EL_211_AB_OL_SU20_Project#2 Baked Mini Churros

The following instructional describes the process of baking mini churros from scratch. It will take you through the preparation process and finish with a cinnamon coating finale. Baking is a great way to create and helps manage the ingredients going into your treats for easy nutritional knowledge. Churros are a loved fairground and amusement park food and this instruction set will show how to recreate these at home. However, many fairground churros are deep fried and therefore not as good for you. With this baked recipe, you will recreate this treat in a healthier way and you don’t need to wait in any long lines to get them!

The steps in this instructional will begin with preparation of tools and ingredients you will need, along with instructions on heating and managing the hot kitchen. Below you will find simple step procedures that trace your route to churro delight. The overall baking process with prep and completion took about 1 hour. This recipe makes roughly 30 mini churros and all graphics are original images in this baking process. Tips, warnings and notes, or baking vocabulary terms, will be provided to help you stay safe and make your baking process more efficient.

Gather ingredients and tools you will need:

Ingredients:

● 1 cup of cold water

● 1⁄3 cup softened butter

● 2 tablespoons brown sugar

● 1 cup all-purpose flour

● 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

● 2 raw eggs

● Piping bag

● Pastry nozzle (a coupler nozzle was used in this demo)

● Cinnamon sugar, to coat

● Chocolate, melted, to taste Tip: 1⁄3 cup butter is 5 1⁄3 tablespoons of stick butter. Do not melt butter before measuring.

Tools:

● Stove top (electric stove)

● Baking oven (this demo used a Kenmore oven)

● Saucepan (this demo shows a 2 quart pot)

● Mixing bowl

● Wooden spoon

● Microwave safe bowls for butter

● 2 Cooking sheets (this demo used 10x13in.)

● Parchment paper (cut to match pan size, 10x13in.)

Lay out all ingredients above before beginning. Finish your prep by preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).

Heat the pot to medium heat on stovetop.

Melt the butter and brown sugar in the water and bring to aboil.

**Note: Boil describes when the ingredients are bubbling at the surface of the pot.

**Tip: Keep stirring all ingredients in the pot with a wooden spoon to avoid burning.

Mix ingredients (butter and brown sugar) into a pot on the stove, adding them slowly and mixing along the way.

**Tip: Once ingredients boil, remove from the hot stove and place on heating pad to add next ingredients:

**Warning: Boiled water is now very hot, use caution when handling boiling water. You may want to wear an oven mitt for added protection.

Stir in flour slowly making sure it’s well mixed. No white flour remanence should remain.

**Tip: Turn off the heat source and place the pot back on the warm stove. Do not add any extra heat to the pot. The heat from the stove before will help to mix the next ingredients:

● Mix in vanilla extract

● Add in 2 eggs and beat/whisk until they are blended into the batter

**Note: Beating/whisking eggs involves whipping an egg, usually with a fork, until all of the yolk has blended.

Step number 7 will show the process of how to prepare a piping bag (in this case a ziplock bag) for the batter and attack a pastry nozzle to the end. This step involves putting the churro dough into a bag and cutting one of the corners to attach a pastry nozzle. This sounds intimidating, but we will walk through the steps:

a) Cut a small corner on the bottom of the bag

b) Place the bottom piece of the pastry nozzle inside the bag, poking it out of the small hole

c) Attach the second part of the nozzle by screwing/twisting the top piece of the nozzle around the outside of the bag

This step explains how to add the churro dough into the piping bag.

a) Place the piping bag (in this demo we used a zip lock bag instead) into a cup.

**Tip: This bag broke many times! Avoid our mistakes by using a pastry bag instead.

b) Place dough into the bag using the cup for support.

**Warning: It smells good, but don’t eat anything with raw eggs in it, cook first!

c) Twist the top of the bag to keep dough inside and cut a small whole in the bottom corner of the bag to place a pastry nozzle on the end.

d) Attach pastry nozzle to the end of the bag by putting the first part of the nozzle inside of the bag, and the second twists around the bag on the outside.

**Tip: This was our user error by placing the dough in the bag before attaching the nozzle. Ensure your efficiency by cutting the bag and attaching the nozzle, then adding the dough.

Step number 9 will show how to pipe the batter into strips and place them into the oven to bake. The oven should be heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius)

● Pipe out thick 3-inch (8 cm) strips of churro batter onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

**Note: Piping dough is to squeeze dough or batter through a pastry nozzle attached to the end of a piping bag.

**Tip: Use a knife to cut edges of batter to make your churro sticks look cleaner.

**Warning: Use caution when handling knives.

This step will make your kitchen start to smell like a fairground. But be patient and wait until they are completely baked.

● Bake using 2 racks of the oven for 10 minutes

● Rotate cooking sheets to evenly bake

**Tip: Rotate cooking sheets from top to bottom and vice versa for about 5 minutes each to ensure both sheets are evenly baked.

● After baking, broil churros until golden brown. The churros in this demo broiled for 7 minutes.

**Note: Broil involves setting oven to “broil” and leaving oven door slightly cracked open

**Warning: It’s hot! Use a baking glove when removing from the oven.

“Coat and Cover” involves coating the baked churros with melted butter and covering them in brown sugar.

a) Melt 3 tablespoons of stick butter in a microwave safe dish for 40 seconds

b) To make cinnamon sugar: Add 1⁄2 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, mix well

c) Dip churros into butter and cover in cinnamon sugar

**Tip: Place churros into butter, but use a spoon to cover them in cinnamon sugar to avoid making the sugar soggy.

This is the final process in baking mini churros. Your hard work has paid off and you can now enjoy your baked treat!

a) Melt chocolate in microwave safe dish for 30 seconds

b) Dip in nutella or caramel sauce

**Optional: Sprinkle powdered sugar for extra sweetness!