Time to indulge in Spanish churros

Café La Churro is serving these crispy delights.

LAHORE:

If you love desserts, then you know what churros are. But for those who don’t, a churro is a Spanish delight — a crunchy, deep-fried sweet snack that is similar to a donut. They look like large French fries but taste nothing like them. Dusted with either sugar or cinnamon, these pieces of fried dough are served with a rich chocolate dipping sauce. Recently, a café serving fresh churros was discovered in Lahore as The Express Tribune ventured out on the hunt for new food.

“We serve these Spanish donuts with Belgian chocolate — we only use Callebaut,” says Khalid Butt, owner of Café La Churro which is located in DHA DD market. “To me, churros are more like jalebis to the Spanish.”

An engineer by profession, Butt mastered his baking skills while he was working in Australia. As his passion grew, he decided it was time to move back to Lahore and open his own bakery. “This is a new break for me in my career and nothing gives me more pleasure than baking,” he adds.

A combination of Max Brenner and other chocolate cafes, Café La Churro is a small intimate place where you can indulge yourself in mouth-watering churros. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, this scrumptious dessert can be dipped in three different kinds of dipping sauces: white, milk or dark chocolate. This heavenly delight is an absolute must-try.

However, if you want to stir up your own churros at home, then follow Martha Stewart’s recipe below:

Home-made churros



•  1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

•  2 tbsp granulated sugar

•  1/4 tsp coarse salt

•  One cup all-purpose flour

•  Three large eggs

•  Vegetable oil (for frying)

•  Confectioners’ sugar (for dusting)

Directions

•  Combine one cup of water, butter, sugar and salt in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

•  Then reduce the heat to low, sift in the flour and stir for one minute.

•  Next, you will need an electric mixer: Transfer the flour mixture into a bowl then on low speed, add eggs (one at a time). Put the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a large open-star tip.

•  Heat oil (four to five inches deep in a fry pan) till the temperature registers at 325 degrees — use a deep-fry thermometer to be sure. Hold the pastry bag a few inches above the oil and squeeze the batter out, snipping off four-inch long churros with a knife or kitchen shears.

•  Fry the churros till they are golden brown; flip them over after four minutes and fry the other side till they’re golden-brown as well.

•  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the churros to a paper towel-lined baking sheet to let the excess oil drain out.

•  Roll them in confectioners’ sugar and serve right away with a chocolate dipping sauce (optional).

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2012.          

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