Churros

I don't really know what a good 'Churro" should be and trusting Foodnetwork, i gave their recipe a try. I think that there were too many eggs in this recipe which made the batter too soft, therefore the pattern was not there when fried. It was like eating 'eclairs' but they were fried and not baked. Too light to be a doughnut although the sugar coating was near.

Will give the 2 eggs recipe a go the next time around.



Ingredients:

Vegetable or olive oil, for frying
1 cup water
4 ounces butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Chocolate Dunking Sauce, recipe is at bottom of page

Method:

Prepare to fry the churros by heating 1 to 1 1/2 inches oil in a deep pan to 360 degrees F.

To make churro dough, heat water, butter and salt to rolling boil in 3-quart saucepan; stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute; remove from the heat. Beat eggs all at once; continue beating until smooth and then add to saucepan while stirring mixture.

Spoon mixture into a piping tube with large star tip. Squeeze 4-inch strips of dough into hot oil. Fry 3 or 4 strips at a time until golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon.

Roll churros in the cinnamon sugar.

Serve with Chocolate Dunking Sauce.

Chocolate Dunking Sauce:

4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
2 cups milk,
1 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons sugar

Place the chocolate and half of the milk in a pan and heat on low.

When the chocolate has melted, dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining milk and whisk into the chocolate with the sugar.

Cook on low heat, whisking constantly, until the chocolate is thickened, about 5 minutes. Add extra cornstarch if it does not start to thicken after 5 minutes.

Remove and whisk smooth.

Pour and serve in cups for dipping churros

Serves

Clementine Poppy Seed Chiffon Cake

Although i am back but my brain is still on holiday and every function is on vacation mode. Can't continue to point what you want to eat, have to bake for dessert. Have some dried out clementines and made this chiffon which turned out very well. Mind is still slow when it comes to firguring out why it turned out so good.

Ingredients:
(A)

1 3/4 cups Self Rising Flour

1/8 tsp of salt

(B)

1/2 cup of sugar

3/4 cup Clementine juice(orange juice will do)

2 tbsp lime juice

1/4 cup poppy seeds

zest of 1 orange

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

6 egg yolks

(C)

3/4 cup of sugar

6 egg whites

1 tsp of cream of tartar

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 325 degree F.

Sieve (A) ingredient in a mixing bowl until well combined.

Mix ingredient (B) following the list, adding the egg yolks last, until well blended and then add in ingredient (A) and mix until smooth. Set it aside.

Whisk ingredient (C) in mixer on low speed until foamy, then add in the cream of tartar and increase speed to medium high. Continue to whisk until it thickens, then slowly add in the sugar. Whisk until thick and shinny. It should be soft but stiff and thick.

Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolks mixture and mix well.

When well mixed, pour in the rest of the whisked eggwhites and fold in gently, from the center, to the bottom and fold mixture, turning mixing bowl as you go. Fold until well combined.

Pour batter into ungreased 10" tube pan and bake for 45 - 50 minutes or use a bamboo skewer to test the cake for doneness, it should come out clean.

Invert cake, let the center tube rest on a stainless funnel or a steady bottle and let it cool complete in the pan. When cooled, loosen the edge and bottom of the pan by running a flat cake spatula/knife and remove cake.

Serves