Churros con Chocolat (Churros and Chocolate sauce)

A churro, is a fried-dough pastry very similar the French choux pastry an is generally referred to as a Spanish doughnut only thing being its piped and cylindrical . Churros are vey popular in Spain, France and the United States. These are generally eaten as breakfast in Spain and Latin America and is usually served with warm chocolate sauce.

     Churros are made with flour  butter and eggs and then piped and dropped in the hot oil using a piping bag fitted with a star shaped nozzle and fried until they are crunchy, they are then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon powder. Churros  may be straight, curled or spirally twisted.
      These are very famous as a street food and are sold by street vendors, who will often fry them freshly on the street  and sell them hot.

  My love affair for churros started when I was in Orlando, being on the down south ,it is very much influenced with Latin cuisine and one could easily find churros in many county fairs and theme parks which Orlando is famous for... my encounter with churros happened in Disney where I just got attracted to a stall from where the irresistible aroma of cinnamon flew and I was just as keen as a small kid to know what exactly the guys were selling and to my surprise  it was a long and thick fried stick of pastry sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. I tried it and it was no looking back after. I never imagined that I would be making these in my kitchen 1000 of miles away .But monsoon started and the drizzling rain just reminded me of these irresistible snack and couldn't resist myself and next thing I found myself in my kitchen making the dough and piping and frying churros. Hope you all will like it as much as I do. Now to the recipe ..

Ingredients

For Churros
   All purpose flour/Maida  - 1Cup
   Eggs     - 3
   Water    - 1 cup
   Butter      - 1/2 cup
   Salt     -  1/4 Tsp
  Cooking oil, for frying
  Sugar    -1/2 Cup
  Cinnamon powder   -  1Tsp


For Chocolate Sauce
  Milk   - 1Cup
  Cornstarch -1Tbs
  Sugar     - 3 Tbs
  Cocoa Powder - 2Tbs
  Butter     - 1Tbs

Directions

• I a plate combine the sugar and cinnamon powder ,mix well and keep aside.
•  In a medium saucepan , combine butter and water and bring to a boil over a medium heat.
• When the water starts boiling, add in flour  and stir continuously with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together and form a lump .
• Continue stirring for 1-2 minutes and let the dough cook.
• Transfer to a large mixing bowl or to the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Turn the mixer on medium-high. Allow some steam to come out.
• Now beat in the eggs one at a time, wait until each egg has been well incorporated before adding the next.
•  You may feel that batter is wet but keep mixing till  it comes together and forms a smooth dough.
• Transfer the  dough to a piping bag fitted with a medium or large star tip.
• In the meantime prepare the chocolate sauce, for that mix the cornstarch with a little milk and make a paste an keep aside.
• Heat the rest of the milk in  pan and add sugar and cocoa powder and keep stirring continuously to avoid lump formation.
• Bring to a boil ,when hot add the cornstarch mixture and stir on a low flame until it thickens.
• Take off the flame. Add butter an stir until it dissolves.
• Chocolate sauce is ready to serve.
• Heat the oil ,pour about  2-3 " piece of the batter into the hot oil. Pipe as much as the oil can accommodate and fry the churros  until golden brown on both sides flipping the sides in between. Could take anywhere  between 4-5 minutes.
• Take off the oil and dust it with sugar cinnamon mixture while its still hot.
• Serve hot with chocolate sauce
• Enjoy!!!!