Churros

Is there anything more delightful than a hot crispy churro, coated in cinnamon and sugar, fresh from a Disneyland churro stand? I think not.

I have loved churros for as long as I can remember. In fact, when I was in junior high and happened to visit multiple amusement parks on a frequent basis (for whatever reason), I did a comparison of churros from Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Six Flags Magic Mountain. I analyzed texture, flavor, and price. Disneyland won for the texture and flavor, but Knott's Berry Farm came a close second, and was also the cheapest of the three. Magic Mountain was right out.

"Churro" is the first word I ever discovered missing from an English dictionary, and at Disneyland I can smell a churro cart a mile away (or at least before I see it).

Elegyrl knows how much I love churros. One time, she purchased a churro from Disneyland just as she left, drove home, vacuum-sealed the churro, and mailed it to me. I wish I could say it tasted as magically delicious as it would have at the park, but it was pretty hilarious anyway.

Another time, Elegyrl sent me a box churro mix, which I brought with me on one of my visits to Tuffett manor. Queen Tuffett consented to allow me to make the churros in her kitchen, and together we whipped up the mix. The resulting dough was incredibly thick and stiff, but neither of us was sure whether it was supposed to be that way or not, so we left it alone, trusting to the directions.

The churro mix came with a plastic pastry bag and pastry tip so the dough could be squeezed out into its typical churro shape. I had pressed about 4 inches of a churro through the tip when the bag blew a hole. Queen Tuffett and I fixed up the bag and tried again, but it blew another hole. It was just no use--the dough was too thick.

Then I had a brilliant idea. I asked Queen Tuffett if her children had any Play-Doh presses, and she said they did. I chose carefully from the various shapes and settled on a star to start with:

Amazingly, it worked. The hard plastic held up against the force of the dough (though some still squeezed out the sides), and the churro-making commenced in earnest. Hurrah!

Here is a comparison of the original box-mix-pressed churro (on the right) and the Play-Doh-pressed churro (left):

My favorite part--the sugar-coating:

Finished products (I know, they look like French fries):

They didn't taste nearly as good as the churros at Disneyland, but they were still pretty scrumptious. I ate way too many of them, at any rate.

Ah, I need to go to Disneyland again. It has been far too long since my last churro encounter.