I know that I'm not a churro expert. To know how to recreate an exotic churro, I have to know everything about churros. To learn, I started by asking myself a lot of questions and try my best to seek the answers.
What is a churro?
According to Wikipedia, a churro is a fried version of choux pastry. Churros are popular snacks in Spain, France, Philippines, Portugal, Ibero-America and the Southwestern USA.
Churros are deep-fried and crunchy and mostly sprinkled with sugar or flavoured sugar like cinnamon sugar. Churros can be either thin or thick, long or short, straight or curled or sometimes spirally twisted or knotted. Regardless its shape, the surface of a churro is often ridged as it is piped with a star-shaped nozzle.
How do most people enjoy their churro?
CHOCOLATE!!! Most churros are enjoyed the most with warm chocolate sauce or drink and also coffee.
Is there a typical recipe to make churro?
Sort of. I have comparing recipes from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and more.. and I can see that all of these recipes contains a typical proportion of 1 cup of flour plus 1 cup of water.
Interestingly, even the amount of flour and water are the same in most churro recipe, some recipes can be quite different from others...
Some recipes like this, this and this contains NO eggs and butter and only two tablespoons of oil whereas recipes like this, this, this, this, this and even the recipe provided at the back of Davis and Waddell churro cooking set contains eggs and butter and the amount of butter added can vary from 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup and the amount of eggs added can vary from 2 to 5!!!
Which is the recipe to use?
Like all the recipes that I have seen, I need to make my churro with 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water and I like to stick to the recipe at here, here, here, here and also the recipe at the back of Davis and Waddell churro cooking set as I think that the additional of three eggs and 1/2 cup butter can be pretty standard.
Can we bake churro?
Yes... and No!
Yes (as mentioned at here and here) that we can bake churro only if we are using recipe with added butter added. From here, the best way to make straight and long churro is actually to bake them!
No? I will tell you why later.
Are there other variations of churro?
According to Wikipedia, there are churros that are filled like the ones in Cuba with guava, in Brazil with chocolate, in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Mexico with dulce de leche, in Colombia and Venezuela with sweetened condensed milk and in Uruguay with melted cheese.
In the recent Singapore, churro are creatively made with pandan and gula Melaka... Yum! So here, I'm joining in the trend and fun too making these pandan churro with gula Melaka syrup.
After tasting the differences between baked churros and fried churros, I like to ask myself again... Can we bake churro?
My answer is NO! Although we can bake churro, I would prefer not. Why? Whether baked or fried, churros are made with high amount of butter either way and so they are not going to be "healthier" or "less sinfully" if they are baked. To enjoy churros to the fullest, please bear with the hassle of deep frying... the fried ones are really so much nicer!
According to Sharlynn, the pandan churros at Geylang serai bazaar are "super crispy borderline hard on the outside and the pandan was a fragrance rather than flavour". Unlike the churros sold at the bazaar, my churros are thinner which means that they have more crispy outer layers! Plus the crispy layers of my churros is thin and never hard. Sharlynn is right... The addition of pandan enhance the overall fragrance of the churros and doesn't give the churros any extra sweetness or taste.
Here's the recipes. *The ratio of gula Melaka to water that I used is 2:1. I like this proportion the best as the sweetness is just right and the syrup is still thick and syrupy at room temperature.
Gula Melaka syrup that is mostly adapted from SBS
50g gula Melaka*
1 pandan leaves, washed, split and knotted
25g water
salt to taste
Bring gula Melaka, pandan leaves and water to boil and cook until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add salt and remove from heat. Allow the syrup to cool completely at room temperature.
Pandan Churros that is largely modified from a standard recipe at Food Network For the churros:
5-6 pandan leaves, washed and snipped**
125g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
150g (1 cup) all-purpose flour
3 large eggs (70g each), lightly beaten
** If fresh pandan leaves are not available, you can use pandan extract or essence instead.
To coat the churros:
gula Melaka, finely shaved
the "nostalgic" orange-coloured brown sugar or light brown sugar to toss
Both in equal proportion.
Using a processor or a blender, process pandan leaves and 1/2 cup of water until the leaves look blended and chopped. Place a muslin cloth over a medium bowl and pour the pandan mixture through the muslin cloth. Gather the edges of the cloth and squeeze the retaining liquid out from the pandan pulp. Top with extra water if necessary to form a total volume of 250 ml (1 cup).
Combine pandan juice with butter and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour. Reduce the heat to low and stir vigorously until the mixture forms a ball, about 1 min. Remove the dough from the heat and, while stirring constantly, gradually beat the eggs one at a time into the dough.
To deep fry: Heat about 5 cm (2 inches) of oil in a heavy, high-sided pot over medium-high heat until the oil reaches 180°C or 180°F. Pipe churros batter straight into the hot oil. Use you fingers or a knife to break off the batter when it reaches its required length.
The churros are cooked when they float on the frying oil. Remove and transfer them on paper towels to drain off any excess oil.
To bake:
Preheat oven to 200°C or 390°F. Line baking trays with baking paper.
Pipe long strips of churros batter onto the prepared trays. Spray the piped batter lightly with cooking oil spray. Bake for 12-15 min or until crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Do not over-bake!
When the churros are just cool enough to handle, drizzle them with gula Melaka syrup and toss them in the gula Melaka + brown sugar mixture.
Serve immediately.
Happy Cooking and Baking
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This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and me, Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Jess from Bakericious at this post.
Our Little Thumbs Up event starts on the first day of the month until the last day of the month. Please join us! To join, simply cook or bake any recipe with the theme of the month which is BROWN SUGAR and MOLASSES for August 2015 and link with us at What after August 2015? Doreen from Don't forget your thumbs up or display this badge! And make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post preferably within this month. (2) Please mention Little Thumbs Up in your post and link back to For more details, please see Last but not least, I like to thank Before going, I like to make a disclaimer here that I'm not paid by this post anytime until 31st Aug 2015.
my little favourite DIY and me from Bake for Happy Kids will be the next hostess of September 2015 and her theme is MILO or any chocolate malt powder! Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and Jess from this. Bakericious. Davis and Waddell for giving two churro cooking sets. One is for me to try and another is for my readers to win! Due to its size and bulk, this giveaway is open to Australian residents only. Submission ends on 17 August 2015. Please support and participate this giveaway so that Davis and Waddell and like to share my most honest opinions about this product and hope that you will win one and like it too. Davis and Waddell and Bake for Happy Kids can organise more fabulous giveaways in the near future.
Davis and Waddell Churro Set
