
Wooden spoon.
Measuring jug. ( to use when spooning the mixture into the piping bag.)
Digital Temperature probe. ( If not using a deep fat fryer.)
2 Mixing bowls.
micro-plane or fine grater for zesting the lime.
Metal tongs.
clean, dry tea towel, or kitchen roll for draining.
Ingredients: ( makes about 20 Churros.)
225ml of cold water. Zest of one lime ( not shown in picture, but I'm sure you know what lime-zest looks like!)
145g of butter.
140g of plain flour.
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
3 eggs.
1/2 a teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
Vanilla sugar, for dusting.
Vegetable oil, for frying, if not using a deep fat fryer.
Method:
Put the water and the lime zest in the saucepan on the stove and bring to a boil.
Once boiled, add the butter and stir until the butter melts.Remove from heat and add the flour, vanilla extract and cinnamon and beat together with the wooden spoon until the mixture looks like mashed potato.
Add one egg to the mixture and beat until smooth, then do the same for the second egg, Then finally, add the third egg and beat that in too. you should now have a nice, shiny, reasonably thick batter.
Allow the batter to cool for 15 minutes then get your piping bag, with the nozzle in! ( Yep, I've got to this stage before and put the batter in the bag without the nozzle, then had to squeeze it all out and start over again!)
Put the piping bag in your measuring jug and open out the wide end over the sides of the measuring jug.
Then spoon half of the batter into the bag.(you can put in all of the batter if you have a large enough bag, but i like to do it in two halves as it is easier to control when piping into the oil.)
( This next step is the tricky part as you have to get the nozzle as close to the oil in the fryer or wok as you can. It was also impossible to take photographs of me doing this as I had both my hands full of piping bag!)
Lift the piping bag full of batter out of the measuring jug and twist the wide end round until the batter is just about to squeeze out of the nozzle.
Now, hold the piping bag over the oil with the nozzle as close to it as you dare. Then give a good firm squeeze and draw a line with the batter towards you, about 4 inches in length. Hold the nozzle steady when you have drawn the line then gently lift up so the batter breaks off. (it may take a couple of attempts to do this neatly, but don't worry too much about the first few, I hadn't made these for a while and it took me a few before i got them nice and neat.)
The batter will sink in the oil for a moment then will rise up, puff out and start to fry. Do about 4 at a time as you don't want to overcrowd the oil, or reduce the temperature too much.
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| my first attempt, not very neat! |
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| second attempt, much better! |
As soon as the Churros rise to the top of the oil, flip them over, to seal both sides. you'll need to turn them over a few times to get them evenly browned all over. They should take about 5-6 minutes to be perfectly cooked.When they are nicely golden brown all over, remove them one at a time from the oil with the metal tongs and place on the tea towel or kitchen roll to drain, then repeat the method for the next batch.
Whist the second batch is frying put the first batch in a mixing bowl and sprinkle generously with the vanilla sugar, then remove to a plate.
Repeat the draining and the sprinkling with sugar process for the next batch and repeat until all of the batter is used up, fried, drained and sparkling with the vanilla sugar.
Now for the dips. I have made three very different dips to go with these gorgeous little Churros, a chocolate and chilli one, a pineapple and lime one, and a "Dulce De Leche" one.
If you are going to make the Dulce de Leche one, then I should make it a few hours before you start making the Churros.
Dulce de leche is basically a tin of condensed milk, gently boiled in the UNOPENED tin to make a fantastic toffee coloured caramel. Its the stuff used in banoffee pies and is absolutely divine. You can buy it in tins already done but I wanted to try doing it myself as I had never done it before. All I did was as follows:
Fill a large saucepan with cold water, place the UNOPENED tin of condensed milk, on its side, in the water and gently bring to the boil, once its boiling, turn the heat down to medium so it just gently bubbles.( I've got to say, at this point, that it does state on the tin of condensed milk "DO NOT BOIL THE UNOPENED TIN AS EXPLOSION MAY OCCUR"! but I thought, well, you only live once don't you! so I gave it a go, and I'm still alive and well to tell the tale.)
You just have to make sure you keep topping the water up so it covers the tin, and only have it gently bubbling. Do it like this for 2 and a half hours, remove from the water and allow to fully cool, then, when you open the tin, it will look like this!
The chocolate and chilli dip is much quicker (and safer!) to make. You can make it without the chilli flakes if you want but the recipe I've done here doesn't make it spicy, it just adds a tiny little kick to the sauce.
Chocolate and chilli dipping sauce Recipe:
Equipment:
Plastic or glass measuring jug.Microwave, set on defrost.
Ingredients:
100g of good dark chocolate (70% cocoa) broken up into pieces.100ml whole milk.
A good pinch of chilli flakes.
2 tablespoons of butter.
Method:
Put the milk and the chocolate in the measuring jug and microwave on defrost until the chocolate has just melted ( about 4 minutes.) Add the chilli flakes and the butter and whisk together until you get a smooth, shiny sauce. It needs to be quite runny so it will coat the Churros nicely when you dip them in and that's it!!! told you it was easy!Lastly then, my favourite dip of the three. Its sweet and fruity, has a nice tartness from the lime juice and easy-peasy!
Pineapple and lime dipping sauce:
Eqipment:
Medium sized saucepan.Stick blender. ( hand blender.)
measuring jug.
Ingredients:
1 tin of pineapple chunks, or pieces, in light syrup. ( you can use fresh pineapple if you like, but you'll need to add sugar and water to it to get the same taste so I'd stick to a cheap tin if I were you.)Juice of 1 lime.
100ml water.
Method:
Put the pineapple chunks, along with the syrup from the tin in a saucepan with the water.Bring to the boil then turn the heat down and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.
Put the pineapple chunks and the juice from the saucepan in a measuring jug and add the lime juice.
Go in with the stick blender and blitz to a smooth, slightly runny puree. (if it is too thin, return to the heat and allow to reduce for a few minutes to thicken up, remembering that it needs to be a good consistency for dipping the churros in.)
Serve the sauces alongside the Churros and you have a fantastic dessert!
By the way, if there's anything you'd like me to do the recipe for in future blogs then please don't hesitate to ask! I have a wide range of my own recipes for everything from cottage pie to "Cuban old clothes"!
and if I don't have a recipe, then I'll have a go at anything, I'm always up for a good food challenge and always looking to expand my knowledge, so just let me know by asking me on facebook, twitter, or by commenting on the blog.
Thanks for reading and as always, I hope you have enjoyed it!
Until the next time,
Happy Cooking!
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