Churros with Thick Chocolate Dipping Sauce, Gluten Free

Instructions

1. 1

   Set up before you fry

   Stir the sugar and cinnamon together in a wide shallow dish and set it next to the stove. Line a baking sheet with paper towels and set a wire rack over a second sheet. Churros go from perfect to greasy fast, so everything needs to be within arm's reach before the oil is hot. Cut four squares of parchment, about 6 inches each, if you want to pipe the churros ahead of frying rather than straight into the oil.

2. 2

   Make the chocolate sauce

   Whisk the cornstarch into 2 tablespoons of the milk until smooth. Warm the remaining milk, the cream and the sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until steaming, then whisk in the cornstarch slurry and simmer for about 1 minute, until it thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Take it off the heat, add the chopped chocolate, wait 1 minute, then stir until glossy. Keep it warm over the lowest heat or cover and reheat gently later; it thickens further as it sits.

3. 3

   Cook the dough

   Whisk the gluten-free blend and xanthan gum together in a bowl so the gum is evenly dispersed. Combine the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted and the liquid is at a full rolling boil, add the flour mixture all at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball. Keep stirring and mashing it against the pan for 2 minutes. Gluten-free dough comes together faster and feels slightly stickier than wheat dough — don't be tempted to cook it longer to fix that.

4. 4

   Cool, then beat in the eggs

   Scrape the dough into a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle) and spread it up the sides to release steam. Let it cool for 5 to 7 minutes, until it's warm rather than hot — hot dough will scramble the eggs. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs one at a time, working each one in completely before adding the next. Finished dough should be thick and glossy.

5. 5

   Rest the dough

   Cover the bowl and let the dough sit for 25 minutes. The rice flours and starches in a gluten-free blend hydrate slowly, and skipping this leaves you with gritty churros that weep oil and lose their ridges in the fryer. The dough will firm up noticeably as it rests — that's exactly what you want for sharp ridges.

6. 6

   Bag the dough and heat the oil

   Fit a sturdy piping bag with a large open star tip, roughly 1/2 inch across (Ateco 824 or 848 both work). Closed star tips and small tips clog or burst the bag under pressure, so go bigger than feels necessary. Fill the bag no more than two-thirds full and twist the top tightly. Pour oil into a Dutch oven or heavy pot to a depth of about 2 inches and heat to 350–360°F (175–182°C), checking with a thermometer.

7. 7

   Pipe and fry

   Holding the bag a few inches above the oil, pipe 5- to 6-inch lengths directly into the pot and snip the dough free with oiled kitchen scissors. Fry 4 or 5 at a time so the oil temperature holds steady. Gluten-free churros brown a shade faster because of the starch content, so judge by feel as well as color: give them 2 to 3 minutes per side and lift one out when it feels light and rigid in the tongs and sounds hollow if you tap it. Soft, flexible churros need another 30 seconds.

8. 8

   Drain and roll

   Lift the churros onto the paper towels for 20 to 30 seconds, then roll them in the cinnamon sugar while still hot so it clings. Move them to the wire rack in a single layer rather than stacking them. Gluten-free churros soften sooner than wheat ones, so serve them within 10 minutes of frying with the warm chocolate sauce.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  A thermometer matters more here than in almost any other fried recipe. Below 340°F the churros soak up oil and turn heavy; above 375°F the outside darkens before the inside sets and they deflate on the rack.

• 2.

  If your churros split open or burst in the oil, the dough was too wet or the oil too hot. Cook the dough a minute longer next time to drive off more moisture, and let the oil settle back to temperature between batches.

• 3.

  Dough that won't hold its ridges needs a bit more body. Beat in a tablespoon or two of extra flour, or chill the filled piping bag for 15 minutes to firm it up before frying.

• 4.

  Pipe onto parchment squares and freeze them solid if you want to work ahead. Fry straight from frozen, adding about a minute to the total time — no thawing.

• 5.

  Snipping the dough with scissors dipped in oil keeps it from dragging and tearing, and it gives you a cleaner end that fries evenly.

• 6.

  For traditional Spanish-style churros, skip the cinnamon and roll in plain sugar — the chocolate is meant to carry the flavor.