Crunchy Chewy Curros with Dulce de Leche Caramel Sauce

When my friend told me she was having a Mexican themed dinner I couldn't help but want to make these puppies.  They have been on my 'to-do' list FOREVER so when the opportunity came up I jumped!  First thing I did was some research and I came across slews of articles and blogs on exploding churros ... yup, you heard me correctly... exploding!!  I got scared, so I started googling 'ways to avoid exploding churros' and found out that it has a lot to do with the temperature of the oil ...  if you don't have a deep fryer (like me) get yourself a good thermometer.  It will save you from this fate.

Unfortunately I made these in kind of a hurry so I don't have any pictures of the process, but I will describe it the best way I can.

Here's the recipe:  (I doubled it to serve 6 people)

1 cup water

2 1/2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 quarts oil for frying 

1/2 cup white sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon for coating

Original recipe is posted here on Allrecipes.com

Step 1:

In a heavy saucepan, add your oil and heat to 375 degrees F.  Don't heat it more than that, or you will be the victim of exploding churros.  While the oil is heating, put the 1/2 cup sugar and the 1 tsp cinnamon onto a plate and keep it aside.

Step 2:

In a smaller saucepan add the water, 2 1/2 Tbsp. of sugar, and salt.  Bring the mixture to a boil then remove from the heat.  Add the flour.  It will be a mixture that will look like mashed potatoes but thick enough to make a ball out of ... kind of like playdough.

Step 3:

I put this mixture into a cookie press with the small star tip.  If you don't have a cookie press you can use a pastry bag with a medium sized star tip.  I wouldn't make them too big or the inside will be raw while the outside is crispy.  I'm a little afraid of hot oil so I put some wax paper down on the counter and piped the dough onto that first instead of straight into the hot oil.  

Step 4:

Place the strips into the oil ( I did about 7 at a time), fry until golden brown.  When they're done, take them out and toss them into the sugar and cinnamon mixture.  Then place them on some paper towel to soak up any excess oil.

Congratulations, you've now made curros!!

You can serve them with a chocolate sauce, but I decided to serve it with a dulce de leche caramel sauce which was ridiculously good if I do say so myself.

Here's the recipe for the caramel sauce:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup cream (you can use half and half or heavy cream)

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1/2 can dulce de leche (I used Eagle Brand, you can find it next to the condensed milk)

1/2 tsp salt (if you used salted butter you can omit this)

1 tsp vanilla

Step 1:

In a medium heavy saucepan add the sugar, cream butter and dulce de leche.  Heat on medium.  Keep it on a rolling boil for 5 minutes ( you really just need everything to be melted together) and remove it from the heat.  Then you can add your vanilla.  There, you're done.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can change pretty much anything you like .. if you want it to be thinner, add more cream. If you like more dulce de leche flavour, add more.  It's extremely forgiving.  You can even add more cream after it has started to cool if you think it is getting too thick for you.... or more salt if you want to make it more of a salted caramel sauce.  Have fun with it.