I set to work to figure out how the make churros in the first place, let alone make gluten-free churros. Turns out it was not too complicated. In the grand scheme of things, that is.
There were actually several recipes for gluten free churros online, but the ingredient lists didn't look too exciting. Once I realized it was just a fried pate choux, I headed straight to my fave sweets website by Karen Morgan. I used this recipe for the pate choux and just gleaned cooking instructions from other websites.
They were an enormous success. Not just to the GF folks. Everyone at the party stopped to thank me for the amazing churros, several said they were the best they'd ever had. The fact that they were gluten free was beside the point. This is the first time I've made a GF remake of a wheat treat that got this kind of response instead of "it's good for gluten free."
Churros (adapted from Karen Morgan)
For the Pate Choux:
2 large eggs + 1 egg white (enough for 2/3 c.)
¾ teaspoon baking powder
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons half n’ half
1 tablespoon sorghum flour
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
5 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon guar gum
Preheat oven to 425ºF and line a cookie sheet with a silpat or parchment paper and set aside.
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter, water, half n’ half, sugar and salt over a medium-low flame until the butter has melted completely and the mixture has just come to a gentle boil.
In a small bowl, combine all the remaining dry ingredients, except the baking powder and stir to combine.
Pour eggs and egg white into a measuring cup, whisk thoroughly, and set aside.
After your butter has come to a boil, add your dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon, using a scraping motion, for three minutes. Once the dough pulls easily from the sides of the pan, and there is a thin veil of butterfat residue on the bottom of the pan, your dough is ready.
Immediately transfer dough to a food processor with the blade attachment or mixer with paddle attachment and pulse for 20 seconds to cool slightly. Add baking powder to the eggs and whisk until smooth. Pour egg mixture in a slow steady stream into the food processor or mixer until you have a thick, smooth sticky paste, about 1 ½ minutes.
Heat 32 ounces of cooking oil in a heavy bottomed pan to 380 degrees.
Fill a pastry bag with the largest star tip available.
Pipe churros directly into the oil. This takes practice. Let the end of the pate choux hit the oil as though you are piping it onto a cookie sheet made of hot, scalding oil. Be careful!
Fry the churros, turning as they brown, and drain on paper towels.
I eyeballed the sugar/cinnamon mixture and used caster sugar (superfine cane sugar). Dredge the churros in the sugar/cinnamon mixture then attempt to not eat every churro immediately. I used a large pyrex dish with a lid and shook the churros and sugar mix in that instead of dredging individually.
