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Churros (Fritters)

Originating from Madrid, but widely eaten throughout Spain. No open-air festival would be complete without its churrera stall, or at least a hawker wearing white cuffs and carrying a basket of freshly-fried fritters.

They are long thin strips of fluted dough fried to form loops. If thicker and straight, they are called porras, and if in the shape of a ring or hollow ball, buauelos. Source: Janet Mendel-Searl: Cooking in Spain

250 ml Water
Cinnamon to taste
75 ml Oil
rind from 1 lemon
1/2 ts Salt
200 g Flour
Oil for frying Sugar

Put the water in a saucepan with the 75 ml oil and salt. Bring to a boil. Add the flour all at once and beat hard with a wooden spoon, working it on a low fire for a minute or two until it forms a ball. The batter will be quite stiff. Put it in a pastry bag and pipe long strips or rings of the batter into deep, hot oil. It takes a bit of muscle to push it through. Fry until golden brown and remove and drain. With scissors, cut long strands into short lengths. Sprinkle generously with sugar.

Makes about 30 strips.

Nigella's Churros with chocolate dipping sauce

"I have been desperate to find a churros recipe I can happily live with and after much research and many churros – though over-eating sugar-coated Spanish doughnuts is not in itself a hardship – I have found The One. This is my version of Thomasina Miers’ churros. At home they are eaten as a sudden afternoon treat, an indulgent, late-morning weekend breakfast, or a gratifying finale to a meal of tapas-style offerings".
From Nigella Kitchen

For the thick chocolate sauce
100g/3½oz good-quality dark chocolate
25g/1oz milk chocolate
1 tbsp golden syrup
150ml/5fl oz double cream
For the churros
50g/2oz caster sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
125g/4½oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp olive oil
250ml/9fl oz freshly boiled water
approx. 500ml/17fl oz corn (or vegetable) oil, for deep-frying

For the thick chocolate sauce, melt all the chocolate sauce ingredients in a heavy-based saucepan, really gently, and once the chocolate starts to melt, stir everything together, take off the heat and leave in a warm place.

For the churros, mix the sugar and cinnamon in a wide, shallow dish: this is for shaking the cooked churros about in, to coat them later.

To make the churros, put the flour into a bowl and stir in the baking powder, then beat in the olive oil and freshly boiled water from a kettle. Keep mixing until you have a warm, sticky dough, and leave to rest for about 10 minutes or for as long as it takes for the corn (or vegetable) oil to heat up.

Heat the oil in a small-ish saucepan; it should come about one-third of the way up the sides of the pan. When you think it’s hot enough, toss in a cube of bread and if it sizzles and browns in about 30 seconds, the oil’s hot enough; or if you’re using an electric deep-fat fryer or otherwise have the means to check the temperature, it should be at 170C/325F. Keep a watchful eye on your hot oil pan at all times as hot oil can be dangerous.

When you are ready, load up a piping bag with a large star-shaped nozzle (8mm/½in) and fill with the churros dough (oil up your hands as if using an hand cream as this will help handling of the dough). Squeeze short lengths (approx. 4–5cm/1½-2in) of dough into the hot oil, snipping them off with a pair of scissors as you go.

Cook about 3 or 4 churros at a time and, once they turn a rich golden-brown, fish them out of the oil with a slotted spoon, spatula or tongs onto a baking sheet lined with some kitchen roll. To keep the cooked churros warm while you fry the remaining dough, blot with kitchen roll, transfer them to a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in a low oven (100C/220F/Gas ¼). Even if you want to eat them immediately, they do need 5–10 minutes to rest before you eat them, to allow them to set inside.

Just before serving, toss all the hot churros in the sugar and cinnamon mixture and shake them about to get a good covering.

Once you have finished making the churros, pour the chocolate sauce into individual pots and dip 'n' dunk away.