Lady donuts

This recipe for churros, adapted from the How to Cook That blog, is an instant favorite. It was so fun to watch Jenn and Alison drizzle the batter into fun curlicues for our Galentine's Day brunch in Brooklyn this morning. I had the infinitely important job of cinnamon sugar coating and taste testing our funnelcake-like creations, which we eventually dubbed "lady donuts" (for their delicate elegance). Cronuts, get ready for the next big pastry craze....

Ingredients

1 cup water
1 stick butter
1 cup flour
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablepoon of vanilla
Canola oil to fry in
Cinnamon and sugar for dusting

Directions

Melt the butter and the water in a saucepan.

Add the flour stirring continuously. Keep stirring over the heat until the mixture thickens and clumps together into a smooth 'ball'. (Kinda like profiterole dough, if that helps.)

Remove form the heat and stir in the eggs one at a time and watch your dough turn a lovely buttery yellow color.

Add the vanilla and sugar and mix til combined and creamy.

Spoon batter into a piping bag (aka ziploc bag with a small hole cut into one corner).

Heat the oil til a small piece of bread dropped in turns golden after about 20 seconds. Fish out bread tester.

Pipe churros batter straight into the hot oil. Use you fingers, scissors, or a knife to break off the batter when it is the required length. Jenn made some pretty shapes....

Once the curlicues are lightly browned, use tongs to lift them out and put onto a plate covered with some paper towels to drain. (Yes, one of the few times I will concede that paper towels are necessary - mark your calendar.)

Quickly toss them one at a time in a cinnamon sugar mix (1 part cinnamon to @ 10 parts sugar) and place in a pretty bowl.

Delish!