Baby Churros Recipe

    When I was about, oh... 10 or 11? my brother and I went with our good friends and stayed at Disneyland for a whole week. This was soon after the addition of California Adventures to the park and they had this massive, grand hotel that I can't remember the name of that we stayed in. We'd lather up with sunscreen every morning and head into the park, stand in line all day for a cumulative few minutes' time on rides, then watch Fantasmic and call it a night. We ate at all those ridiculously expensive Disneyland restaurants (my favorite being the one inside Pirates of the Caribbean, despite the fact that they served a very sorry excuse for clam chowder).

    This trip must have cost a fortune, in addition to being pure monotony for our friends' parents, but BY JOVE I had the best time ever! I hate to pull out the Harry Potter references again (I don't), but it was totally like Harry living at the Leaky Cauldron and spending his days in Diagon Alley. We knew the park very well by the end of it and scoffed at the "tourists" and their park maps. We lounged around by the pool of the hotel, stood about chatting with foreigners and punk kids (basically the same thing to us at the time and equally thrilling) in line for Indian Jones, ate tons of ice cream and churros, and lived rather richly in general.

    Oh, you see I've gotten to the point finally? Yes, those crispy, fried delights... Glorious churros! I'm sure I ate at least 3 churros a day while there, and this gross over-indulgence only fueled my passion for more of them. It was always an inevitable tragedy to lose any of that divine cinnamon and sugar coating to the ground. They really need to work on how to handle those things better so none of it goes to waste... (Rereading this I realize that it is a very small wonder indeed that I was such a fat little kid.)

    Anyway, the point is I was frankly devastated the day I realized I couldn't have churros if I ever went to Disneyland again. That land of pure decadence had been marred for me, despite my continued adoration of Splash Mountain, and for a long time I didn't know if it could ever been restored to its former glory. However, when I managed these successful and highly delicious gluten free and vegan churros, I saw a definite glimmer of hope.

    In fact, it was more like a torrent of hope. And after eating about ten of them, I knew for certain... Churros really are the happiest food on Earth. 

    I may not be able to say that with a straight face, but boy, I mean it!

 Churros

1c water
1/2c (1 stick) butter
1/2 t salt
2-4 T sugar
1c flour (I used 1/4c teff, 1/4c sorghum, 1/4c tapioca, 1/4c millet, scant 1/2 t xanthan gum)
2 eggs (I replaced these with 2 Ener-G eggs)
1/2 t vanilla
oil for deep frying
cinnamon and
sugar for coating

1. In a small saucepan, combine water, butter, sugar and salt. Allow butter to melt and stir to mix.
2. Sift in flour and stir until a ball forms.
3. Transfer to mixer and allow to cool for about 5 mins. While it cools begin to heat oil to 350-375 degrees F.
4. Start beating the dough, adding one egg at a time. Beat well after each addition.
5. Place batter in piping bag fitted w/ large star tip.
6. When oil is ready, pipe batter into it and fry until golden brown.
7. Drain on paper towels then toss in cinnamon/sugar mixture and serve.

    *I'm not entirely sure why, but the melted butter and my flour mixture didn't blend all that well together, so that when piping some butter separated and was squeezed out the top. Annoying, but it didn't effect the finished product.
    *I don't actually own a large star tip, hence the "baby" churros. I highly recommend the larger size tip for a finished product most like what's traditionally and commercially available.
    *Sadly I don't know the cinnamon to sugar ratio that I used, but my advice to you would be to USE MORE CINNAMON. If you don't use enough cinnamon they start to taste remarkably similar to Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which, while delightful, isn't quite how churros ought to taste.
    *I didn't include a chocolate sauce since I wanted to recreate my Disneyland memories, but that is, I believe, how they're eaten in Spain. Churros and chocolate sauce sounds like a definite winning combination...
    *Churros freeze well! If you intend to freeze them, try not to fry them quite as long to avoid hard churros later. However, they work fine either way. Lay uncoated churros on a baking sheet, freeze for about 1 hr, then place in a plastic bag. To reheat them, heat your oven to 375 F and bake for 5-10 minutes, until done/heated all the way through. Toss to coat in cinnamon/sugar and enjoy!

    It would be difficult for life to get any better than this.