Walking through the streets of Spain, you will find Spanish Churros on literally every corner. Here’s a simple recipe for a sweet treat, made complete by the chocolate sauce the accompanies them.
My mom is a true Cuban mother in so many ways, but a lot in the way that sugar is not really a sweet or a dessert. It’s a food you eat, but by no means it is reserved so a special occasion or for after dinner. Sugar is for all occasions.
My grandfather, in his 80’s , who lived alone, would sneak spoonfuls of sugar from the sugar bowl, looking over his should to prevent from getting caught.
I have so many stories and examples of justifying what many people would call "dessert." The rationalizations that Cubans can come up with for why they are eating a pastry or flan at odd times, they are numerous.
My mom tries announcing it, saying, “I’m having my on dessert for the week.” Does anyone believe this? No. Actually, that’s not true, she does. If you don’t call it dessert, than it isn’t a dessert, right?
My aunts secret to great coffee? You put sugar in the grounds, brew it, then add more sugar. The amount of caffine and sugar in a Cuban coffee literally sends people to the emergency room on a regular basis.
All of this to say, my mom always let us have a treat. Friday’s we had a treat after school. There was always unlimited ice cream in the refrigerator. Cotton candy? Is someone selling it, we will have have two.
But wait, our breakfast cereal could only have 10 grams of sugar or less. See, the announcement.
This sounds really bad, probably like an addiction. But honestly, it is no mora an addiction that the Japanese eating rice. The first thing my Father in Law said to me was, “you don’t eat rice everyday?” It’s cultural. It is what you do. I mean honestly, if you know Cubans, everything is over the top. The food, the cakes, the parties, the dancing, the family, the Spanish. It’s fun, all the time.
Another things about Cubans, they love their heritage, meaning, the love the way way back. My mom. Sure, she’s from Cuba. But she is actually from the Canary Islands, and Spain, and Arab. Yes, that is not a grammatical mistake on her part or mine.
The layer under Cuban is Spanish. We eat Spanish foods too. And the best one my mom ever introduced us to, was, in fact, a dessert.
Churros.
There are two things that I remember my parents were really excited to introduce us to. Mozarella sticks at Friday’s, thank God they did, mozzarella sticks truly are manna from heaven, and churros.
She would always order them at whatever random place sold them. Sometimes it was Sam’s club, sometimes it was a random truck. But she would order them and be really excited because they were Spanish.
And oh my gosh, churros are so good!
In college, I was not loving it, and my cousin was studying abroad in Spain. A ticket to fly from tiny Roanoke airport to Madrid was $600 and I jumped on it.
I arrived in Madrid, met up with my cousin, not where she was living, and we immediately went to the worst hostel I have ever stayed in. I do not recommend this place. It is only rivaled by a 1 star hotel I stayed in Volos, Greece, on a mission trip. How I got bed bugs in an airBnb in Barcelona years later and not in this place still mystifies me to this day.
Mold and showers that only dripped water were really what categorized the Madrid hostel, but it was the first time I’d ever stayed in a hostel and I was in Spain. At the time, I had no problem with.
Eventually, we travelled down to Andalucia to Granada to her town and host mother and super pleasant roommate.
It was there that Meg took me to get real Spanish Churros and my life was changed. What in the world.
In Granada, and I am sure in many other places in Spain, they had whole cafés dedicated to serving only churros. We went once and I was hooked. And they serve it with this incredible melted chocolate. I then proceeded to return everyday.
After a few days, her roommate caught on and was appauled, literally appauled by my behavior It sounds like I am exaggerating, I am not. Her exact words to my cousin were, “How are you dealing with having to eat churros everyday?”
The answer for Meg was easy. Who doesn’t love eating authentic Spanish Churros everyday? I certainly did.
So for all the churros in Spain that I am not eating right now, here is a recipe to tide me over. It's simple to make with ingredients you probably already have on hand. If you have a fancy pastry tip like this one, can you create the fancy ridges on the sides of the churros. If not, using a ziplock bag with the corner cut off works just fine as well!
📖 Recipe
Spanish Churros
Description
Walking through the streets of Spain, you will find Spanish Churros on literally every corner. Here’s a simple recipe for a sweet treat, only to be topped off by the chocolate sauce the accompanies them.
Ingredients
Churros
- 2 cups water
- 4 tbsp. butter
- 1 tbsp. sugar + ½ cup sugar
- ¾ tsp. salt
- 2 cup flour
- 1 tbsp. ground Ceylon Cinnamon
- 4 cups olive oil
Chocolate Sauce
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ⅓ cup dark chocolate, chopped
- 1 tbsp. MarnaMaria Spanish Hot Chocolate
Instructions
- Bring water, butter, 1 tbsp. sugar and salt to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Once boiling, remove from heat and using a wooden spoon, beat in flour until combined.
- Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a deep frying pan or dutch oven to 375ºF.
- Place batter into a prepared pastry bag with a large tip (you can alternatively use a plastic bag with a 1-inch hole cut from one corner.)
- Pipe 6-inch long pieces directly into the hot oil and allow churros to fry until golden brown, about 2 - 3 minutes.
- As it cooks, combine the ceylon cinnamon and the remaining sugar in a small bowl,
- Remove from heat and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar while still warm. Serve hot with Spanish Chocolate Sauce.
Spanish Chocolate Sauce
- Heat heavy cream in a saucepan over medium-low heat until bubbles begin to form near the edges of the pot.
- Remove from heat and stir in MarnaMaria Spanish Hot Chocolate blend until smooth.
Leave a Reply