Churros on a lazy sunny Sunday afternoon

Sunday 19th January       

This week end has been full on with a multitude of activities and the final Christmas celebration for our household!  Great fun, but no time for crafting although lots of crafting talk was held between my M-I-L and I, culminating in a decision to visit the new exhibition at the London Fashion and Textile Museum before it finishes in May, that of the Picasso to Warhol exhibition.

My in laws brought eggs from their chicken,
they have different varieties and I love
the way they lay such different eggs!

http://ftmlondon.org/ftm-exhibitions/artist-textiles-picasso-to-warhol/


To finish the week end we decided to make use of our son's new Christmas present, a churro maker.  We are all quite partial to Spanish churros, those not familiar with them, they are a version of a doughnut, but in thick star shapes in straight lines, either filled with chocolate sauce or dipped in melted chocolate!  Very naughty but extremely delicious.  We tend to have eaten them late at night in cafes in Spain, but many eat them for breakfast dunked in hot chocolate, whenever you eat them and wherever, they are yummy.

The origins of churros is unclear, some feel they come from southern China orginally and brought over by the Portuguese explorers.  In China they used to 'pull' the dough, but as Europeans could not master this skill, they began to use star shaped nozzles to create the ridges that we now commonly associate with churros.  Another theory is that the Spanish shepherds used to make them as a substitute for bakery goods as the ingredients, that of salt, water and flour where easy to obtain and a quick sweet dish easy to cook on an open fire in the mountains.  Whatever the history, they can now be found all over Spain and many other European cafes and street vendors.  But why wait for your holiday, give them a go yourself!

Although we now have a piping contraption, a little like a large over sized syringe, you could use a piping bag with a large shaped star nozzle, I am sure now having made them, that this would suffice.

Churros 

250g plain flour

250ml of boiling water with a good pinch of salt

vegetable oil enough to cover the churros in a frying pan

Sugar to coat churros

Chocolate sauce

Cinnamon powder

Sift flour into a large bowl.

Add the water gradually whilst stirring the flour, use a wooden spoon.  Do not worry if it is a bit lumpy as this will disappear with the pressure of piping later on. You should not need to mix it for long.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a frying pan.

Add dough mixture into piping vessel. The nozzle should be the largest star shape you can find.

Make sure the oil is hot and covers the churros

 

When oil hot enough, pipe the mixture directly into the oil in the pan, pipe out about 6cm pieces in straight lines. Cook until golden brown, approx 2-3 mins.

 

 

Place on kitchen paper to soak up excess oil, then roll churros on the plate of sugar or sugar and cinnamon.

 

 

If adding chocolate sauce inside churro, with another piping vessel and a long thin nozzle, carefully pipe in the centre of the churro, pulling nozzle out of churro as you are pushing the chocolate in, this takes a little bit of practise but is good fun!

 

 

If dipping into chocolate, your churro is ready and you just need to dip it into warmed runny chocolate and eat!

Churros are best warm, so eat immediately..

Our churros piping syringe and hot chocolate sauce ready to be injected into the warm churros!

♥These are very rich and filling, so do not eat too many!♥

I managed just a few minutes of hooky and was able to have my first crochet slipper sock fitting!  Very bright and very warm they are going to be too, as always will keep you up to date on my progress!

 

 The weather today has been so lovely, look at our blue skies and beacuse of that the shadows were immense today.  Although it has highlighted the fact, I need to get into the garden and start to Spring clean, the hanging basket looks sad, but look at it's shadow!

As we had either rowed, cycled, triathlon trained or run this week end , this afternoon, we all are taking it easy, even the cat! Enjoy the last bit of the week end everyone!