Baked Mini Churros Recipe
You know this treat. Whether you like trying the seasonal flavors or you’re a strictly cinnamon-sugar person, churros are the epitome of the classic Disneyland treat. Because we couldn’t get these yummy treats at the parks during the shutdown, the folks at Disneyland shared a recipe with us, which you can find here!
(Word on the street is you can also get the same churros they sell at Disneyland at your local Smart & Final. Look for Tio Pepe’s churros if you’re interested!)
As I mentioned in my previous blog post when I made baked beignets, I have a large aversion to deep frying, sooo instead of deep frying these churros, I decided to again make a baked rendition! Let’s see how it turned out!
The Ingredients
This recipe is pretty simple, which is great! The ingredients are ones you can largely find in your pantry, no specialty items necessary. Though in terms of tools you’ll need either a star- or 5-point pastry tip. Maybe you’ll want some additional ingredients if you want to jazz up your churro like Disneyland does with their seasonal flavors.
The Baking Process
For this recipe, we start off by boiling the water, sugar, and butter. This step also helps brown the butter a little bit since you’re bringing it to a boil, and you’ll be able to tell because of the nice nutty aroma that starts to fill the air. But you want to just bring it to a boil before turning off the stove and mixing in the flour. At this point, the dough already looks and feels pretty doughy but is still quite tough, so we’ll need to add in our eggs.
Make sure to add in your eggs one at a time so that you can properly work in the egg to the batter! When I mixed in the first egg, the batter honestly started looking like a bunch of chunks of brown rice cakes or something and I almost thought I’d messed up the recipe! I was also afraid the heat from the pot was scrambling the egg, but luckily I continued mixing and the dough started to re-form! By the time the second egg is mixed in you’ll have your dough!
And that’s it! Or is it...
So the final step before baking is to pipe the batter onto your baking sheet. I’ve done this many a time, so I was not worried. However, this batter was so thick, the batter popped right out of the edges of the pastry tip and even forced the pastry tip out of the bag!! I think the batter was so thick there was too much pressure, and because I always use regular plastic zip bags instead of actual pastry bags, it just couldn’t hold up. I ended up breaking apart 3 different plastic bags before grabbing a gallon-sized plastic bag and literally taping my pastry tip to the bag using packaging tape to hold it in place. I felt so silly, but it got the job done!
Don’t these look like actual churros?? (I also had to sneak a Mickey in there because...Mickey)
The original recipe that I followed called for 10 minutes in the oven before switching the setting to broil for browning, but when the 10 minutes were up, my churros were definitely still soft and under baked, so I left it in the oven for about 5-8 more minutes before broiling. I also don’t particularly like my churros super crispy so I didn’t intend to broil it for very long, which is why I increased the baking time a little more. So depending on the size of your pastry tip, your oven time will vary. The skinnier the churros are, the shorter time they’ll need.
After the churros are baked, I coated each piece with some melted coconut oil. The original recipe coats the churros in melted butter, but I like the hint of flavor from the coconut oil (and I was too lazy to cut some butter) Then the last step is to cover the churros with cinnamon sugar!
The Results
Baked churros = A+! These were absolutely delicious! Of course, because the churros are resting on the baking sheet as they’re being baked, the bottom side of the churro is a little flatter than the top because the ridges are squashed. So in terms of look it’s definitely one-sided. But the flavor is great and depending on how long you broil the churros they’ll turn out nice and crispy! I definitely think it’s more difficult with the baked version to get a nice even crisp and golden color all around as you would with a fried version, but it still works!
Would I bake these again? The recipe itself is easy enough, so I think so! But I’m gonna need a better strategy for piping...
If you love this classic Disney treat, but you don’t want to deal with the cleanup of deep frying, give this recipe a try!
Baked Mini Churros
Ingredients
ºoº 1 cup water
ºoº 1 cup flour
ºoº 1/4 cup butter
ºoº 2 tbsp brown sugar
ºoº 1 tsp vanilla extract
ºoº 2 eggs
ºoº Cinnamon to taste (for coating)
ºoº Sugar to taste (for coating)
ºoº Melted coconut oil (for coating)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F
Mix together the water, butter, and brown sugar over medium heat until it starts to boil
Turn off the heat and stir in the flour
Take the pot off the stove and mix in the vanilla extract
Mix one egg into the batter at a time and continue to mix until the dough forms and pulls away from the pot
Pipe the dough through a star- or 5-point pastry tip onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. You can determine the length you’d like your churros
Depending on the thickness of the churros you’ve piped, bake in the oven between 10-18 minutes. The skinnier the churro pieces, the lesser oven time you need.
For a more golden brown texture, broil until you’ve achieved the color you like
Remove from the oven, coat with coconut oil and cover with cinnamon sugar
Notes
ºoº While you'll want a star- or 5-point pastry tip to get the right churro look, you also don't need it if
you just want that churro taste no matter how it looks. I specifically bought this tip and the shape
turned out great, but an open star tip will have shallower ridges
ºoº Remember to be cautious with your piping so you don't explode your bag(s)! Maybe you'll have
better luck with a real pastry bag
* Some links that I’ll be providing are affiliate links, so if you make a purchase through my link I’ll receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you!
