Hanukkah Churros
We first fell in love with the concept of churros for Hanukkah -- a spicy-sweet twist on the traditional doughnuts, or sufganiyot. Then we tasted Cordelia's version and decided we needed this recipe around for the other 357 days of the year. A light, golden shell and eggy sponge-like interior, swabbed in any of Cordelia's festive trio of sauces, will make you forget every leaden state fair churro you've ever met. Note: Our Nutella seized in the microwave, but heating slowly on the stovetop, stirring occasionally, worked like a charm.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of all purpose flour
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup of water
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 1/2 stick of butter
- 1/2 cup of sugar for dusting the churros
- 2 teaspoons of cinnamon for dusting
- vegetable oil for frying (about 3 cups)
- 3/4 cup of nutella
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1.5 cup of frozen strawberries (or fresh)
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- juice from half a lemon
- small can of sweet condensed milk
Directions
- Put the water, 2 tablespoons of sugar and the butter in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the flour and mix quickly and firmly with a whisk until ball is formed.
- Take of the heat and mix in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the vanilla extract.
- Let the dough cool down a bit and then transfer to a pastry piping bag with a big star tip. Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan (oil should be about 2 inch deep) until very hot, but not smoking. Squeeze the dough into the hot oil in sections of about 4 inches. Fry the churros for 2-3 minutes on each side until they puff up and deep golden brown on the outside. Fry 4-5 doughnuts at the time, do not crowd the pan too much.
- Spread the 1/2 cup of sugar (and the cinnamon if you want) in a shallow dish. Take the churros out of the oil, let them drip the excess oil for a little bit on a plate with a paper-towel and then transfer to the sugar and roll the churros in it until cover well. Serve immediately with the sauces on the side.
- Nutella sauce: Warm the Nutella and the heavy cream in a microwave for 2 minutes until the Nutella is soft and melted. Mix well before serving.
- Strawberry sauce: put the strawberries and sugar in a small saucepan and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. The sugar should caramelize a bit and the strawberries are soft and break down. Put in a food processor with vanilla and lemon juice and process until very smooth.
- You can serve the sweet condensed milk as is or cook on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes while mixing until reduced down and caramelize.
