PUMPKIN SPICE CHURROS
WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN DIPPING SAUCE
WHAT ARE CHURROS?
Churros originate from Spain, Portugal, and the Philippines, and have become popular in South and Central America. Churros are often dipped in chocolate sauce, dulce de leche, or coffee, and eaten for breakfast, the same way Americans love to eat doughnuts for breakfast.
They are often dusted with plain sugar or cinnamon sugar and have a crunchy texture on the outside and are soft and moist on the inside.
Being British and having more of a savory breakfast tooth, I prefer to eat sweet treats as an afternoon snack, or after dinner for dessert, but the choice is up to you. These delicious morsels can be enjoyed whenever you like and if you want to eat them for breakfast, I’m not here to judge! I’m certain your friends and family will thank you for whipping up a batch of these insanely delicious, low-carb churros, any time of the day!
Onto the Recipe
October may as well be renamed “Pumpkin Spice Latte season.” It seems every well-known product line, whether in the supermarket, a café, or even a fast food restaurant, is offering some sort of pumpkin spice flavored item. The problem is, of course, the massive amount of carbs and sugar. Did you know that a medium-size Starbucks Pumpkin Spice latte contains a whopping 12-and-a-half teaspoons of sugar!?
Being a fan of pumpkin spice flavor, and churros, but not a fan of carbs and sugar, I decided to turn one of my favorite treats into a seasonal variation, and make it low-carb, with no added sugar, and the crunchy texture I love.
Trials and Setbacks
A traditional Churro is made from choux pastry dough, which is typically very easy to make, by boiling water and butter, adding in flour before cooling, and beating in fresh eggs. Flour has magical properties that make it incredibly functional. In the case of churros, flour helps the pastry puff up and retain shape when frying, and get crispy on the outside without being dry on the inside. Low-carb flour replacers such as almond and coconut flour, however, don’t have those magical properties, and recipes often require a lot of tweaking.
I started by using a regular churro recipe and just subbing out the flour for almond and coconut flours; the results were not crispy, but greasy on the outside and very dense on the inside. Next, I tried adding a little arrowroot starch and while this did help, the churros were soaking up way too much oil when frying, and I just wasn’t happy with them. After about 5 attempts at various variations of the classic-style choux recipe, I took time out to think.
One day recently I made fat head dough, which uses mozzarella cheese, almond flour, and eggs, in a different recipe (pizza crust), and it got me thinking, perhaps a variation of fat head dough could work for churros, as it gets nice and crispy, stays tender, and doesn’t really taste of cheese at all. I got to work coming up with a recipe based loosely on fat head pastry dough, and it was a success. There is a small amount of pumpkin purée in the dough, but too much will cause a dense, stodgy churro, so don’t overdo the pumpkin! To kick up the pumpkin content, I created a delicious, white chocolate-pumpkin spice dipping sauce to dunk the churros into…are you drooling yet?
Makes: 8 SERVINGS
Prep Time: 30 MINUTES
Cooking Time:20 MINUTES
Ingredients
White Chocolate-Pumpkin Dipping sauce
¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream
¼ cup (50 g) Sola sweetener
10 ounces (285 g) no-added-sugar white chocolate chips (I like Let’s Bake Believe white chocolate chips, which you can find at Walmart or order online)
4 tablespoons canned pumpkin purée
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon store-bought pumpkin spice (or use my homemade version below)
Churros
Melted Mozzarella Mixture
6 ounces (170 g) mozzarella cheese, preferably grated by hand to avoid the extra starch used in pre-shredded cheese
½ stick (55 g) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons whole milk or unsweetened nut milk of your choice
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin purée
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Dry Mix
1 cup (100 g) finely ground almond flour
3 tablespoons arrowroot starch (optional but will result in fluffier, crispier churros, sub with extra almond flour if not using)
3 tablespoons coconut flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
5 tablespoons Sola sweetener
2 teaspoons store-bought pumpkin spice (or use my homemade version below)
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
¼ teaspoon salt
2 free-range eggs, room temperature
To Cook the Churros
Avocado oil or refined coconut oil, or use sunflower oil for a tighter budget
Cinnamon-“Sugar” Dust
1 cup (180 g) Sola sweetener
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Homemade Pumpkin Spice Blend
If you don’t have access to pumpkin spice seasoning, or if you live outside the U.S where it may be hard to find, or if you just don’t want to go to the store, you can make your own pumpkin spice blend at home using cupboard essentials.
Ingredients (makes 7 to 8 teaspoons)
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional, and this is my personal addition, which is not traditional, but I think it adds a wonderful, fragrant flavor, simply omit this ingredient if you don’t have it)
Directions
Place all ingredients into a bowl and whisk together
directions
1. Make the white chocolate-pumpkin spice sauce: heat the heavy cream and sweetener in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat until just beginning to bubble. In a medium bowl combine the white chocolate, pumpkin purée, vanilla, and pumpkin spice. Pour the hot cream over these ingredients and let stand for 1 minute. Once it has cooled slightly, whisk until smooth.
2. Make the Cinnamon-“sugar” dust: simply mix the sweetener and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.
3. Make the churros: place the mozzarella cheese, butter, milk, pumpkin purée, and vanilla in a saucepan over low heat, and cook, stirring regularly, for approximately 5 minutes until melted.
4. Sift the almond flour, arrowroot, and coconut flour into the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, add the baking powder, sweetener, spices, xanthan gum, and salt, and whisk until well combined.
5. Pour the melted mozzarella-butter mixture onto the dry ingredients and using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, or a hand-held electric mixer to beat the ingredients together until you have a stiff, well mixed dough, add the eggs and continue to mix until you have a smooth, soft dough.
6. Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and keep warm while you heat your cooking oil. If the dough does cool, which means the mozzarella will firm up and make it more difficult to pipe, simply warm in the microwave at 20 second intervals until supple.
7. Heat a deep fryer or large saucepan filled with a cooking oil of your choice (avocado oil or refined coconut oil are my favorites for frying) to approximately 325F/165c.
8. Working in batches of 5 to 6 churros, piping the dough directly into the hot oil and using scissors to snip the dough when you get the length of your choosing for your churro (I like about 3 inches).
9. Cook the churros for about 1 ½ minutes and then using a slotted spoon, flip them over and cook for a further 1 ½ minutes. The churros are done when golden-brown. Transfer to a baking sheet or plate lined with paper towels to soak up the excess oil.
10. Immediately sprinkle the churros with the cinnamon-sweetener mixture, and allow to cool slightly before serving with the chocolate sauce.
