Churros Y Chocolate from Nigella Lawson

Nigella’s churro recipe is, she claims, the result of much research and recipe testing. Many churro recipes available online have eggs, butter and sugar in the dough but I went with Nigella’s recipe (published in Kitchen) because the dough was fairly frugal in it’s ingredients and I felt the chocolate sauce and cinnamon rolling sugar would be sufficient in flavour. And they are, the churros are delicious. But I really felt that the texture was not as fluffy internally as I would have liked.

While we had no trouble demolishing a double batch of these churros amongst 8 of us, I will be trying a different churro recipe in future. The chocolate sauce on the other hand, was absolutely amazing and I will be re-using it for this and wherever else I can!

Ingredients:

Churros

• 50g caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 125g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 x 15ml tablespoon olive oil
• 250ml boiling water

•  500ml vegetable (or sunflower) oil for deep frying

 Thick Chocolate Sauce

• 125g dark chocolate
• 1 x 15ml tablespoon golden syrup
• 150ml double cream

Firstly, put the sauce together. Melt the chocolate, golden syrup and double cream together in a small pan. Once everything is melted and evenly mixed together, turn off the heat and leave it in the pot to remain warm until ready to serve.

In a small bowl, mix together the caster sugar and cinnamon to roll cooked churros in.

Pour the oil into a small pot and begin to heat. Nigella recommends either a thermometer to check it has reached 170 or popping a small cube of bread in the pan. It will turn brown after 30 seconds if the oil is hot enough.

*Please ignore the round tip in the photo; I don’t actually own an 8mm star tip*

While the oil is heating, combine the flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add the oil and boiling water to make a dough, mixing together with a butter knife. I had to use a little extra oil to get it to the consistency of very stiff mashed-potatoes. I found it quite difficult to pipe at this consistency so I would recommend adding more water to make a slightly softer dough. Put the dough into a piping bag with an 8mm star-tip and pipe short churros into the hot oil, snipping with scissors at the appropriate length.

I wouldn’t try to cook more than 4 or 5 at a time, as it will lower the temperature of the oil. When they are golden brown, place them on a plate or tray lined with paper towel to drain. Please be very careful when deep-frying and be sure to keep any water well away from the pan; even the smallest drop of water will make the oil splash dangerously.

Roll in the cinnamon sugar and serve with chocolate sauce for the perfect little sweet ending to a Mexican or Spanish dinner, or perhaps at your next cocktail party.