Churros With Chocolate

A few months ago my husband and I went on a cruise out of Barcelona and with the little bit of research I did on Barcelona before we went, the one thing that stood out to me was to eat some "Churros con Chocolate" (Churros with Chocolate.) Being a huge chocoholic, I immediately put that on my list and and knew to look out for places selling such a treat.

This dessert did not disappoint - it was fantastic. We had it after dinner our first night. The churros are fried dough with just a tiny bit of sugar on them - not like the cinnamon sugar ones that are sold in the US. They get served with a cup of steaming, thick hot chocolate and you dip the churros into the chocolate to eat them. OH MY GOD! It was seriously delicious.

I loved it so much that we had it as a snack again the next day before we went to the ship, and then at one of the stops on the cruise there was a place selling them so we ate some at 11:00 in the morning. One of my goals after coming back home was to make this dessert myself...and 4 months later I finally did.

The recipe is not particularly hard but it was a little messy and I had dishes everywhere. I am also thankful that my husband, despite being down an arm at the moment due to shoulder surgery, was able to help me out since there were many steps at once and I didn't want to burn anything. He manned the churros cooking in the oil while I mixed up the chocolate.

Here is the recipe I used:
Whatever oil you like to cook foods in - I used vegetable
1 cup water
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
splash of vanilla
sugar for dredging

Steps:
Prepare to fry the churros by heating oil in a pan or large deep skillet to 360 degrees F.

Beat 1 egg and stir in splash of vanilla, set aside.

To make churro dough, heat water, margarine and salt to rolling boil in 3-quart saucepan; stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in egg and vanilla mixture quickly so egg does not cook and become scrambled!


Spoon mixture into cake decorators' tube with large star tip (like the kind used to decorate cakes). I tried to use my decorators tube but my icing tips were too small and I didn't have the right tools, so I used my cookie press. The shape wasn't "exact" but it was close enough! Squeeze 4-inch strips of dough into hot oil.



Fry 3 or 4 strips at a time until golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Roll churros in sugar or dump the sugar on the pile of churros.


Chocolate Sauce:
4 oz dark chocolate, chopped (I used Sao Thome chocolate)
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons sugar


Steps:
Place the chocolate and half the milk in a pan and heat, stirring until the chocolate has melted. Stir the cornstarch in the remaining milk and whisk into the chocolate with the sugar. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate has thickened - about 5 minutes. Add extra cornstarch if it doesn't start to thicken after 5 minutes. Remove from heat and mix until smooth. Pour into cups of small bowls for dunking churros - do not pour over the churros.

Serve warm.


My husband and I had a lot of fun making this and it turned out really well, bringing us back to Spain. The worst part was clean up - I think it took me about 45 minutes after all the dishes and pots I used to make this. At least I made it on a Sunday so I had some time!

The recipe made a lot, so we have some leftover...hopefully they keep. Next time we'll probably make this when we have friends coming over - perfect party dish!