Easy to make heart-shaped churros covered in a pink cinnamon sugar and served with a thick chocolate sauce. A perfect fluffy and crunchy treat for Valentine’s day or any day of the year.
Most probably you’ve had churros sometime in your life. This Spanish recipe is popular worldwide as a decadent breakfast or a treat to enjoy especially in cold days. In fact, whenever I go to Spain I make it a point to have churros at least ones, although, to be honest, I always end up having them more than once. The best churros I’ve ever had were from Chocolatería San Ginés in Madrid! They were just perfect, warm chewy but at the same time still fluffy. Also, the chocolate which came with them was amazing, thick and dense! In fact, as I can’t manage to recreate exactly their same churros recipe at home, at least I can enjoy the hot chocolate, as the one I’m sharing here is based on theirs.
Heart-shaped Churros
The base recipe for churros is always the same as if you’re making a choux pastry. Normally, when the dough is ready, you just need to pipe it in straight lines directly in the hot oil. However, as for this recipe they are heart shaped, you have to pipe them on previously cut parchment paper and then place them in the oil and fry them.
Thick chocolate sauce
To go with these churros I made a thick chocolate sauce, as it goes so perfect with them. If you want to make this a more drinkable chocolate, I suggest that you add 50ml more milk at a time until you get your desired consistency. However, for the churros always make a thick chocolate sauce which isn’t too runny. Apart from avoiding any mess, thicker sauce sticks better to churros and makes your treat way tastier!
Heart-shaped churros
Ingredients
Churros
- 250 ml water 1 cup
- 28 g butter 2 tbsp
- 140 g flour 1 cup
- 25 g sugar 2 tbsp
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Pink cinnamon sugar coating
- 25 g sugar 2 tbsp
- 8 g cinnamon 1 tbsp
- a drop of red food colouring
Thick hot chocolate sauce
- 250 ml milk 1 cup
- 100 g chocolate
- 10 g cornstarch 1 1/3 tbsp
Instructions
For the pink sugar coating
- In a small bowl mix the sugar with a drop of red food colouring. Mix well until the sugar is all the same shade of pink. Place the sugar on a plate and let it dry completely (this may take some hours). Once the sugar is dry mix in the cinnamon and set aside.
For the thick hot chocolate sauce
- In a small bowl mix together 50ml of milk and the cornstarch to create a thick paste. Set aside.
- Add the remaining milk to a saucepan and bring to a simmer on medium heat. Once the milk is hot add the chocolate and let it melt. Add the paste to the saucepan and mix it constantly so that it doesn't form any clumps. Serve immediately.
For the churros
- Cut several parchment papers into squares about 8x8cm and set aside.
- In a medium sized saucepan, place the butter, water, vanilla, sugar and salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once it starts to boil remove from the heat. Add the flour all at once, and mix well with a wooden spoon until the flour is combined in the wet mixture.
- Return the saucepan back on the stove on medium heat and let it cook while constantly stirring for 2 minutes. Do not move away from this process!
- Transfer the cooked dough to a large bowl or to your mixer, let it cool for a couple of minutes. Once slightly cooled, start adding the eggs one at a time, mix and make sure that each egg is fully incorporated in the dough before adding another. If the dough starts to divide after adding the egg, no worries, it's normal, just keep beating.
- Fill a large pot with vegetable oil, pour enough oil so that the churros have enough space to cook in, about 7 cm. Heat the oil to about 170°C; you want the oil to be hot enough so that you reduce the cooking time avoiding that they get soggy, but at the same time you don't want the oil too hot that it burns the outside and leaves the inside raw.
- Place the dough in a piping bag, fitted with an open star nozzle. Pipe out the hearts on the previously cut parchment papers. Drop the churro with the parchment paper facing up in the oil. Once it's starting to cook remove the parchment paper and let the churro continue to cook for about 2 minutes on each side, until they are nicely golden in colour.
- Drain the churros from excess oil on some paper towels, dip them into the cinnamon sugar. Serve them with the thick hot chocolate sauce.
If you have any questions, feedback or comments on this recipe, please leave a comment below. Please also rate this recipe by double clicking on the stars below. If you did make this recipe, tag @apronandwhisk and hashtag #apronandwhisk, as I’m curious to see what you create!
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