Baked Churros

Being a Spanish teacher, my mom makes some really great churros.  I love the ones that she makes, but I also don't always like to fill my home with the smell of frying, so when I found a recipe for baked churros, I thought it was worth a try.  They are not quite as good as the fried ones, but they were still pretty great!

2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c. butter
1 c. flour
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c/ sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

In a saucepan, stir together 1 c. water, brown sugar and salt. Add butter and place over medium-high heat.  Heat until butter is melted and mixture starts to boil. Remove from heat and add flour, stirring until the flour is thoroughly mixed in.

Next, mix in the eggs and vanilla until the mixture looks kind of like mashed potatoes.

Spoon the dough into a piping bag with a spiky tip.  If you don't have something like that, you can use a ziploc bag with the corner cut off.  Squeeze out strips of dough onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 425F until the churros are puffed like in the picture above.  Turn the oven to broil and let them toast for about 30 seconds.  Check to see if they are browned and if not, put them back in for another 30 seconds.  Keep an eye on them so they don't burn.

Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and roll the churros in it before they get cool.

They still taste good the next day, but the sugar kind of soaks into the churros and they are no longer crispy.  So it is better to eat them the first day if you want them to be relatively authentic tasting.