Churro Baskets

Sweet and crispy baskets are made from a pastry popular in Spanish-speaking countries. Churro is choux pastry that is squeezed out of a piping bag directly into hot oil and fried. You can use your muffin molds to give churros the shape of a basket.

Summary

Ingredients

• Milk – 0.75 cup
• Diced butter – 55 g
• Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon.
• Sugar – 5 cup + 2 tblsp.
• Salt – 0.25 teaspoon.
• White wheat flour – 1 cup + more for sprinkling
• Eggs – 4 large pcs.
• Cinnamon – 1 tablespoon.
• Vegetable oil for deep-frying

Filling:

• Berries and whipped cream, or
• Chocolate pudding with bananas, or
• Any ice cream

Instructions

1. Combine the milk with butter, vanilla, 2 tablespoon. of sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over moderately high heat.
2. Reduce the heat down to low and add the flour stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for about 1 minute until the dough comes together into a ball. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool the mass down for 5 minutes.
3. Add the eggs one by one mixing thoroughly after each addition.
4. Transfer the dough to a piping bag with a medium star tip.
5. Flip over the muffin molds, drizzle them generously with cooking spray, and sprinkle with a little flour. Put the dough spirally around each second mold to make baskets of dough (you should get 3 bowls on each mold).
6. Put the molds into the freezer and leave them there for about 3 hours or overnight.
7. Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon together in a medium-sized bowl.
8. Pour 7 cm of oil into a large deep heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat it up to 175°C.
9. Take the molds out of the freezer and use a table knife to separate the dough baskets from the molds.
10. Fry the baskets in the oil for 5-6 minutes so that they sink to the bottom and get filled with the oil until crispy and brown.
11. Flip the baskets over with a skimmer and fry the rim for 2 to 3 minutes. Take them out with a skimmer from the oil and place them on a plate lined with a paper towel to get rid of the excess oil.
12. Coat the baskets in the cinnamon and sugar mixture while they are still warm. Put them back on a plate to cool. Serve the baskets warm with any filling you choose.