What Are Churros?
Churros are ridged sticks of deep-fried choux pastry dough coated in cinnamon sugar. They're a popular type of donut across Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American cuisines. While unfilled, cinnamon sugar-coated churros are the most popular variety, churros’ shape, filling, and dipping sauce vary by the culture that creates them. Churros are easy and inexpensive to make and offer a global allure built on a universally beloved foundation: sweet, fried dough. Learn how to make, serve, and customize churros so you can upgrade your breakfast pastry offerings or sweet treat menu.
Shop All Churro MakersHow to Make Churros
Use our video tutorial to make apple pie-filled churros:
What Are Churros Made Of?
As a choux pastry, churro dough is made from all-purpose flour, butter, salt, eggs, and water. Pastry chefs extrude this dense dough through a piping bag or churro maker that has an open star-shaped nozzle attached to it, creating a long pastry dough rope with a ridged exterior. While pretty, these ridges aren’t purely aesthetic; they prevent the churros from bursting when they expand during the cooking process. They also hold the cinnamon sugar coating and create crispy edges around the pillowy center.
The churro dough is fried in a high smoke point oil, yielding a crispy outside and a soft center. Some churro makers choose to fry long, swirling ropes of churro dough and then cut it into smaller, curved pieces. Others cut the dough into individual sticks before frying, producing straight churros. Star-shaped churros are traditional in many Spanish and Portuguese cities. Most churros are coated in cinnamon sugar, which clings to the oiled ridges. Some churro makers serve their creations with dipping sauces, and others choose to stuff their churros.
What Do Churros Taste Like?
Churros taste like cinnamon sugar donuts, but their consistency sets them apart. Their ridged outsides offer a complex mouthfeel. Unlike a cinnamon sugar donut or beignet that seems to lose all its coating after the first bite, the ridges on a churro hold the cinnamon sugar in place. A popular concession stand food item, some will fry their churros offsite and use a heat lamp to keep them warm, but churros taste best when they’re hot and fresh. Earn customer loyalty by investing in a small funnel cake fryer and making your churros onsite.
Do Churros Have Filling?
Most often, churros are served rolled in cinnamon sugar and are not filled. However, many chefs choose to fill their churros. Filled churros are stick-shaped so they can easily be piped with their fillings. In Cuba, it’s popular to fill churros with guava and other tropical fruits. In Brazil, you’ll find dulce de leche and chocolate-filled churros. You’ll find additional flavors like vanilla and cajeta de Celaya enjoyed throughout Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. While not authentic, many concessions stands make chocolate churro dough and fill it with creme to mimic the beloved American cookie, Oreo.
Churro Making Tools
Aside from the ingredients, you’ll need the following tools to make churros. If you want to offer churros but don’t want to invest in specialty equipment or staff to prepare them, you can purchase premade churros on our website.
- Funnel Cake Fryer - A specialty funnel cake fryer makes it easy to fry churros.
- Churro Maker - If you plan to make a large volume of churros, a churro maker will help you quickly meet your production needs.
- Pastry Bag + Star-Shaped Piping Tip - If you want to offer churros on your menu but don’t plan to make them a staple, a pastry bag with an open star-shaped piping tip may suffice.
Churro Recipe
Churros are a classic Hispanic food, but we've put a distinctly Americana twist on them with our apple pie churro recipe. Add apple pie churros to your Fourth of July menu for a unique, reinterpretation of traditional apple pie.
Yield: 18 churros
Total Time: 40 minutes
Churro Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon white, granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon apple pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Churro Filling Ingredients
- 2 cups diced apple pie filling
Churro Coating Ingredients
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon apple pie spice
Other Ingredients
- Vegetable oil (for frying)
- Food-grade lubricant (for coating churro maker canister)
Directions
- Prepare churro coating by mixing sugar and apple pie spice in shallow dish. Set aside.
- In large saucepan, combine water, salt, sugar, and butter. Bring to boil over high heat.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and add flour. Stir constantly until mixture is smooth.
- Transfer to large mixing bowl and cool for five minutes (This is important because you don’t want to scramble eggs).
- While cooling, apply food-grade lubricant inside churro maker canister.
- Select Avantco churro stuffer's hollow churro tube and use in conjunction with non-hollow churro tube to create hollow churros. (If using piping bag to make churros, use straw to hollow churros after cooking).
- Add churro dough to canister.
- Firmly press dough into canister, releasing any trapped air.
- Pivot canister back into upright position and snap top brackets onto canister mounts.
- Turn handle until plunger comes in contact with churro mixture and is ready to extrude.
- Continue turning until extruded churro dough reaches 6-inch lengths. Cut with clean scissors.
- Use funnel cake fryer to cook churros until golden brown (approximately two minutes per side).
- Transfer churros to paper towels for approximately 15 seconds. (Wet churros will clump the sugar, but sugar won’t stick to completely dry churros).
- Add churros to bowl containing apple pie spice and sugar mixture. Roll until coated.
- Pipe apple pie filling into hollowed churro centers.
- Serve warm with whipped cream and caramel.
Tip: Use our recipe resizer to prepare churros in bulk.
What to Dip Churros In?
While delicious plain, churros are especially decadent when dipped in sauces. From drinks to desserts, discover the best churro dipping sauces below:
- Cajeta de Celaya - Also known as Mexican caramel sauce, cajeta de Celaya is a type of dulce de leche made from sweetened, caramelized goat’s milk.
- Spanish Hot Chocolate - Rich, viscous, and boasting a deep, dark chocolate flavor, Spanish hot chocolate has a consistency like chocolate pudding. It’s bitter and thick compared to American hot chocolate.
- Whipped Cream - Unlike other dipping sauce options, whipping cream is a lighter choice that pairs particularly well with fruit-filled churros.
- Nutella - While not an authentic choice, this beloved hazelnut chocolate spread makes a wonderful dipping sauce for churros.
- Cafe Con Leche - If you’re enjoying your churros for breakfast, dip them in the Spanish-style espresso drink, cafe con leche.
- Champurrado - A Mexican chocolate-based drink thickened with masa harina, champurrado is renowned for its creamy consistency and warming spices like cinnamon, vanilla, and anise seed.
Where Are Churros From?
Churros originated in Spain and are a staple in Mexico. Churros are so prevalent in Mexico, many people incorrectly assume they originated there. Churros are popular throughout Latin America where each culture puts its unique twist on them. For example, in Peru, anise is often mixed into the churro dough.
Spanish vs Mexican Churros
The base recipe of Spanish and Mexican churros is the same, but they’re served with different dipping sauces. Spanish churros are sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and served with Spanish hot chocolate. While we think of hot chocolate as a fluid, sweet drink in the United States, Spanish hot chocolate is a dense delicacy made with whole milk, cornstarch, bittersweet dark chocolate, and sugar that resembles a pudding. Spanish churros are both knotted and straight-shaped. Mexican churros are coated in cinnamon sugar and are often eaten plain. If served with dipping sauces, Mexican churros are paired with cajeta de Celaya (Mexican caramel), chocolate sauce, or whipped cream. Most Mexican churros are stick shaped.
When Are Churros Eaten?
Churros are traditionally eaten in the morning and dipped into Spanish hot chocolate, cafe con leche, or champurrado. They’re also popular street food people purchase from mobile vendors on their way to work or school. However, there is no bad time to eat a churro. They can be enjoyed as a post-dinner dessert or as a midday snack.
Crunch and savor delicious churros with our churro recipe. They’re the perfect menu addition for concession stands and mobile vendors serving customers on the go. Coffee shops can serve churros as a breakfast pastry as they do in Spain and Latin America. Fill them, dip them, or roll them in cinnamon or sugar; they’re delicious in all forms. Wherever and however you serve your churros, they’re a low-cost item you can sell at a premium to increase your profits.
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