Sunday, September 13, 2009

Churros!


If you have never been to Disneyland, you're missing out. No, not on the Magic Kingdom or AdventureLand, not on Mickey and Minnie or Donald and Daffy; not even on Space Mountain or the Monorail... you are missing out on the churros!

When Shea and I went to Disney this last spring she introduced me to churros, and about 30 minutes later; the churro and I met again. Soon we were looking for churro stands everywhere we went. And as the sun was setting over the enchanted castle we had churros for the 4th time that day. Needless to say, I thought they were delicious.

While eating them Shea and I pondered over how they were made and what gave them their rigged exterior... I can't say we thought about it for too long but our conclusion was that it was best left to the culinary professionals at Disney.

To my delighted suprise one slow evening at work my grill man, Tino, asked me if I wanted him to make churros. See, at work, when its slow we will sometimes prepare a family meal for the staff.

I am always excited to see what Tino will make because he has a wealth of food knowledge, much of which has been passed down to him from his Mexican desendents.

As he made them, I, of course, paid special attention. As I watched I realized that churros are essentially the same thing as a cream puff only instead of being baked, they are piped through a star tip into hot oil and then rolled in cinammon and sugar.

So with the method locked tightly in my mind- I went home to make some.

In a medium sauce pan I added:
1 cup of water
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

and turned the heat to hight. Once that boiled I added 1 cup of All purpose flour, took the pan off the heat and mixed it until it formed a ball. Then I added 4 eggs, one at a time- mixing each one completely before adding the next. When I was done, my shoulder and arm were tired but I had a beautiful glossy dough that could be pipped through a piping bag.

I dont have a piping bag (who does?) so I just used a plastic ziplock freezer bag, cut a small hole in one corner and inserted my star tip (a large one is better, i got it at a local arts and craft store for 1.49). It works pretty well. (just dont squeeze too hard or you might break the seam of the bag. Yeah, I did it... it was a little messy)

I filled my dutch oven with oil and heated it for frying. After some trial and error, I discovered that anywhere from 375-390 degrees worked great.

I piped 6 inch tubes into the hot oil (just cut them off with a knife or kitchen scissors at your desired length) and cooked them for 2 minutes on the first side and flipped them and cooked for 1-2 minutes on the second side, until they were golden brown.

Let them drain before rolling them in cinnamon and sugar, it will keep them from getting clumps and allow for even distrupution.

Overall, churros are easy to make it just takes a little time and a 1.49 star tip!

The only problem... its almost impossible to stop eating them.

Richard

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