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AI-generated photograph: Golden ridged churros dusted with cinnamon sugar leaning in a tall white paper cone beside a small black ramekin of glossy dark chocolate sauce on a slate board

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Latin American · Desserts

Cinnamon churros with chocolate sauce

cinnamon sugar churros · dark chocolate sauce · warm from the pan

AI-generated photograph

Crisp, ridged fingers of fried dough rolled in cinnamon sugar while hot, with a small pot of rich dark chocolate sauce for dipping, as sold from street carts across Mexico.

Contains: cereals containing gluten, eggs, milk and soya, as written. Gluten (plain flour), eggs, milk (butter and cream) and soya, which many dark chocolates contain. Check the chocolate label, which may also list milk or nuts.

Ingredients

  • 30g unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar
  • A quarter teaspoon salt
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Half a teaspoon vanilla extract
  • About 1 litre vegetable oil, for frying
  • 75g caster sugar, for coating
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 100g dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa), broken into pieces
  • 150ml double cream

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Let's cook

  1. Make the dough. Put 250ml water, the butter, 1 tablespoon of sugar and the salt in a pan and bring to the boil. Take it off the heat, tip in all the flour at once and beat hard with a wooden spoon until it forms a smooth ball that comes away from the sides.
  2. Leave the dough to cool for 5 minutes, then beat in the egg and vanilla until it is smooth, thick and glossy. Spoon it into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle (about 1cm). The star shape gives the ridges and stops the churros bursting in the oil.
  3. Mix the 75g of sugar and the cinnamon on a plate.
  4. Make the sauce. Heat the cream in a small pan until it just starts to steam, take it off the heat, add the chocolate and leave for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth. Keep it warm.
  5. Pour the oil into a large, deep, heavy pan so it is about 5cm deep and no more than a third full. Heat it to 180C on a cooking thermometer; without one, a cube of bread should turn golden in about 40 seconds. Never leave hot oil alone, and keep children away from the pan.
  6. Pipe 10cm lengths of dough straight into the oil, cutting them off with clean scissors. Fry 4 or 5 at a time for 3 to 4 minutes, turning once, until deep golden and crisp.
  7. Lift them out with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper for a few seconds, then roll them in the cinnamon sugar while still hot. Fry the rest the same way, letting the oil come back to 180C between batches.
  8. Serve straight away, warm, with the chocolate sauce for dipping. Let the oil cool completely in the pan before you clear it away.

Tips

  • Keep the oil at 180C: too cool and the churros go greasy, too hot and they brown before the inside cooks.
  • Make them just before eating. Churros are at their best within 15 minutes of frying.
  • This makes about 16 churros.

Swaps

  • Dairy free: use dairy free spread in the dough, a dairy free dark chocolate and oat cream for the sauce.
  • Spiced Mexican chocolate: add a pinch of ground cinnamon and a tiny pinch of chilli to the sauce.
  • No piping bag: spoon the dough into a strong freezer bag, snip off a corner and pipe; the churros will be smooth rather than ridged, so fry them a little more gently.

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