Cinnamon Churros: a Tasty Tutorial

I've never made churros before but I was pleasantly surprised with how easy they are to make! This can be a great activity with kids - except for the frying part. That's a little too hot to handle, but they'll love putting on the cinnamon. And eating them, of course!

Ingredients: (makes about one plateful)

Vegetable or Olive Oil (we used Olive Oil)

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

Heat the oil in a pan (should be approx. 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep) to 360 degrees.

In a separate sauce pan, mix the water, butter and salt and bring to a rolling boil. Stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute, then remove from heat. In a small dish, beat eggs until smooth then stir into the mixture.

The dough will look like this:

I filled this cookie press in order to easily squeeze the dough into the hot oil. You can also use a cake decorator's tube or bag, or simply fill a small sandwich bag and cut the tip off one of the corners.

Fry 3 to 4 strips at a time for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Use a fork or tongs to turn the strips.

I tried making some fun shapes as well. The hearts and stars didn't really work out, but these spirals turned out great!

I was able to make JP's name, though! He was pretty stoked about that. Hahaha!

Let the churros drain (and cool) for a minute or two on some paper towels. Ooooh, they're looking so delicious!!

While you're waiting for your churros to cool, mix the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow dish or plate. We used a spoon to cover our churros in cinnamon/sugar, but the method doesn't matter as long as they taste great!

Darrien, here, used the sprinkle method and lightly dusted his churro with flavor:

His brother, Jacob, decided that burying his churro would seal in the flavors:

Whatever your method, you simply can't go wrong with some fried dough, sugar and cinnamon.

Mmmmmmmm!!!!!