Churros con Chocolate Poblano

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart pot for frying
• •Deep-fry thermometer
• •Cloth pastry bag with large closed-star tip
• •Kitchen scissors
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Heavy saucepan for the chocolate
• •Talavera plate and small talavera cups

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the dough

   Combine the water, 1/2 cup milk, butter, 1 tablespoon sugar, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring it to a full boil over medium heat. The butter must be completely melted before the flour goes in. This is the base of the choux dough, and if the liquid is shy, the flour will clump.

2. 2

   Cook the flour

   Add the flour all at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon. The dough will look rough at first, then pull together into one thick mass. Keep cooking and stirring for 2 minutes, until a thin film forms on the bottom of the pan and the dough smells faintly toasted. That little bit of cooking removes the raw flour taste.

3. 3

   Beat in eggs

   Transfer the dough to a bowl and let it cool for 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing fully after each addition. Add the vanilla. The dough should be thick, glossy, and stubborn enough to hold a ridge. If it pours, it is too loose. Churro dough should make you work a little.

4. 4

   Prepare the coating

   Mix the 3/4 cup sugar with the canela in a shallow dish. Use true canela if you can find it, the brittle Mexican cinnamon sold in loose curls at the mercado. Cassia cinnamon is harsher. It works, but it is a compromise, not an upgrade.

5. 5

   Heat the oil

   Heat the oil in a heavy pot to 365F. Use a thermometer. Guessing with frying oil is how people burn churros outside and leave them raw in the center. Fit a pastry bag with a large closed-star tip, about 1/2 inch wide, and fill it with the warm dough.

   Use a cloth pastry bag if you have one. This dough is stiff and can burst a weak plastic bag. The ridged star tip is not optional.
6. 6

   Pipe and fry

   Pipe 5-inch lengths of dough directly into the oil, cutting each one with scissors. Fry 4 or 5 at a time so the oil temperature does not collapse. Turn them as they cook, 4 to 5 minutes total, until deep golden with crisp ridges. They should sound firm when tapped with the tongs.

7. 7

   Sugar the churros

   Lift the churros onto a wire rack for 30 seconds, then roll them in the cinnamon sugar while the surface is still warm enough to catch it. Do not pile them on paper towels. They will sweat and soften. Fried pastry needs air around it. Así se hace y punto.

8. 8

   Make the chocolate

   Warm the 2 cups milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the chocolate de mesa, dark chocolate, and piloncillo if using. Whisk until the chocolate melts completely. Add the cornstarch slurry and simmer gently for 2 to 3 minutes, whisking, until the chocolate thickens enough to coat a spoon. It should cling to the churro, not disappear into it.

9. 9

   Serve immediately

   Pile the churros on a talavera plate and pour the chocolate into small talavera cups. Serve while the churros are crisp and the chocolate is glossy and thick. Churros wait for nobody. Make the table come to them.

Chef Tips

• •Use Mexican chocolate de mesa, not plain cocoa powder. Ibarra, Abuelita, Mayordomo, or a good market tablet with cacao, sugar, and canela will work. Cocoa powder makes a drink. Chocolate de mesa makes the cup this dish expects.
• •The oil should stay between 350F and 365F. Below that, the churros drink oil. Above that, the ridges darken before the center cooks. A thermometer is not vanity. It is control.
• •Do not skip the star tip. Smooth dough tubes are not churros. The ridges create more surface area, and that is where the crispness lives.
• •If the dough is too stiff to pipe, beat in 1 teaspoon of milk at a time. Do not loosen it carelessly. A weak dough collapses in the oil.
• •This is not a chile dish, and that is the lesson for people who think all Mexican food has to burn. Puebla's sweet kitchen has sugar, canela, cacao, wheat, milk, and discipline. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Advance Preparation

• •The cinnamon sugar can be mixed several days ahead and kept covered at room temperature.
• •The chocolate can be made up to 2 days ahead, refrigerated, and reheated gently with a splash of milk until smooth.
• •The dough can be cooked through the flour stage up to 4 hours ahead. Beat in the eggs only before frying, while the dough is at room temperature.
• •Fried churros are best the day they are made. To refresh leftovers, warm them on a rack in a 350F oven for 6 to 8 minutes, then roll again in a little cinnamon sugar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 75g)