Churros Rellenos de Cajeta y Queso de Bola

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart pot or wide cazuela for frying
• •Candy or deep-fry thermometer
• •Piping bag with a large open star tip (1M or similar)
• •Piping bag with a long thin filling tip (bismarck tip)
• •Wooden spoon for the choux
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Fine-toothed grater for the queso de bola

Instructions

1. 1

   Infuse the liquid

   In a heavy saucepan, combine the milk, water, butter, the 2 tablespoons of sugar, salt, cinnamon stick, and orange zest strips. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Let it bubble at the edges for three or four minutes so the canela and orange perfume the liquid. This is the yucateco signature. The orange zest is the same one used in cochinita pibil marinade and in recados across the peninsula. It belongs in the dough.

   Use canela de Ceylan, the soft pale bark you can crumble with your fingers. Cassia, the thick reddish bark sold as cinnamon in most American supermarkets, is the wrong spice for this dough. It will taste hot and woody instead of floral.
2. 2

   Cook the choux

   Fish out the cinnamon stick and the orange zest and discard them. Return the pot to medium heat. Add the flour all at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon. The dough will look ragged for thirty seconds, then come together into a single shaggy ball. Keep stirring and pressing it against the bottom of the pan for two more minutes. A thin film of cooked flour will form on the pan. That film is the signal that the flour is cooked through and the starches are set. Pull the pot off the heat.

3. 3

   Add the eggs

   Let the dough cool for five minutes. If you add the eggs to a too-hot dough they cook into scrambled bits and ruin the texture. Once the dough is warm but not hot, beat in the eggs a little at a time. The dough will look broken at first. Keep beating. It will come together into a smooth, glossy paste thick enough to hold a peak when you lift the spoon. Stir in the vanilla.

4. 4

   Heat the frying fat

   Pour the oil or lard into a heavy pot or wide cazuela. You want at least two inches of depth. Heat to 360F. Lard fries crispier and tastes deeper. Vegetable oil is the modern compromise and works honestly. La manteca es el sabor, but I have eaten churros fried in oil at Mérida bakeries and they were not less yucateco for it. Choose your fat and commit.

   If you do not have a thermometer, drop a small piece of dough into the fat. It should sink halfway, then rise within three seconds with a steady ring of bubbles around it. If it browns immediately the fat is too hot. If it sits at the bottom the fat is too cold.
5. 5

   Pipe and fry the churros

   Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. The ridges from the star tip are what hold the cinnamon sugar coating later. A round tip will fry slick and the sugar will slide off. Pipe four-inch lengths directly into the hot fat, cutting the dough with kitchen scissors at the tip. Fry three or four at a time so the temperature does not crash. Turn them once with a slotted spoon. They are ready when they are deep golden brown and the ridges are dark at the edges, about four minutes total. Drain on a wire rack set over a sheet pan. Never drain on paper towels. The bottom steams and goes soft.

6. 6

   Coat in cinnamon sugar

   While the churros are still hot, toss them in the bowl of granulated sugar mixed with ground canela. The sugar clings to the hot surface and crystallizes. Cold churros will not hold the coating. Work in small batches so they stay hot.

7. 7

   Fill with cajeta

   Warm the cajeta in a small saucepan over low heat just until it loosens enough to flow, about a minute. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a long thin filling tip. Insert the tip into one end of a churro and push gently while squeezing. Stop when you feel resistance. Fill from both ends if the churro is long. The hollow center of a proper choux churro is engineered for this. If your churros came out solid, the eggs were not beaten in long enough.

8. 8

   Crown with queso de bola

   Pile the filled churros on a serving plate and shower them generously with the finely grated queso de bola. The salty Edam against the sweet goat caramel is the contrast that defines this dessert. This is not garnish. This is the dish. Skip the cheese and you have made a Mexico City churro relleno, which is fine, but it is not yucateco. Serve immediately, while the cheese is still loose on top and the churros are still warm. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Queso de bola is non-negotiable. Use the real Dutch Edam wrapped in red wax, not generic mild yellow cheese. The salt content and the sharp finish are what cuts the cajeta. Substituting cheddar or jack will give you something sweet and one-note, which is exactly what this dessert is engineered to avoid.
• •Cajeta de Celaya is the goat's milk version. Coronado is the brand sold across Mexico and most Latin markets carry it. Do not substitute dulce de leche. Cow's milk dulce de leche is sweeter and rounder and lacks the slight tang of goat that pairs with the Edam. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •The star tip matters more than people think. The deep ridges grip the cinnamon sugar coating and give the churro the surface area that crackles when you bite it. A smooth round tip will fry slick and the dessert will lose half its texture.

Advance Preparation

• •The choux dough can be made up to four hours ahead and held at room temperature in the piping bag. Past that, the eggs start to break down and the dough loses its structure.
• •Churros must be fried, coated, filled, and served the same hour. They do not hold. A churro that sits more than thirty minutes after frying goes leathery and the cinnamon sugar weeps. This is a dessert that demands the cook be in the kitchen when the guests are at the table.
• •The cajeta can be warmed and loaded into the piping bag fifteen minutes before serving. The queso de bola should be grated at the last possible moment so it stays dry and loose.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 220g)