Is there a better scent on this green earth than the smell of fried dough? What about the warm fragrance of spun sugar that floats through the air of a carnival? With our sense of smell being the most powerful trigger linked to memory, it’s no wonder that one whiff of that sugary dough puts me right back to my childhood. Sticky friction underfoot as I bounced from ride to ride, unsure of whether or not it was the roller coasters or the sweets that caused my inevitable tummy ache. *inhales deeply* Man, that’s the good shit.
Time to get fried!
For this Wake & Bake session, we wanted to lean into that nostalgia and bring you one of my ALL TIME favorite treats: Churros! In true over-achieving-can’t-have-just-one fashion, we decided to try out two different recipes and compare them for you. But wait! We even took things a step further and laid out an entire spread of different sauces and toppings to try. Ya know, because a toothache on top of a bellyache just seemed like the grown up thing to do, now that we have dental plans and such.
On this particularly rainy, dare I say “crisp” Saturday morning, we were joined in the W&B kitchen by Caitlin’s younger brother Evan, local firefighter and churro fan, along with our equally enthusiastic pal, Andrew. In addition to these two W&B newbies, we were joined by the always joyful Spiderfriend Nina Chantanapumma! Having an eager squad gathered ‘round the table cheering us on really helps us stay motivated. Maybe it’s their abundant love + support...maybe it’s their hungry eyes lol. Either way, it’s a great catalyst to get cookin’.
The first recipe up, a little more on the traditional side using Choux pastry, or Pate a Choux, (we've used this dough a couple of times, here & here!) but keep in mind, we’ve never had the privilege of indulging in a truly authentic Mexican or Spanish churro so this is all subjective. This recipe contained eggs and was a little softer in the middle. The dough was slightly more difficult to work with right off the bat, so we decided to pipe out some shapes and put them in the freezer for a spell. This was actually a really fun step, because we were able to make hearts, letters, and ampersands for your viewing pleasure.
A churro buffet? Spoiler alert: it's delicious.
The second recipe we tried was a copycat recipe from Disneyland! I don’t know if you knew this, but at Disneyland, churros are kind of a ~big deal~. They’ve rolled out everything from rosegold churros to light saber churros and many other themed treats with the release of new movies like Star Wars, etc.
The glorious, sugary bounty of our labor.
This copycat recipe didn’t contain any eggs and we chose to pipe them out directly into the hot oil rather than freezing them first, which created a crispier, crunchier churro. Both were equally delicious!
While the churros were fryin’ courtney marie was working on another exciting Wake & Bake project: our very first RECIPE ZINE! The zine will feature our pavlova adventures from June’s W&B Whisk It All edition. Catch this cute little publication with a full flight of 12 new Spiderweb zines at the White Rock Zine Machine at Deep Vellum Books in Dallas! Might we recommend coming to our launch party on September 1? You can score a copy of the zine for just a quarter and even try some of our pavlova yourself (while supplies last!!)!
The birth of our very first Wake & Bake recipe zine!!
Now go forth and bake, friends!
As if fried choux dough rolled in cinnamon + sugar wasn’t enough, we lined up several different sauces such as: hot fudge and dulce de leche (both homemade by Caitlin) marshmallow fluff and cookie butter. To top it all off, we had crushed up bits of oreos, fruity pebbles, sliced almonds, and cinnamon toast crunch to add some honeyed flare.
They were playful, colorful, picture-perfect...and sickeningly sweet, but we’d sacrifice our fillings any day in order to bring you arduous research such as this.