This churros recipe is astonishingly easy, and makes a truly great churros that’s hot and crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside. The molten chocolate dipping sauce is mandatory, and you’ll have an entire batch on the table in a mere 20 minutes!
BONUS: Churros are great for making ahead, making it a great party dessert.
Churros recipe
Up until several years ago, this churros obsessed food blogger thought Churros was native to Mexico. Thus on her first (but certianly not last) trip to Mexico, she was expecting to be in churro heaven. Churros, churros, churros everywhere.
But no. I barely saw churro at all.
Duh. Churro isn’t native to Mexico. It’s Spanish!🤦🏻♀️
So just as tourists here in Australia wonder why there aren’t kangaroos bounding around on the streets of Sydney and koalas snuggled in trees everywhere, I guess I totally missed the Churro memo.
Having said that though, it is actually very popular in the touristy areas of Mexico!!
We don’t break out the deep fryer very often around here. But with the promise of hot crispy churros waiting on the other side, and also because we only need to shallow fry rather than deep fry like when making things like Fried Chicken, we deem churros to be Fry-Worthy.
Also, it’s FRY-day today.😂 (FRIday) Admit it, you laughed!!
What goes in churros
All you need is flour, baking powder, oil and boiling water to make the batter, then cinnamon and sugar for coating.
Boiling water is key here – it makes the batter a unique “gummy” texture so when piped and cooked, it retains the signature ridges. There’s no sugar in the batter – with the cinnamon sugar coating plus mandatory dipping sauce, you absolutely don’t need it.
What does churros taste like?
They taste like cinnamon doughnuts – but BETTER because you’ve got crispy ridges. The inside is fluffy like a doughnut and they are at their prime freshly made, but they reheat exceptionally well too making them a great make ahead for parties!
How to make churros
The batter is a mere dump-and-mix job, and it’s got a unique thick “gummy” texture so the churros holds its form when it’s piped, even before it hits the oil.
The safest and easiest way to cook churros is to use scissors. Because the batter is so thick, you can pipe the batter out and it will hang from the piping bag as you lower it into the oil (as opposed to dropping out, causing the oil to splash), then just snip with scissors.
How long to make them
They come in varying lengths, with longer ones (ie 30cm / 1 foot) being more of a novelty type at carnivals and tourist hot spots. Around 15cm / 6″ is a more practical length – still long enough to look impressive, but short enough to cook in a standard size household pot.
You could also make shorter ones for small bite size options, and if you don’t have a piping bag, just drop balls of dough into the oil and make churros doughnuts!
How to serve churros
I know this might sound like an odd section to include for those of you with extensive churros eating experience – but actually, churros is not so common here in Australia so let me describe how to eat it!
It’s traditionally a street snack, so you buy one long one or a little paper cup with a few shorter ones in it, then eat it while walking around on the street. Managing a dipping sauce while on the move can become a bit tricky, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.
At home, I just pile them up on a platter with a little cup of the dipping sauce, then you just dunk and eat!
Don’t count the churros and compare to what the recipe says it will make. I’ll just tell you now – there’s two missing!
How to REHEAT Churros!
As with anything deep fried, churros are at their prime when they’re freshly made. They stay warm and crisp for around 20 minutes once they come out of the oil, which is ample time to cook a whole batch, coat in cinnamon sugar then serve.
After 30 minutes or so, they soften. And though, like doughnuts, they are still delicious when cold and soft, it’s definitely worth popping them in the oven to reheat and more importantly, crisp up again.
And if you are making these ahead intentionally (as opposed to just reheating leftovers), store the churros WITHOUT the sugar coating – this will make them reheat to near freshly cooked perfection, then just roll in the cinnamon sugar and serve! – Nagi x
PS BONUS: Churros impresses people. “You MADE these??!” *She beams with pride, making a weak attempt to hide her glee*😂
Watch how to make it
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Churros Recipe
Ingredients
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
- 1/4 cup caster / superfine sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Churros
- 1 cup flour, plain / all purpose (Note 1)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp vegetable, canola or olive oil (not extra virgin olive oil)
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2 cups+ vegetable or canola oil , for frying
Chocolate Sauce
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips (Note 2)
- 1/2 cup thickened / heavy cream (heavy cream)
Instructions
- Cinnamon sugar coating: Combine sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl, set aside.
- Batter: Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add oil and water and mix until just combined – it should be a thick, gummy batter, like a wet sticky dough, not thin and watery.
- Piping bag: Transfer dough into a piping bag with a 8mm / 1/3" star tip nozzle. Set aside while oil heats.
- Heat oil: Heat 5cm / 2" oil over medium high in a small pot, wok or small but deep skillet (Note 3) to 170°C/340°F, or until it takes 20 seconds for a small cube of bread to turn golden.
- Pipe & snip: Pipe 15cm / 6" lengths of dough into the oil, snipping with scissors (snip close to oil surface to avoid splash). Do 3 to 4 per batch, makes 10 to 12 in total.
- Cook: Cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden and crisp, rolling occasionally.
- Drain: Remove onto paper towel lined plate to drain. Then roll in sugar. Serve hot with Chocolate Sauce!
Chocolate Sauce:
- Place in a heatproof bowl and microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in between, until smooth. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool and thicken slightly.
Recipe Notes:
Originally published 2016. Long overdue for fresh new photos, brand new process steps and video!
More recipes that are easier than you think
A few more recipes people assume are too hard, but are much easier than you think!
Life of Dozer
He’s not allowed in the shoot room when I deep fry – and he ain’t happy about it!
And from the original publication date in 2016:
Caved. ☺️
I made them today!! Very easy and delicious!! Thank you for the recipe!!
These were definitely light and airy with perfect crunch but all the flavour came from the sugar coating and once that dissolved I was left with a very boring dough flavour which became a bit overwhelming and unpleasant.
So easy and I’ve always got the ingredients on hand to whip it up as a quick treat!
Simple recipe and texture was great in the end, but dough was too thick to use the piping tip so I took the tip out and just did little lines of dough. Would make again with bigger piping tip.
Hi Nagi
I want to make bulk churros for a church event. Can I make the dough in advance and keep and how should it be stored if this is possible.
Thanks
Rebecca
Made this recipe exactly to the t and it turned out perfectly that I had to come back to leave a comment. It was SO easy and SO good. I prepped the dough into a piping bag before hand and fried these for dessert in front of guests. They were such a hit, I had to make a second batch immediately. The dough was a good consistency, did not have any issues with my piping bag at all. I would double the recipe next time as this did not last at all with 5 people. Sauce was honestly not required as the hot crispy churros rolled in cinnamon sugar was enough.
This recipe is so quick and delicious that I had to leave a review. Takes about 15 minutes from start to finish to make fresh churros. I’ve made these twice already. I cut the recipe in half both times and added maybe a tablespoon more flour than called for.
I was concerned at first when they were frying because the color was too white and they did not look like churros, but once I let them sit a bit longer in the oil, they got there.
The inside is dense, yet airy, soft, and bouncy. So good. I immediately sent the recipe to my mom upon making it.
I did not have any issues with my piping bag exploding. I doubled bagged it the first time and single bagged the second time.
Loved it .. But I will add one egg to give it a bit more richness next time. Otherwise, its amazing as it is as well.
my teacher says in nagi we trust
Easy to follow recipe and turned out great!
These are soooo good. I made them for my family and even my grandma, who owned a small bakery, loved them. Worth it
Just tried this recipe, and it is delicious. Crispy outside moist inside. Thank you Nagi
hi it is good
Lovely tasting churros but had the problem of my piping bag exploding as the mixture was too thick and dense it just popped the plastic. Maybe I need a more durable piping bag
Fantastic!!! Pregnancy craving satisfied & my family LOVED them
I love recipetineats it’s the only recipe chanal I trust I was a little scared to deep-fry because I have never deep-fryed before but this was sooo easy and delicious! once again thank you Nagi for another awesome recipe😋
Thank you for the recipe. The recipe is simple and very easy to make. Just that the dough 50-50% flour:water ratio makes quite a tough dough. I made x4 of the portion. For the first batch it did turns out really well but for 2nd batch the dough is quite dry so I added a little bit more water to soften the dough. Piping churros requires a lot of patience because this is when the chaos begin. My piping bag burst out and I had to replace it 7 times. Also using scissors is quite troublesome as the extra seconds I took to grab the scissors each time makes the piped dough becaming slimmer and slender the longer I took to cut it. In the end I just pinch it with my finger. Otherwise if it is has already fell into the oil due to gravity, I just cut them with scissors inside the oil. The churros is really crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Will definitely make this again but I need to find a cookies press gun to pipe the dough next time.
I’ve used different recipes for churros that use an egg. But your recipe doesn’t. Is there a reason for that? I’ve only ever made churros with an egg.
Looks yummy, thank you Nagi for your amazing and brilliant recipes.
I am from Mexico and looove Churros, looks like the person you are referring that went to Mexico and didn’t see churros didn’t look well, you’ll see churros everywhere, bakeries, special churros stores and even as a street food in the stop lights.