Churros with Hot Chocolate
Spanish doughnuts, or churros, are a match made in heaven with a cup of silky-smooth hot chocolate. Learn to make this typical Spanish sweet snack with Omar Allibhoy's easy recipe.
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Tapas Revolution
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Introduction
This is not a recipe for the faint-hearted as it involves frying in very hot oil. In Spain you would find a ‘churrería’ in every town, where these hot, crisp, doughnut sticks are served with rich hot chocolate.
Churros is one of those recipes that could go either way but stick to the recipe and follow my advice and you will be fine. I have made thousands of these – trust me!
Ingredients
| 400ml | water |
| 400g | strong white flour |
| 1 | pinch of salt |
| 1 tbsp | olive oil |
| 750ml | vegetable oil for deep-frying |
| Caster sugar and ground cinnamon (optional) for dusting | |
| For the chocolate: | |
| 1 | 1 small bag of Spanish chocolate powder for hot dipping chocolate |
| 1 | pint milk |
| 50g | dark chocolate, roughly chopped |
Essential kit
You will need a piping bag (not plastic) with a 8-point star-shaped nozzle.
Method
Bring the water to the boil. Meanwhile, place the flour and salt in a large pan and place over a very low heat. Stir lightly for 3–4 minutes so that the flour dries out and becomes fluffy.
As soon as the water has boiled, pour it over the flour and mix it with a wooden spoon for about 1 minute until a dough starts to form. Don’t over-mix and don’t worry if there are still some lumps in it as you can always finish it by hand once it has cooled down slightly. Halfway through mixing add the olive oil.
When the dough is still warm, knead for 1 minute. Place in a piping bag (not plastic) with a 8-point star-shaped nozzle and spread out a sheet of baking parchment. Start squeezing the batter onto the parchment to make the churros. Let me warn you: it’s hard work so make sure you don’t strain any muscles. At this point, you could freeze the churros and cook later (they can be cooked straight from the freezer).
Heat the vegetable oil in a large deep pan – ideally, you want it to be 230–240°C to get that delicious crispy outside and soft interior. To test whether the oil is hot enough, drop a small piece of the dough into the oil – if it immediately floats to the surface and starts fizzing away then the oil is hot enough. If it sinks, wait a little longer.
Once the oil is hot enough carefully slide your churros, a few at a time, into the pan. Cook them for 40 seconds on one side and 30 seconds on the other. Remove and drain on kitchen paper and repeat until all your churros are cooked. They should be very crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. Make sure the temperature of the oil doesn’t drop, as your churros will not cook properly. Dust liberally with sugar mixed with a little ground cinnamon (optional) while they are still warm.
For the chocolate, just bring the milk to the boil in a pot and just before boiling point add the chocolate powder while whisking. Stir constantly for 10 minutes so the chocolate doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot. Stir in the dark chocolate at the end to give nice body and intensify the flavour. Serve the chocolate in a cup and dip your churros in it.
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