Churro recipe is surprisingly easy to make, with the batter just requiring 5 ingredients. It takes just 20 minutes to make and is served with a fabulous chocolate dipping sauce. And did you know Churros are great for making ahead??
Confession: I thought Churro were native to Mexico. So when I was in Mexico last year, I was expecting to be in Churro heaven. Churros, churros, churros everywhere.
But no. I barely saw churro at all. So I was like a Churro Demon on a mission, keeping an eye out for the elusive churros stands. Eyes lighting up and dashing over immediately (whether stuffed full of tacos or not) to get a piping hot churros the moment I spied a cart down an obscure alleyway in the back streets of Mexico City.
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.
Duh. Churro isn’t native to Mexico. It’s Spanish!
Having said that though, it is actually very popular in the touristy areas of Mexico!!
Well, strictly speaking, the actual origins of Churro isn’t clear and it is very popular in other countries as well, such as Portugal. And actually, there is some Churro in Mexico – but I wouldn’t say it was easy to find!
This Churro recipe is the grand finale for a 3 part Spanish Fiesta I’ve shared this week. It started with an Easy Tapas spread, followed by a show stopping Paella for the main (paella is easy, easy, easy!). And I cannot think of a better way to finish this feast than with Churros!
And if you’re putting on a spread, then we must have a wine with dessert!! So for these Churros, I’m choosing this Sentado Tempranillo, a beautiful Spanish wine that’s smooth and well rounded which I think goes really well with the sweetness and crunch of churro.
I’ve suggested a different wine for each course in my Spanish Fiesta – La Mesa Y Los Amigos for the Tapas, and Mi Casa for the Paella and now this Sentado for dessert. All of these are Spanish Tempranillo red wines which is a variety of grape native to Spain. And they’re all available at Dan Murphy’s!
Besides loving the bright cheerful labels, I think these wines are really great drinking for the price. One of those gems that taste more expensive than they cost. And truth be told, any of them would go well with any of the dishes in my Spanish Fiesta. My pairing suggestions are just what I think works best with each dish. 🙂
Regular readers know that I’m not a fan of deep frying. I reserve deep frying for my very favourite foods.
Churro is right up there at the top of the list. Makes me want to do this ->??
A simple 5 ingredient batter and just over 15 minutes of your time. Homemade churro is a MUST TRY!!! – Nagi x
PS Also, in my churro making frenzy, I discovered that they are fantastic for making ahead! They soften overnight, but crisp up beautifully in the oven. Make ahead notes are in the Churros recipe below!
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Spanish Churros Recipe
Ingredients
Coating
- 1/4 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar) (55g)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Churros
- 150 g/ 1 cup plain white flour (Note 1)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil or other neutral flavoured oil (not extra virgin olive oil)
- 250 ml / 1 cup boiled water
- 2 cups+ oil , for frying
Chocolate Sauce
- 1/2 cup / 100g dark chocolate chips (Note 2)
- 1/2 cup / 125 ml thickened cream (heavy cream)
Instructions
- Combine sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl, set aside.
- Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add oil and water and mix until just combined - it should be a thick batter, like a wet sticky dough, not thin and watery.
- Transfer dough into a piping bag with a 8mm / 1/3" star tip nozzle (see video). Let cool while oil heats.
- Heat oil over medium high in a wok or small but deep skillet (Note 3), to 170C/340F, or until it takes 20 seconds for a small 1cm / 1/3" cube of bread to turn golden.
- Pipe 15 cm / 6" lengths of dough into the oil, snipping with scissors. Do 3 to 4 per batch, makes 8 to 10 in total.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden, rolling occasionally.
- 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.
Recipe Notes:
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
PS Decided at the last minute to put together a little VIDEO for this Churro recipe so you can see how easy these are to make! 🙂
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Disclosure – This post and the Australia giveaway wine prizes are sponsored by Pinnacle Drinks, the geniuses who discovered and are spreading the love of Spanish wines throughout Australia! Wine and Spanish food lovers of the world such as myself thank you. <3
The paella pan and Paella rice included in the Australian prizes are donated by Maestre Family Food.
The Worldwide Prizes are being provided by me, Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats.
I made these for the first time tonight, the first batch was far too runny I put it in the oil just to try it out and it looked like I had a wok full of intestines 😆 the second batch I used a lot less water and was very successful,
Hi Carol, sorry you had issues here, that doesn’t sound right at all! Did you follow the recipe exactly? N x
I followed the recipe exactly, I will just be careful when adding the water in future.
Hi ! I am so pleased to find your recipe. We run a Supper Club from home & recklessly put Churros on the menu. Nightmare! – The last few times I’ve burst so many piping bags and then at the opposite end of the scale faffed around with recipes that were just too runny.
I’ve got another gropu next weekend who’ve requested it so fingers crossed your recipe will be the one !! Reviews look good.
Love to know how it goes Pip!
Easiest churro recipe I’ve ever followed! Munching as I type 🙂
YUM! I could go for some churros now!
Nagi, you are a star! Thank you for putting up such detailed instructions. Why are you not on Masterchef?
The churros were really good and very easy to make!
That’s great to hear Mason!
Thank you so much! The recipe is easy and great, and you made my day! i can totally relate to the churros hunting experience, I was doing the same in Spain – it turns out in Basque Country they don’t make churros…
I’m so glad you loved this recipe Simona!!
Nagi…
Just want to say thank you for the recipe! 🙂 It’s soooo good! Will always be using your recipe!
Thanks so much Stefie!
This recipe looks fantastic – I made the Ricotta Spinach bake last night – another huge hit and on my dinner recipe list now!!! Weird question though… I need to buy a new Wok – I have a non stick one – but on most of the recipe videos the Wok looks “less fancy but far more effective” Any tips for the new purchase will be great!!!
Hi Nagi,
I love all of your recipes but as a Spanish I have to do a remake. The original “Spanish churros” do not contain cinnamon. They just use sugar. Actually for the “chocolate sauce”, we always have a lovely cup of chocolate ( we call it chocolate de la Casa o chocolate francés) but we never use chocolate sauce like you showed in your recipe. People made variations and I understand that very well but I thought that it will be good for the people to know exactly the original way.
Thank you to share your recipes. My little son loved the” Easter chocolate cake” and so everybody in the family did. Thanks a lot. God bless you and your family.
Big kisses
Rosalia
Thanks so much for clarifying Rosalia!
At a local Mexican restaurant here, they serve Cajeta sauce, which is a super-thick caramel sauce made from goat milk. If you prefer caramel to chocolate and you have access to a Mexican grocery store and can find it there, it’s fantastic. You could also sub dulce de leche.
Sounds divine Linda!
Hi Nagi,
This is an amazing recipe. Thank you so much for sharing. We also added a cap of vanilla essence and half a cap lemon essence.
However I had to cook a larger batch for a family gathering and doubled the ingredients (but without the lemon essence) and it didn’t taste the same. It tasted a lot like fish and chip batter. Do you think it could’ve been too much baking powder or oil in the batter?
Hi James, were you using fresh oil to cook them? – N x
Hi Nagi,
Yes we were using fresh vegetable oil! 🙂
We found that when we followed the original recipe, we only added 1 TBSP of oil to the batter, but realised our mistake when making our second batch (which we also doubled to make more) and added 2 x TSBP of oil.
James
Sorry I mean we added 1 x tea spoon to the first batch, but when we doubled ingrediants for the second batch, we added 2 x table spoons.
Hi Nagi,
This is an amazing recipe. Thank you so much. We also added a cap of vanilla essence and half a cap lemon essence.
However I had to cook a larger batch for a family gathering and doubled the ingredients (but without the lemon essence) and it didn’t taste the same. It tasted a lot like fish and chip batter. Do you think it could’ve been too much baking powder or oil in the batter?
Hi Nagi, I’m a long time peruser and maker of recipes on your blog. I have found your recipes to be easy, reliable and always delicious.
Who would have known churros would be this easy to make?! The mixture did seem a bit thick though and I couldn’t cut the dough directly into the oil. Instead i lined a baking tray and pre-snipped all my churros and then fried them up. The churros are definitely best had fresh. However, it did heat up nicely and guests were impressed (I think the trick is to have them on a cooling rack to drip off excess oil and not retain moisture)
I’m so glad you loved them Caroline!
This recipe turned out amazingly well for me! The churros were easy to make and really delicious. As for the making ahead premise of the post, I beg to differ. Although I tried playing around with raising and lowering the oven temperature and increasing/decreasing the bake time, these absolutely do not reheat well at all, unless your definition of reheating well is “nothing remotely resembling the original texture.” So while these are great to make, do not make ahead. They are by far best enjoyed fresh.
I’m so glad you loved them, and yes – anything is better made fresh! I found mine reheated ok though ☺️ (not that I usually keep them as I normally eat them all!!)
Hi Nagi,
Thankyou for the amazing recipes 🙂
This recipe doesn’t;t work for me. The batter is far too watery, resembling pancake batter. I weighed out the water and flour. could there be a typo on the recipe? please help!
Hi Glenda – I’m sorry to hear that, I wish I could have been there to help troubleshoot! I am confident the recipe is right, I have made it many times myself and if you read comments below, plenty of other people have too. You didn’t accidentally add the frying oil into the batter, did you???
Is it possible to use condensed milk instead of thick cream?
Yes!! great idea!
Yum! If you warm up your cream and then stir your chocolate chips in, you are less likely to overheat the chocolate (which results in a grainy, unpleasant texture). In my experience, you can never be too careful with chocolate!
I love this recipe! Thank you for sharing!
These are ridiculously delicious. My kids (and extended nieces/nephews) were in love with the Disneyland version. Ha – No more! Aunty (courtesy of Nagi) makes the best churros around. Can’t ask for more than that – thank you!
Hi Nagi!
Can I use the same oil in the dough that I use for frying?
Also, is a flavourless oil something like Canola or vegetable oil?
Thanks!
Yep! I tried using vegetable oil, and they turned out great! Churros are one of my favorite treats ever, so haveing a Mexican bakery I back them a lot!