Banana Churros with Chocolate Sauce

So, did you guess what this was for?

A Churrera

It’s an authentic Churrera, or Churros pump. Thanks to friend Pablo’s mum having a clear out, I have this on long-term-loan. As someone who is unable to go through a day without some kind of bump/graze/burn/ it has taken me a while to psych myself up to facing the large pan of boiling oil needed to make churros. However, when in receipt of such an exciting gift and a load of crazy shaped extruding plates (dog shaped churros anyone?!) it was only going to be so long before my curiosity got the better of me. So, on Tuesday I made five different types of batter and  spent a good 2.5hrs deep frying things – it turns out that there’s quite a knack to getting the right consistency of mixture and to piping the perfect star shaped strand.

Dunk me!

I wanted to make banana churros, which is why I spent a long time trying to get the batter right but if you want to make plain ones then this recipe from Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers was by far the best mix I tried. My churros are slightly heavier in texture but if you like the banana & dark chocolate combo then they are a nice variation.  You can find the full recipe and method for them over on my monthly blog for Rangemaster, but here’s what you’ll need to make them:

Banana Churros with chocolate sauce

300g self raising flour
400ml boiling water
2tbsp rapeseed oil (or olive oil)
1 banana
1 litre sunflower oil for frying
1tbsp cocoa
1 1/2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp sugar
35g dark chocolate, broken into squares

Banana Churros and dark chocolate sauce

Oh and for the sake of full disclosure, here’s some that didn’t work quite so well. Promise not to laugh:

Don’t say what you are thinking. It’s not kind