Spanish in origin, churros are fried strips of dough. They may be dipped in thick chocolate or sprinkled with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. The churros in the photo were made with a ready mix. It’s something new in the market from Antonio Pueo, maker of the chocolate tablets that are melted to make the hot chocolate drink traditionally served on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
The first time my kids tried churros many years ago, they enjoyed them so much although I suspect that 90% of the enjoyment was in dipping the hot churros in thick and gooey chocolate. When I saw the box of Antonio Pueo churros in the supermarket (it even comes with a mixture for the chocolate dip), I checked the instructions at the back of the box, decided they were straightforward enough and I figured it was something that my kids would enjoy making.
It was my 13-year-old daughter, Sam, who cooked the churros the other day. The instructions include the use of a piping bag with a star-tipped nozzle. The same instructions say that instead of a piping bag and a star-tipped nozzle, a plain plastic bag (like a sandwich bag) can be used–just cut off a corner and press out the dough as though one were using a piping bag.
After mixing the dough, Sam put it into the piping bag. Unfortunately, after piping out about three churros into the hot cooking oil, the piping bag split open (it’s a cheap piping bag. So she took out a sandwich bag, cut out a corner, and transferred all the remaining dough into it. She cooked the rest of the churros using the sandwich bag sans the star-tipped nozzle–it’s a screw-type nozzle and there was no way to keep it steady in the cutout corner of the sandwich bag.
Since my kids love churros, and Sam enjoys making them, I just know that I’ll have to buy a better replacement for the cheap piping bag that went into the garbage can. And, next time, I’ll encourage her to start from scratch instead of using a ready mix. I found a recipe online that she can follow. The churros dough appears quite similar to the dough for making cream puffs. That shouldn’t be difficult.