Cheers to Churros!
By Lorraine Koh - Monday, Oct 10, 2011
What’s not to love about baking? The feel of flour through your fingertips, the smell of freshly baked pastries… but then some of us are sadly not blessed with an oven. Flipping through the pages of Chef Janice Wong’s recently launched book, Perfection in Imperfection/Imperfection in Perfection, one will be attracted to the pretty images of pastries and desserts, and joy oh joy, not all of them require an oven!
Although the recipes in the book seem starkly simple, they are not so. Ingredients like “bloom gelatin” and “stabilizer” appear quite daunting for cooking novices. However we stumbled upon the seemingly simplest recipe – Churros. Churros are sometimes referred to a Spanish Doughnut and are renowned for being a Disneyland snack. It’s much like Yu Char Kway, if you need similar visuals. So we rolled up our sleeves and attempted to make this sweet, cinnamon-y snack.
Although due to us being baking dummies, we did not sieve the flour at the beginning, and the nozzle we used was far too small. However the end result was still satisfactory (receiving the nod of approval from our colleagues) and the great thing about Churros is its versatility. You can dip it in chocolate, in Kaya, or just coat it in the treat’s signature sugar and cinnamon. Happy munching!
Ingredients
250ml Milk
15g Sugar
3g Salt
60g Unsalted Butter
125g Flour
20g Egg Yolk
100g Egg White
1g Bicarbonate of Soda
Sugar Coating
4g Cinnamon powder
100g Sugar
Method:
Heat milk sugar salt and butter
Once it’s boiling, add in flour and stir until it does not stick to the pot.
Remove from heat, transfer to a mixer and add the egg yolk.
With a wooden spatula, slowly stir in in the egg white until desired consistency
Add bicarbonate of soda and stir evenly.
Rest batter in refrigerator.
Pipe into deep fryer.
Toss fried batter into cinnamon powder and sugar.
Editor’s note: Before starting the process, remember to sieve the flour first. Placing the batter in the fridge relaxes the dough and ensures a firm dough for betting piping. You can leave the batter in the fridge either for an hour, or up to overnight. Leave the dough inside longer for better results. The pipe determines the shape of your Churros. A bigger pipe equals bigger Churros and use one with a star nozzle for a more authentic end product.