Churro Size Matters

1st attempt at churros with small star tip - crunch topping!

So the other day was Cinco De Mayo. I am huge on cooking for theme days! If I find out its National donut day we will literally eat donuts for dinner. So needless to say, Cinco de Mayo rolled around and of course I made burritos, but I knew dessert should be something a little out of the ordinary. This year, I opted for… CHURROS! This is largely in part to seeing churros all over Instagram lately. Churros, believe it or not, are fairly easy to make. It is an extremely easy dough to make; it requires flour, sugar, water, and salt, and oil. If you have the right tools (deep fryer and piping bags with a large star tip) it can be a simple process. It takes only about 20 minutes from start to finish including frying time. So I was excited as I got my cake decorating supplies out until I realized I had misplaced my large star tip. DILEMA: I can take my lazy, still in my PJs-self to my local craft store and purchase a large star tip or decide to make do with the small star tip and make me some churros. Well of course I chose the lazy route, which I justified by being a super frugal, make do with what you have kind of gal. So I made the dough and began the process with my small star tip. I realized after the first one hit the hot oil that I should always remember the good old adage, “Use the right tools for the job”. Although the small star tip worked for pushing the dough through with getting the right shape, it was too small for the baby churro to be properly fried. I was left with a tasty, but too crunchy, product. It had the crunchy golden brown outside but lacked the airy middle that defines this tasty snack. So instead of wallowing in failure, I made some vanilla pudding and used them as a topping that night with some homemade caramel (which was a hit with my husband btw). I could have left it at that, moved on and tried again another time, but the churros plagued me, mainly because I knew exactly what was wrong and exactly how to fix it. This is important to realize especially if you are new to cooking or even if you've been doing it forever. We all fail, I have days where stuff just doesn't go right. Usually I can figure out a tweak and I'll attempt it again and again...and again if necessary. This is an important part of growing in this craft, not just accepting failures, but learning from them. Point in case with these churros! I knew I didn't have the right tool for the job so 4 days later I found myself, with the large star tip in hand and determination to make these churros work. I made the dough and started them again, using a Wilton 8b star tip. They came out beautiful, almost perfect! Making just one adjustment, I went from “Oh, man” to “Oh my gosh!” So based on this experience, here are a couple things to note:#1. Most of us are not frying in a commercial fryer, so those super long giant churros you see at carnivals will not happen in your home. Let the dream go and embrace the average sized churro. Who doesn't like bite size things anyway?#2. I used a Wilton 8b star tip and although this was a good size to not have the churros fry all the way through, it was a bit too large to have the dough cook all the way in the middle. My advice is to go one size smaller. If you look online there are literally hundreds of varying opinions on which star tip to use, but there seems to be a large amount choosing Wilton 1m.

#3. When filling your piping bag, take the top of the piping bag and fold it over to the outside about 5 inches. Fill the piping bag and then unfold your overlay. Squeeze piping bag so all dough goes to the bottom and twist the end so you have a good hold on the bag and no filling is able to escape. This will help you not make a complete mess!

2nd attempt with larger star tip - Success!

Churro Recipe

For the cinnamon and sugar coating

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (you can add more cinnamon based on personal taste)

For the Dough

1 cup of water

3 tablespoons of sugar

½ teaspoon salt
1 cup of all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons canola oil (vegetable oil also works fine)

2 quarts of oil for frying

Pastry bag fitted with a large star tip (Wilton 1m or equivalent)

Directions

Place the sugar and cinnamon coating ingredients into a large shallow dish

Whisk to combine. Set aside

On a plate place a few layers of paper towels for draining the fried churro.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water, the 3 tablespoons of sugar, salt, and the 2 tablespoons of oil. Bring just to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in flour until mixture forms a ball.

Heat oil for frying in deep fryer or deep skillet to 375º Fahrenheit.

Transfer the thick batter into the pastry bag.

Squeeze dough through tip of pastry bag and using a clean, sharp pair of scissors, carefully cut out strips of piped dough (about 3 inches long) into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown and transfer to paper towels to drain. Roll the drained churro in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Will make approximate 15 churros.