Name: Churros
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: 250 ml Water; 30 g Butter; 1 tbsp Sugar; 0.25 tsp Salt; 150 g Plain flour; 1 Egg; 500 ml Oil for frying; 4 tbsp Sugar; 1 tsp Ground cinnamon; 80 g Dark chocolate; 80 ml Milk or cream

Ingredients

4servings

Water250 ml
Butter30 g
Sugar · for the dough1 tbsp
Salt0.25 tsp
Plain flour150 g
Egg1
Oil for frying · neutral500 ml
Cinnamon sugar
Sugar4 tbsp
Ground cinnamon1 tsp
Chocolate sauce (optional)
Dark chocolate80 g
Milk or cream80 ml

Steps

Bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil. Off the heat, add the flour all at once and stir fast until it forms a smooth ball with no lumps.
⏲ 4 min
Let the dough cool slightly, then beat in the egg until smooth and glossy. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
⏲ 5 min
Heat the oil to 180°C (a bit of dough should sizzle right away).
⏲ 5 min
Pipe 10–12cm lengths, snipping with scissors, into the oil (don't crowd the pan).
⏲ 2 min
Fry until golden brown and crisp, 2–3 minutes, then drain on paper towels.
⏲ 3 min
While hot, roll in the cinnamon sugar. Warm the chocolate with the milk for a dip and serve.
⏲ 2 min

Variations

Filled churros: Pipe thicker and fill with custard or chocolate.
Churros con dulce de leche: Dip in dulce de leche or caramel.
Air-fryer: Air-fry at 200°C for a lighter version.
Thin sticks vs thick loops: Shape them however you like.

Tips

Add the flour all at once to the boiling liquid and stir fast to avoid lumps.
Beat in the egg only after the dough cools so it doesn't scramble.
Keep the oil at 180°C — too low and they're greasy, too high and the centers stay raw.
Pipe with a star tip for ridges that crisp up best.
Roll in cinnamon sugar while hot so it sticks.

More detail and the reasons why (4)

The same paste as an éclair, the opposite result. The paste is made almost identically — flour cooked in boiling liquid, then eggs. Churros are fried into a crisp-shelled stick; an éclair is baked, and the steam pushes the inside out to leave a hollow shell. Among fried doughs, churros are a solid crisp stick that does not inflate, doughnuts rise on gas the yeast made in advance, and youtiao does its rising inside the oil.
So the star tip is not decoration, it is the answer to not inflating. In an oven the heat arrives from one side and slowly, and the shell stays soft long enough for steam to blow a cavity. At 180°C the surface sets on contact, all the way round, before any of that can happen — so the inside stays dense and the crust has to come from surface area instead. Ridges are how a solid stick gets more of it.
Which is also why the temperature window is narrow in both directions. Too low and the shell does not set fast enough to keep oil out, and a dough this wet takes on a great deal of it; too high and the shell is finished while the paste behind it is still raw (deep frying). There is no gas structure inside to give you a second chance, which is the forgiveness a yeasted doughnut has and this does not.
The cinnamon sugar goes on hot because there is nothing sticky to hold it. The surface is dry and crisp by design; what makes the sugar stick is the film of oil still warm on it, and it stops working within a minute or two of cooling.

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