Churros & Cream Puffs | 2-in-1 Recipe
When I started my first food blog in college nearly 10 years ago, one of the first recipes I shared was for cream puffs. I very quickly realized that cream puffs and churros use the same type of dough—choux pastry. You just deep fry the dough to make churros, and bake to make cream puffs! The piping tip can vary, but anyway—
I’m aware that many people know this already but just as my mind was blown when I came to the realization, perhaps I can help some of you blow your minds too!
Since then, I've figured out the ratios for a choux pastry dough recipe that works for both fried churros and baked cream puffs. That’s what I’m sharing with you today.
For your reference there are a few recipes within this recipe which I’m linking for you here:
Whipped Cream (2 portions for this cream puff recipe)
Cinnamon Sugar (2 portions for this churro recipe)
Spiced Chocolate Dipping Sauce (2 portions for this churro recipe)
Ingredients (Choux Pastry Dough)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
130g (1 cup) of flour
3 large eggs, room temperature
Recipe
Heat the water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt over medium heat.
When the mixture comes up to a boil, lower the heat or remove the pan from the heat. Pour in the flour and then return the pot to medium-low heat. Don’t stop stirring!
Cook the dough for 2-3 minutes (to cook the flour). When it leaves a film on the bottom of the pan, it’s ready to be removed from heat.
Set the pot on a heatproof surface (coaster will work). Add one egg to the dough and stir with a large wooden spoon.
When the first egg is fully incorporated (see 1:37 in the video), add the second egg and repeat. Add the third/final egg and repeat.
When the dough holds soft peaks, it’s ready to go in a piping bag!
For Cream Puffs
Preheat your oven to 425°F.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. To help it stick/stay down, you can smear some of the choux pastry on each underside corner of the parchment paper. It’ll act as a glue.
Insert a large round tip (such as the Wilton 1A tip) into a piping bag (to this day, I use a giant ziploc bag). Fill the piping bag with the choux pastry and twist it at the top.
Hold your piping bag so the tip is about 1/2 inch from the baking sheet. With steady pressure, squeeze without moving the piping tip. The round will form on its own around the tip and when it’s as big as you want it (about 1.5-2 inches wide), release pressure on the piping bag and carefully lift while swirling in a flicky motion. This lift + flick/swirl will prevent an odd peak from forming and will minimize any points on top of the cream puffs.
To smooth out the tops of the cream puffs, wet your finger with some cold water and press gently on any lumps or pointy parts.
Optional: You can put an egg wash on the tops of the cream puffs at this point, before baking. I forgot to when filming and they still turned out well!
Bake the cream puffs for 10 minutes at 425°F and then reduce the temperature to 325°F for 10 minutes. Don’t open the oven door at any point! This change in temperature is important. The steam will form quicker from the high temperature (poofing the puff), and then the puff will hold its shape better from the drop in temperature.
Let the puffs cool completely before filling them with cream. You can fill them one of two ways: by poking a hole in the underside (using a toothpick, knife, anything pointy) and piping the cream into them; or you can carefully slice them ‘hamburger style’ to create little cream filled PacMan/Men. You can also dip the tops of the filled cream puffs into melted chocolate!
For Churros
Heat up 2 inches of oil in a heavy bottom pot (I used a Stab cocotte but even a wok will work) over medium heat.
Insert a METAL rounded star tip (such as the Wilton 2D tip) into a piping bag. Fill the bag with the choux pastry and twist it at the top to create a piping cone.
When your oil is heated (I used the wooden-stick-trick), get a pair of food-safe scissors or a knife ready. Hold the piping bag 6-8 inches above the level of the oil. Squeeze with steady pressure until the churro is your preferred length/size. Snip the churro right as you stop squeezing the pastry bag (I wish I had gotten a close up shot of this for the video!).
Keep piping and snipping the churros directly into the hot oil until the pan is mostly full. You don’t want to overcrowd the pot, especially because the churros will expand and fluff up as they fry.
While the first batch fries, set up a cooling rack over top of a baking sheet to allow for some of the oil from the freshly fries churros to drain. A simple paper towel set up will work too, but the cooling rack will help when we shake off the excess cinnamon sugar. Also get a wide bowl ready with your cinnamon sugar.
Flip the frying churros when they’re golden brown on the first side. After another 3-4 minutes, they should be ready to go.
With a spider skimmer or slotted spoon, remove the churros that are done and set them on your cooling rack/paper towel.
Once all the churros are removed from the pot, go ahead and pipe the second batch into the hot oil.
Cinnamon sugar time! You can either sprinkle the cinnamon sugar onto the churros (this is where the baking sheet underneath will help), flip the churros, and repeat; OR you can toss and shake the churros in your bowl of cinnamon sugar to coat them. This latter method will likely result in some crumbles from oil droplets mixing with the cinnamon sugar. So if you want to reuse the cinnamon sugar at a later time, I recommend the sprinkle method.
Serve on their own or with spiced chocolate dipping sauce!
