Crispy churros with fabulous dipping sauces, Churros with apple sauce and salted caramel sauce - I'm thinking toffee apple flavours here!
I had churros for breakfast a couple of times on a trip to Spain and I thought at the time I'd like to make them again. I haven't for years and they would be a good recipe to share here.
What are Churros?
Churros are deep fried pastries which are popular in Spain, Portugal, France, the Philippines, Latin America and the Southwestern United States and are made from a paste similar to choux pastry. Sometimes the dough contains egg and sometimes not.
With or without egg
I tried a couple of recipes, one using egg, and one without as I wanted to share the best one with you. To be honest, there was very little between the two, so I decided that I would opt for the Spanish style without egg, based on this recipe from the BBC Good food. If you would like to try the one with egg then you will find a recipe here (I left out the sugar).
The piping nozzle
Where I did find a difference was with the piping nozzle I used. In both cases I used a large star nozzle but they were slightly different. The larger one gave a thicker churros which I cut shorter. With the slightly thinner one I made longer, and slightly squiggly churros, as I liked the effect.
Both worked fine but, as you will see, you might get a slightly different looking churros depending on your nozzle.
Churros made with the thinner nozzle
Churros made with the thicker nozzle
How to serve Churros
In Spain they are popular served for breakfast with a cup of thick drinking chocolate for dipping. In other countries they are sold as street food for snacking. For an amazing indulgent dessert, serve with an ice cream, the apple sauce on the side and the salted caramel sauce drizzled over. Seriously yum!!
Or just enjoy tossed in sugar (or better still cinnamon sugar).
Step by step Churros
Churros with apple sauce and salted caramel sauce
Ingredients
for the churros
- 250 g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 350 ml water
- 50 g butter melted
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- oil for deep frying
- 50 g caster sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground mixed spice
for the apple sauce
- 225 g Bramley cooking apples peeled cored and thinly sliced
- 25 g soft dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- small knob of butter
- 60 ml double cream
for the salted caramel sauce
- 50 g butter
- 50 g soft dark brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon malden salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100 ml double cream
Instructions
Make the churros
- Sift the flour and baking powder together.
- Place the water and butter in a large saucepan. Heat, stirring until the butter has melted. Increase the heat and bring to the boil.
- Remove from the heat, add the vanilla extract, then immediately add the flour in one go and beat to form a smooth thick dough. Set aside while making the sauces.
to make the apple sauce
- Place all the ingredients except the cream in saucepan. Cover and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes until the apples are very tender. Beat with a wooden spoon to form a thick puree.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the cream. Transfer to a serving bowl and set aside.
to make the salted caramel sauce
- Melt the butter in a small pan with the sugar, and stir until the butter and sugar have combined. Add the salt and vanilla extract and then stir in the cream. Transfer to a serving bowl or jug and set aside.
to cook the churros
- Mix the caster sugar and ground spice together on a shallow plate.
- Spoon the churros dough into a large piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle about 1-2cm wide.
- Heat the oil to 180℃ then pipe the dough directly into the oil and use a pair of scissors to snip to the desired length. Fry in batches until golden brown and crisp. Remove from the oil and drain on kitchen paper.
- Toss the churros in the spiced sugar and serve with the sauces.
Notes
Take care to gently lower the batter and not drop from a height into the the hot oil
Recipe Tips
If your dough has large air bubbles, is too cold, too wet or if your oil is too hot, or if you drop a churro from too high into hot oil you might get splashes, popping oil, or churros that burst. Keep children away while they cook and protect yourself by wearing long sleeves and keeping your face away from the pan.
The Beesley Buzz says
oh wow - apple sauce and salted caramel - two of my favourite things! They look brilliant x
Jacqueline Bellefonatine says
mine two. Thank you.
Jenny Paulin says
look at the colour and plumpness of your churros! They look so delicious and i love the idea of a apple sauce and dipping caramel sauce! I would really like to try one or four please! yummy x
Jacqueline Bellefonatine says
Thank you Jenny. It was a fun post to do but I did eat rather too many than were good for me but they did taste good:)
Hazel Ryan Sheehan says
These churros look amazing. Love the idea of apple and caramel with them! I also like your recipe and think I am going to give it a go to make up for my awful attempt 😀
Jacqueline Bellefonatine says
I haven't seen your post yet Im going to pop over and visit other post later today. It's been a busy weekend for me so only just catching up, although have seen your facebook post. Were they really that bad.
Angela / Only Crumbs Remain says
Oooh they look so delicious Jacqueline 🙂 I love the sound of the toffee apple flavour. I have to admit I've never tried Churros before, but these and all of those I've seen on social media etc have made me want to try them. I was intrigued when the GBBO show said that they could be made with or without eggs, and I was wondering what the difference would be between the two batches so thankyou to you and your family for putting yourself through the task of trying out two batches to record any difference 🙂
Angela x
Jacqueline Bellefonatine says
I was intrigued about a choux style pastry not having egg so was interest to try. Although at first it seemed a firm dough it wasn't much harder to pipe (both were quite stiff). j x
Hannah Spannah says
Your Churros look so good and so perfect and your sauces sounds amazing! It's a shame that your caramel sugar didn't hold up against the humidity but I bet it was still lovely
Jacqueline Bellefonatine says
Yes it was a pity about the sugar as it would have given them another flavour dimension but the salted caramel sauce was good too and much easier.
Cathy Glynn says
I love the salted caramel and apple sauce variations to these Churros. They look really delicious x
Jacqueline Bellefonatine says
Thank you, they were good but making two batches was not so good for the wiast line;(