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[1] Churros can be eaten plain, like that popular American fried food, a cinnamon-sugar donut. For a sit-down, a chocolate sauce is nice (here, it’s actually chocolate-peanut butter sauce (photo © Furkan F. Demir | Pexels).
[2] Churros can be baked rather than fried. Here’s a recipe (photo © The Baker Chick).
[3] We like our churros with both chocolate and caramel sauces (photo © Gustavo Peres | Pexels).
[4] Make a banana split with churros substituting for the bananas. Or, use both (photo © Sabel Blanco | Pexels).
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A churro is a crunchy, fried-dough pastry snack, typically made from choux pastry (pâte à choux) and dusted with cinnamon and sugar. It’s one of Mexico’s most popular desserts, which also include:
Helados, nieves, and paletas (ice cream and sorbet, the latter on a stick)
Pan de elote (sweet cornbread)
Pay de queso (cheesecake)
Tamales dulces (with sweet fillings)
Tres leches cake
But today it’s about churros. Churros evolved from a Chinese cruller! Here’s the history of churros.
In the U.S., churros are most often found on the dessert menus at Mexican restaurants, served with chocolate dipping sauce.
Even if you’re not celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a Mexican dinner, consider a plate of delightful churros for dessert.
The traditional cinnamon flavor has been ported to other sweets, such as churro cake, churro crêpes, churro cheesecake, and churro ice cream—the latter with bits of fried churro.
We like them as chocolate fondue dippers. Pastry chefs have fun turning the simple dessert into complex ones.
And other products are getting into the act, for example, Krusteaz Cinnamon Waffle Churros Mix.
CHURROS RECIPES
Some pastry chefs and home cooks pipe the churros into flat cookie shapes for ice cream sandwiches. Some pipe them into heart or pretzel shapes. You can have fun with piping, or take a gander at these churro recipes from THE NIBBLE:
Baked Churros (photo #2)
Chocolate Churros
Churros With 3-Chile Mole Fondue
CUSTOM CHURROS VARIATIONS
You can also create a custom churro recipe with:
Base: baked, fried, sliced or crumbled churros
Sauce: cajeta, caramel, chocolate, dulce de leche, fruit purée
Topping: ice cream, whipped cream, chopped nuts (check out the “banana split” in photo #4)
Garnish: brittle, candied or toasted nuts, shaved chocolate
A peek from Flavor & The Menu shows:
Churros with Aleppo chile-peanut butter and white chocolate ganache, rum-infused banana “schmear,” piloncillo (Mexican cane sugar) ice cream, and peanut-toffee garnish, at Quiote in Chicago.
Cinnamon-sugar-dusted churros with cajeta and chocolate fudge sauces (photo #3), at Burlock Coast at The Ritz-Carlton in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Churro-style doughnuts with hot chocolate for dunking at Ariete in Coconut Grove, Florida.
Both cajeta (caramel) and chocolate fudge sauces are served with churros and hot chocolate at Burlock Coast in Fort Lauderdale.
And, you can dip the ends in royal icing and then roll them in chopped nuts, sprinkles, etc. (see photo #5, below).
MORE CINCO DE MAYO RECIPES
Drinks, breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, and dessert.
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