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Gluten Free Churros

Back in early March, Alta from Tasty Eats at Home posted a Gluten-Free Churro recipe for her Kids in the Kitchen series.  When I saw them, I knew I had to make some for Sam.  Churros were his favorite treat before he went gluten-free.  In case you do not know what a Churro is, they are basically deep-fried cinnamon sugar donut sticks.  Similar (at least in theory) to Taco Bell’s Cinnamon Twists, only much, much better.

Here is an excerpt from Wisegeek about Churros:

A churro is Spain’s answer to the donut, a crunchy, deep-fried sweet snack that resembles the horns of the churro sheep. They are popular not only in Spain, where they are often served at breakfast, but also in Mexico, and several other Latin American countries. North Americans are not strangers to churros, which are often found in amusement parks and at county fairs.

Churros are very big in New Mexico.  They are present at every major family event, whether it’s a baseball game, the fair, the Balloon Fiesta, you name it and they are there, teasing Sam with the sweet aroma of hot cinnamon and sugar.

I actually used a different recipe than Alta’s, but only because I am between flour shipments.  I went with a recipe that called for All Purpose flour instead, so it was easy to replace with what little Better Batter Gluten Free Flour I have left.  The following recipe is adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications, Ultimate Mexican edition.  I have to tell you, there are some AMAZING looking recipes in this magazine, so be on the lookout for it.  Ultimate Mexican should be on stands until July 13, 2010.

Cinnamon Churros (Click the link for the original gluten recipe)

1 cup Water

1/3 cup Butter (I used Smart Balance, so dairy-free Earth Balance will work just as well)

2 Tbs. packed Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 cup Better Batter Gluten Free Flour (if you use a different GF flour blend, be sure to include Xanthan Gum)

1 Egg

1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Oil for Frying

Cinnamon Sugar Topping

1/4 cup Granulated Sugar

3/4 tsp. ground Cinnamon

  • In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, brown sugar, and salt. Bring to boiling over medium heat
  • Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan.
  • Remove from heat. Cool for 10 minutes.
  • Add egg and vanilla, beating well with a wooden spoon.
  • Transfer mixture to a decorating bag fitted with a large star tip. (Note: I first tried this with a disposable pastry bag and the thick dough blew a hole in the side of the bag.  I would recommend using a real pastry bag or even a Freezer Ziploc bag.  For the Star Tip, I used a 1M Star Tip, these can also be found at craft stores).
  • Line a baking sheet waxed paper.
  • Pipe 4×1-inch logs onto prepared baking sheet.
  • Heat 3 inches of oil in a deep saucepan to 375 degrees F.
  • Fry a few logs at a time in deep hot oil about 2 minutes or until golden brown on both sides, turning once.
  • Drain on paper towels.
  • Keep warm in a 300 degree F oven while cooking remaining churros.
  • In a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon.
  • Roll warm churros in cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat.
  • Serve warm.

Makes about 20 churros.

When Sam came home from school and saw them, he faux-fainted, LOL! 😀

Comments

  1. I love churros! I remember making them in Spanish class!

  2. Wow! Those look perfect. And, no play dough tools needed? LOL.

  3. umm, heidi — your blog looks Uh-MAZING!!! Great re-design!!

    i loooove churros. yum. i'll add these to the list, but I need to make GF donut holes first!

    • Thanks Allie! The churros were super simple to make. I have only made them once, using Better Batter… but the dough was very easy to handle, not sticky at all. 🙂

  4. Oh my goodness!!! THANK YOU!!! For posting this. I'm drooling over it as we speak. These are my favorite treat when we would go to Disney World. I miss them so much! Can't wait to try this out on my family!

  5. These look fantastic. I love the way you piped them! So professional!

    ~Ellen

    • Thank you Ellen, I was worried about piping them, but they were actually pretty easy with a vinyl pastry bag. Using the Better Batter made the piped dough easy to pick up to drop in the hot oil. Not sure how well other GF Flour blends will work, but I plan on experimenting soon! 🙂

      • Just tried your recipe with Trader Joe's gf pancake and waffle mix. The end results was so amazing I literally could not taste the difference between gluten free and non-gf all purpose flour. I had to go gf last December when I was diagnosed with celiac. So I've been slowly adapting recipes of dishes and baked goods I love to cook. I discovered that other possible key ingredients for successful GF churros is a flour blend that includes baking soda and cream of tartar. We tried the Pamela's gf brand last night and there was no dough expansion in the oil. With TJ's pre-blended brand this morning that included the baking soda and tartar, the churros puffed up. End result was crispy/crunchy outside, soft chewy inside. Thank you so much!!! 🙂

  6. Heidi – you are killing me with this recipe….I'm totally trying to cut WAY back on carbs. Then King Arthur brownie (and all other mixes) arrive so I make brownies. They are killer! Now I want to make gf churros with the Jules flour. Maybe the fact that I don't own a pasty bag will keep me from doing it…lol!

    • Tiffany, LOL! I know what you mean… I took one bite, then licked a few more! I gotta watch the carbs as well, but a *little* sugar joy here and there is good for the soul! ;0)

      I have yet to sample the King Arthur GF products, but can't wait!

  7. Wow, yours look SO good. Gorgeous! Yum!

  8. I remember when Alta made those churros. These look just as fabulous!

  9. Alta,

    Thanks! Yours look great too, my other flours should be here any day and I am trying your recipe next, especially now that I know they are easy to make! :0)

  10. These look so good! Thanks for posting them, I've actually never tried making them but used to enjoy eating them, so I'll have to give these a try

  11. just made these for an after school treat for my son. They were so easy to make and so good. Fried dough is good with and without gluten . Yum. I just used 3/4 cup brown rice flour, 1/4 cup potato starch flour and 1/4 tsp xanthum gum.. Turned out awesome!! Thanks so much

  12. I tried these last night using Kinnikinnick Pancake and Waffle mix for the flour. Also used a dairy free butter spread. i decided not to add the egg at the end because the mix has whole egg powder in it. The aroma of the dough was wonderful already so i didn't feel it needed the vanilla either. They came out incredible! Just like the ones from Costco. I used the Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator to pipe the dough. It was the perfect tool because it's a tube like a cookie press. It came with the large star tip too! These were the easiest gluten free dessert I've made in a long time. We'll definitely be making these again!

  13. These are SO good! My kids didn’t even realize they were gf:).

  14. These were amazing!! Even my non GF family loved them! Thank you for sharing them, I’m sharing them with a link back too. 🙂

Trackbacks

  1. […] celery for “Ants on a Log.”  I also used my wide star tip, the #1M to pipe out the GF Churros I made […]

  2. […] edition, which is on newstands until July 13th.  This is the same magazine where I found the Churros recipe.  There are A LOT of naturally gluten-free recipes in this magazine and those that are not, are […]

  3. […] remembered that Heidi had posted a Churro recipe not that long ago.  I went to her page, found the recipe and realized I had everything I needed to make them.  Well I had everything I needed ingredients […]

  4. […] from Live Free, Gluten Free adopted Heidi from Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom and made her Gluten Free Churros. Paula notes, “Before our diet change I never would have thought to make something like this, […]

  5. […] again Josiah has blessed our taste buds! He did some research and found a great recipe for Gluten-free Churros.  Usually these type of recipes with multiple steps seem daunting to me, but he whipped them up […]