Churros

One of the good things about living here is that flour is cheap.  It costs only half as much as it does back home.  Not only that, there are so many different types of flour - bread flour, rye, wholewheat, durum and even cake flour.  But at home, I usually would have plain flour, bread flour and wholewheat flour.  I make my own bread or bagels every week and some times I am inspired to try new baking recipes, so it's great to have them on hand.

And inspired I was, one day after watching a cooking program.  I watched churros being made and they looked so mouth-watering.  And it was easy.  The day was also cold and windy, so having something light, fluffy, crunchy and sweet would be perfect.  I found a good recipe online which was super easy and gave great results.  Pete and I had to pull ourselves away from the kitchen to stop us from devouring the whole batch in one go!

The dough only took about 5 minutes to prepare.  The rest of the time is spent putting the dough into a piping bag and frying them in the hot oil.  I had Pete to help me with this.  I piped out the dough into the oil and he cut them into lengths.  We experimented with different lengths.  We like those that are about 10cm long.  We  even got creative and tried making heart shaped ones.  We succeeded!  But whatever the length or shape, they were divine.  Try it!

Churros
1 cup water
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
1 cup flour mixed with 1/4 tsp baking powder

Coating
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder

Oil for deep frying (you can heat the oil before you start on the dough so that it's hot by the time the dough is ready)

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water, sugar, salt and oil.
Bring to the boil and remove from the heat.
Stir in the flour until the mixture forms a ball.
Carefully spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a star nozzle.  You can also simply use a ziplock bag and cut off the end instead.
Once the oil is hot, pipe strips of dough into the oil.  Be careful when you cut the strips from the piping bag.  The dough might make a splash as it falls into the oil so don't hold the piping bag too high from the oil.
Fry until golden brown and drain on kitchen towels.
Roll the churros into your cinnamon-sugar mixture.