Now, technically these are actually cinnamon sugar choux pastry, not churros, but if you have a hankering for churros and aren’t willing to deal with deep frying, they’re a quite delicious substitute! Being choux pastry, they’re fairly hollow, plus they’re not fried and not drowned in butter, so they’re practically a healthy food! …Right? Sure.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs, room temperature

Coating:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Chocolate for dipping (optional):

• 1 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 3/4 heavy cream
• cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Fit a piping bag with a large tip and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. Cook over medium high heat until the butter has melted and the mixture begins to simmer.

Reduce the heat to low and add the flour. Stir until well combined, leaving no clumps of flour, then continue to stir over low heat for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir vigorously for 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring until completely combined after each.

Transfer the dough into the piping bag, being careful as the dough is probably still hot. Pipe lines, leaving a bit of room for them to grow, until you have filled both pans and/or run out of dough.

Spray lightly with water from a spray bottle, then bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. My top tray was set at 25, and I moved the bottom tray up for a few minutes on higher shelf to brown up.

While they cook, combine the coating ingredients in a large ziplock and shake well to combine.

When the pastry comes out of the oven, as soon as they are cool enough to handle but still quite warm, transfer them into the ziplock and shake well to coat. I did about 1/4 of the batch at a time and they all got well coated.

To make a ganache to dip into, first place the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until it just begins to simmer, then remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 5-7 minutes, then sprinkle with cinnamon and stir until the mixture is smooth. I used 1 cup chocolate with 3/4 cup cream, but I think a thicker batch, with more chocolate, would be preferable.

Texture-wise, these are best eaten day of, as they only stay crunchy the first day or so. They’ll still taste good later, but won’t be as satisfying to bite, so consider making them before you have friends over, so that you’ve got help to eat the whole batch!

Choux – mostly hollow, but tasty!

Baked Churros

Slightly adapted from, weirdly enough, Reddit.

Dough:

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs, room temperature

Coating:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Chocolate for dipping (optional):

• 1 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 3/4 heavy cream
• cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Fit a piping bag with a large tip and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. Cook over medium high heat until the butter has melted and the mixture begins to simmer. Reduce the heat to low and add the flour. Stir until well combined, leaving no clumps of flour, then continue to stir over low heat for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir vigorously for 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring until completely combined after each.

Transfer the dough into the piping bag, being careful as the dough is probably still hot. Pipe lines, leaving about a centimeter between each, until you have filled both pans and/or run out of dough. Spray lightly with water from a spray bottle, then bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

While they cook, combine the coating ingredients in a large ziplock and shake well to combine.

When the pastry comes out of the oven, as soon as they are cool enough to handle but still quite warm, transfer them into the ziplock and shake well to coat.

To make a ganache to dip into, first place the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until it just begins to simmer, then remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 5-7 minutes, then sprinkle with cinnamon and stir until the mixture is smooth.

Eat promptly.