Deep Fried Delight (aka food bloggers rock)
So what are these crazy little sugar-covered, golden brown non-churrosy churros all about? Well, let me tell you…
Early on in the month, I’d been going through my regular food blog reads when I happened across this post over at Matt Bites. Hoboy. Those golden brown nuggets of bliss absolutely won me over, and if that wasn’t enough temptation, there was then the question of that oozy, gooey, sticky dulce de leche which looked and sounded just marvellous! I wanted to run straight to the kitchen and give them a try, and would have if it weren’t for two small problems:
- I had about 10 minutes before I had to leave the house to go to uni, and
- I’d never tasted this mysterious dulce de leche before
I left a comment expressing my woe at the situation regarding point 2, and the next minute I received an email from Matt saying that we Aussies had Tim Tams, so he considered it only fair (OK, I’m totally putting words in his mouth there, though he did point out our bounty and his lack of these chocolate biccies). Within the next few minutes, an impromptu food exchange had been set up - I was going to send a few packets of timtams, and in exchange I would receive a jar of this fabled milk caramel!
The lovely package that I received from Matt in the mail - a nice big jar of dulce de leche (which we have already consumed 1/3 of), a little business card and another card stating that I rock. Matt, I disagree - you’re totally rockin’ my casbah!
As soon as the caramel arrived yesterday, I tore open the packaging and scooped up a spoonful for myself and for my ma, both of us marvelling at the smooth sweetness (so different to every caramel we’ve ever tried) and rich flavour. I immediately began to worry - the jar that I had initially thought of as being large suddenly looked much smaller, and I began to worry about what I’d do when it all ran out. I wanted to get started on those churros straight away, but having just put a pie in the oven and needing to get to class, I sadly put the recipe away and resolved that nothing would stop me from making them the next day, and I knew that till I had attempted this dish, I would find no peace.
So, when I woke up this morning with the day ahead of me, I was a woman on a mission. And the mission? To make myself a batch of churros so I could experience the delight that Matt had described when consuming churros dipped in dulce de leche. I measured out all the ingredients, reread the recipe 3 or 4 times to make sure that I knew what had to happen when, and then I started what I thought would be an extremely quick and relatively painful journey towards the land of deep-fried bliss…
But of course things weren’t gonna go quite that smoothly. Not being entirely too sure just how thick the batter was going to be, my little handheld eggbeater was on standby for the mixing of the flour and water, and I had mixed for all of about 2 minutes when the poor thing started whining and emitting plumes of smoke. Not ready to be defeated, I turned the overworked little machine off and instead started furiously beating with my trusty wooden mixing spoon. One egg yolk, two egg yolks, and I had quite a pretty pale yellow dough that was ready to be piped and fried. And that was when I encountered problem number 2 - the star tip of my piping bag was barely 1cm in diameter. What could I do at this juncture? I could proceed with the tiny star tip and make churros the size of your average straw, or I could pipe the churros without using a tip and live with the smooth sausage-shaped doughnuts for now.
As you can see, I went with the second option 
And although they aren’t quite as crunchy as if they had been ridged, these churros are still delicious, and with the addition of the dulce de leche? I think it’s best described by the exclamation of my kid brother after he had his first bite:
“Fucking Awesome!”
Churros (recipe by Jane Milton from her book ‘Mexican’)
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 egg yolks
Oil for frying
To serve: cinnamon sugar and dulce de leche
1. Sift together flour and baking soda, then set aside. Bring water to a boil then stir in the salt and dark brown sugar and stir till dissolved.
2. Beat water mixture into flour till smooth and well combined (do not use a handheld beater, if you have a kitchenaid great, if not use your hands), then beat in the egg yolks one at a time till the mixture is smooth and glossy.
3. Heat oil in a large saucepan to 190 degrees C, then fill the piping bag (fitted with a star nozzle) and pipe 5 to 6 churros into the hot oil.
4. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes or till the churros are golden brown. Drain them, shake them in some cinnamon sugar and then set dulce de leceh next to them. However, if you don’t have any dulce de leche, make yourslf some thick Mexican drinking chocolate and dip it in there
Or, you know, you could try making your own dulce de leche 
Trust me, it’ll be worth it in the end!
Technorati Tags: doughnuts, fried food, food blogging, events, mail, dulce de leche, churros, recipes
*edit - Joanne over at Slashfood has put up a way to make your own dulce de leche as a pairing to this post! If you have no access to this delightful milk caramel and would like to try making it, then head on over to see her recipe
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Comments
Ellie… you have to come to Brazil… churros are sold every corner here… they have a hole where they insert the “dulce de leche”… The easiest way to make “caramel” is to cook a can of sweetened condensed milk, put the unopened can in pressure cooker with about 1.5 liters of water (depending on the size of cooker) and I cook it for 15 minutes, after it starts boiling. If not using a pressure cooker, boil it unopened for about 2 or 3 hours with water… yummy…
Ellie, I totally agree with Cris (she’s one of my dear blogger friends here, btw) - you have to come to Brazil!!! And I’d gladly take you for some churros.
They’re filled with dulce de leche as Cris has described and they’re huge!
Yours are phenomenal and I will try this recipe soon.
Those look so disgustingly good, its just not fair. That is so great the two of you traded food products, what a great idea.
Oh no! I’m trying SO HARD not to want to make another batch of churros and eat to my heart’s content, but seeing your gorgeous photos, well, darnit, I’m WEAK!!!!!!!
Now where did I put those Tim Tams?
Danielle - Oooo, I think you’ve just given me an idea! As for the exchange - heck yeah! I’m not sure what else you have access to that I don’t, but as soon as my internet connection is back up to speed (it’s a bit dodgy at the moment) be sure that I’ll be browsing your blog properly so I can see what you got and I want 
Cris - Visiting Brazil is one of my dreams, I’m hoping that one day I’ll be lucky enough to find my way there *sighs* dulce de leche filled churros? Now you’re making me hungry!
Patricia - How can you resist? If I lived in Brazil with such tasty treats around, I think I’d be having at least one every day!
Cheryl - Hehehe, they were pretty delish, but they’re all gone now 
And it was definitely a good idea to swap
Matt - I know the feeling! All our churros are gone now as well, but thinking of eating more dulce de leche is making me want to make more! *sigh*
Brilynn - Hehehe, thanks hon
Truffle - And don’t I know it
Kat - Thanks hon 
They absolutely were!
great post ellie.
from the look of the pics I think your kid brother might be seriously understating things. loving the idea of global tim tam swapping. did you ever get to try the chilli ones?
ooo that looks yum.
You can make dulce de leche
http://www.recipezaar.com/19142
Tried it many many times it’s that easy
I love churros , 
I tried to make them once but the batter wasn’t thick enough. I enjoy them with Nutella. Must be so good with Dulce de leche too .
They looks awesome, Ellie. Hmmm, if I’d known that all it would take was a packet of TimTams LOL.
PS I love your brother LOL!!
That was a swap well worth doing! And your brothers subtle exclamation is dead on right if the pictures are anything to go by!! They look wonderful!
Subtle exclamaation is right! Ridged or not these look fantastic!
The food blogging exchange is terrific.
So I guess I’m going out this weekend to look for a huge syringe of some sort.. then I’m coming home to make these and pipe the dulce de leche inside them.. and then I will eat them all and shoot anyone who comes near me.
No, really.. I will. Shoot. Anyone. 
xoxox
I live in Mexico City these days and churros are available everywhere on the street here too. If you are lucky and find a street merchant who fries them fresh they are even better as they are bigger in diameter than the regular ones, and they fill them with either chocolate or cajeta, which is the way they call dulce de leche over here. Proper cajeta is normally made with sweetened goat milk, and normally is available in a burnt flavor or ‘envinado’ with red wine added. Both the cajeta and the churros can be very addictive…
Hi Ellie! I love your brother’s reaction - LOL! These look fantastic and highly addictive!
I’ve only tried Tim Tams once - whilst partaking in a coveted ‘Tim Tam Slam’ with some lucious hot chocolate. To. Die. For.
oh you know Ellie, my friend T. took me to the San Churro chocolateria place in Fitzroy and I saw the machine to make churros right there (actually have pictures soon in a post ;-)) and we could not stop but salivate in front of the plate that had in display!
Holy COW!!! I love churros. The first time I had them was at Disneyland. I think that was all I ate that day. Everytime I passed a churro cart I bought one. I must have bought $40 in churros that day! I think if would be bad for me to make them at home!
Yours look fantasic and the dulce de leche is a over the top touch!
Wowie! These look amazing! I grew up eating churros but they were always bought, never homemade. I REALLY WANT TO MAKE THESE NOW. What have you done? 
Oh mon Dieu!
From France I am telling you that this sweet is some kind of “Orgie alimentaire!”
Look forward to reading you soon.
p.
Food parcel exchanges are the BEST!
You could also try Casa Iberica for Dulce de Leche. I can’t remember seeing it but figure that if anyone has it, it’s probably them.
Jules - I’m actually not a timtam fan so I’ve never actually dried anything beyond the original
Marina - Thanks for the link, I’ll have to give this a shot
Rose - Oooh, nutella could be a nice way to try them next time! Thanks for the idea
Mandi - Hehehe, I know! I’m convinced that I got the better part of the exchange! Mmmm, dulce de leche is so good And my brother is pretty awesome, he’s a cool dude
Freya - Hehehe, thanks
Tanna - Thanks hon
Lisa - ROFL! Girl, you crack me up so much! Hope nobody gets between you and your churros xox
Lucito - Those sound fantastic! I wonder if I can find goats milk to make my own authentic dulce de leche? I’ll have to see
Helen - My pleasure Hope you like them as much as we did!
Gilly - LOL! My brother is seriously an awesome little dude And highly addictive is a good way of describing these
Bea - Ooooh, thanks for the recommendation, next time I’m in Fitzroy I’ll hunt them down
Peabody - I’ve gotta say, if I could get them hot and fresh then I probably would’ve spent around the same as you did on them The dulce de leche is totally over the top, but utterly worth it!
Ari - Hehehe, well, hopefully I’ve made you enjoy these as well so I don’t feel so guilty about my own indulging
Pom D’api - Thank you so much
Pauline - I’m not too sure how that phrase translates into English, but I’m guessing it’s got something to do with indulgence or excess, both of which are accurate descriptions
Cin - They are totally awesome I’ll have to check them out, I’ve heard lots of good things, just my public-transporting self gets lazy going anywhere off my usual routes
Oh man i want some Churros!
I would’ve thought they’d be all over the place here in Texas, but i haven’t seen one since i moved here. I used to snack on them all the time in California. I’m gonna have to make this, if I ever get through my recipe backlog, that is.
Co-incidentally I was visiting Casa Iberica today and discovered two brands of Dulce de Leche! Neither look quite as pretty and gourmet as your jar, but I wasn’t too highbrow to grab me a can.
Jerry - I hope these are as good as the ones you used to have in California, would love to hear what you think of them once you give them a try.
Cindy - Woohoo, will have to bring my ass down yonder when I run out then Thanks for letting me know!
if I wish to make the tool in order to make churros: how can I make them by myself? I can not find, there are no magazines to buy them anywere!! I live in Israel. please, help me. it is a matter of life or dead ( I am Argentinian, that’s why!)
I love the food blogging community! What a fun trade. Want anything from NYC in exchange for Tim Tams? ^^;;