Churros with Chocolate Sauce

Somebody start building the ark.

Thunder. Lightning. Floods. School cancelled. Bombs, shooting, and lock down all over the television. Sometimes you just have to bury your head in cinnamon sugar and whip up the churros. File this one under #distractionbydeepfrying.

Churros with Chocolate Sauce
adapted from Yum Food and Fun for Kids

For the churros
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 & 1/3 cups granulated sugar, divided
4 tbsp canola oil plus 2 quarts for frying
2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the chocolate sauce
4 ounces high quality chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream

Combine 2 cups of water, salt, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 4 tbsp oil in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once the mixture boils, pull it off the heat. Stir in the flour until the dough pulls together and cools slightly. 

Scoop the dough into a pastry bag. If you have a lovely star shaped tip, this is the time to use it. Your churros will be extra lovely and have that characteristic striated look. If you don't have a star tip, or like me, you do have a star tip but can't seem to find it amidst the kitchen drawer chaos, just go ahead and snip the tip off the bag. Round churros taste super too, trust me.

 Pour 2 quarts of canola oil into a deep pot and heat to 375 degrees.

Carefully pipe strips of dough into the hot oil. Turn and fry until golden brown, about one minute. Drain on paper towels.

In a bowl or zip top plastic bag, combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon. While the churros are still warm, add them to the cinnamon sugar mixture and toss or shake to coat.

 Serve with chocolate sauce (below).

To make the chocolate sauce, combine the chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30 second intervals until chocolate is melted and pliable. Whisk the chocolate into the cream until thick and delicious. Serve alongside hot churros.

What chocolate?

Intro to Fried Dough

 Ever wonder what to do with leftover pizza dough?

We had make-you-own pizza night not so long ago. As usual the kids had fun beating dough into submission with their fists, popping air bubbles, spreading sauce, picking toppings and throwing mozzarella around the kitchen. Looly, our resident artist, made this cute owl out of black olive rings and fresh basil.

All in all a good night, but in the morning we were left with a puffy ball of unused pizza dough in the fridge. Sure we could have made calzones for lunch or baked it into bread or crackers, but I had a better idea. I wanted to show to the kids how food can transform drastically depending on how you prepare it, thus illustrating my point that they shouldn't say they don't like a food after trying it prepared any single way. Fried dough, anyone?

Easy Fried Dough (from pizza dough)

1 pound pizza dough
Enough canola or vegetable oil to fill a large heavy bottomed pot about 1-2 inches (about 2 cups, depending on the size of your pot)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon

1. Heat the oil to 350 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Cut pizza dough into desired shapes. We made little doughnut holes and I rolled out some longer strips and fused the ends together to make mini doughnuts.
2. Drop dough (fry same size pieces together) in batches into the hot oil. Fry, turning occasionally until all sides are golden brown and the dough floats to the top of the oil. Remove fried dough from the oil and drain on several layers of paper towels.
3. Place powdered sugar in bowl. Combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Toss the warm fried dough in desired toppings, which is the perfect job for helpful, hungry kids.

So, it's fried dough. It's warm and crispy and gooey and sweet and delicious. And my kids didn't like it. Well, most of them didn't like it. Looly deemed it too sweet and asked for a banana instead, though she did enjoy licking powdered sugar straight out of the bowl. Roo was not a fan. He is typically more of a salty kind of guy. Bean though, was nearly as big a fan as her parents, which is why we ended up throwing away half the batch while we could still save ourselves. Really good stuff. In moderation.