NEVER Buy Churros Again, Try This Old Mexican Trick

The bag in your freezer was fried months ago and is asking your oven to fry. It cannot. And the ones you tried at home came out pale and raw because nobody told you the one thing that makes a churro a churro. It is not the recipe, mija. It is the shape. Today I show you what the man at the cart does, and it costs five dollars. 📖 My mother's whole kitchen, every recipe and every measure, one book: berthascookbook THE TRICK, WORD FOR WORD (from page 352 to 353 of La Cocina de Bertha) Makes about 18. About 45 minutes. You need: • 1 cup water • 3 tablespoons butter • 1 tablespoon sugar • 1/4 teaspoon salt • 1 cup all purpose flour • 1 egg • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla • Neutral oil for frying, 2 inches deep in a heavy pot • 1/2 cup sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons ground canela (Mexican cinnamon) • A piping bag with a LARGE STAR TIP. Not optional. This is the trick. 1. Bring the water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil. Dump in ALL the flour at once, turn the heat to low, and stir hard about 1 minute until it forms one smooth ball that pulls off the sides of the pan and leaves a thin film on the bottom. That is the flour cooking. Cooked flour is what makes the dough pipeable and gives the churro its custardy inside. 2. OFF the heat. Let it sit 5 minutes. Egg into hot dough is scrambled egg in your churros. Then beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth and glossy. 3. Load the warm dough into the piping bag with the star tip. Warm dough pipes easy, cold dough fights you. 4. Heat the oil to 350 to 360°F. Heavy pot, no more than half full. No thermometer? A scrap of dough should sizzle at once and rise. Brown in 10 seconds means too hot. Keep the LID next to the stove. If oil ever catches fire, the lid goes on. Never water. 5. Pipe 4 to 5 inch lengths straight into the oil and cut them free with scissors. 3 or 4 at a time, never more. Turn once. 2 to 3 minutes total until deep gold, darker than you think. Pale is the bag. 6. Drain a few seconds, then roll in the canela sugar while HOT. Hot is when the sugar grips. Roll, do not sprinkle. Every ridge fills up. Eat them within the hour. A churro does not keep, it retires. Serve beside Mexican hot chocolate and nobody will mention the cart. WHY THE RIDGES ARE THE RECIPE The star tip multiplies the surface. The outside crisps before the inside overcooks, and every ridge is a little valley for the sugar to sit in. A smooth round churro fries into a pale slug, raw inside or leather outside. IF IT WENT WRONG • Pale and soft: round tip or no tip. Star tip. • Raw in the middle: oil too hot, or piped too thick. Thinner, a little cooler. • Greasy: oil too cold, or you crowded the pot. • Sugar would not stick: they cooled first. Hot is when it grips. • Burst open in the oil: dough too wet. The egg went in hot, or a second egg went in. • Soft after an hour: that is not a failure. That is a churro. Tell me your county, and tell me: cinnamon sugar, cajeta, or the chocolate? Every family has a side. 🧽 The stove after: Clean The Mexican Way → [link to cleaning channel] 🍳 The savory half of my mother's kitchen: Cook The Mexican Way → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEpgRWDUGVu7UaYc7fB1Idw Next Sunday in this kitchen: the conchas. #churros #mexicandesserts #bakethemexicanway