- [Chef] This episode is brought to you by Cashapp.
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It's as easy as mashing together a churro and a macaron.
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- This month's churron flavor is anise
but there is a limit to three churrons per customer,
so please maintain decorum, thank you.
- You know, I'm not even a huge macaron girl,
and churros are just like, you know,
hit or miss for me,
but the combination's like-
- Churry.
- [Chef] Hey, what's up guys,
welcome back to Binging with Babish,
with this week,
we're taking a look at the churrons from Broad City.
A combination of a churro and macaron,
this faux fancy pastry has eluded me for years,
mostly because it sounds pretty hard.
So let's get started with screwing up
until we get it right.
First off, a quick and easy buttercream frosting
where our star anise flavor is gonna live.
I have here 225 grams of unsalted room-temperature butter
that I'm gonna beat until soft
scraping down the sides of the mixer bowl,
and in three stages, adding 450 grams
of sifted powdered sugar.
I recognize this ranks as moderately-to-notably fussy,
but this ensures a light, fluffy buttercream with no lumps.
Adjust the consistency as necessary with whole milk,
and flavor with about half a tablespoon
of star anise extract.
What results is a unique-tasting frosting
that tastes better than it tastes bad,
so we're threading needle for trendy New York bakery.
Now for the churro pastry, in a medium sauce pan,
we are combining 120 grams each unsalted butter,
water and whole milk.
Bring this concoction to a bare simmer
over a medium-low heat.
Meanwhile, we're combining 120 grams of bread flour
with half a teaspoon each kosher salt and ground cinnamon.
Tiny whisk until homogenous,
and then once we got a simmer going, kill the heat
and add the dry stuff.
Then we're gonna paddle it about
with rigor and consistency until no lumps remain.
Then we're gonna place it back over medium heat,
and cook for two to three minutes,
until a thick golden fond starts to form
on the bottom of the pot.
Now we're headed back over
to a cleaned and reset stand mixer,
wherein we are gonna deposit our steaming lump of dough.
Then we're gonna beat it on medium-low speed
for about 30 seconds to help start cooling it off,
but while still nice and hot
we're gonna start adding four eggs, one at a time,
waiting until each egg is fully incorporated
before adding the next.
Then beat this guy together on medium speed
for about one minute,
until a soft serve ice cream-like coiffe
forms on the top of the dough
when displayed on an inverted finger.
Now we're gonna place the completed dough
in a piping bag with a big old fluted tip.
Now, traditionally, these are squeezed
directly into 350 degree Fahrenheit frying oil,
and snipped at the sides with scissors.
But I had just a devil of a time
trying to get any of them to come out long and straight
like in the show.
After one to two minutes per side in the fry oil,
these guys are ready to drain
on a paper towel-lined, rimmed baking sheep.
So to try to ensure their shape,
I decided to pipe and pre-freeze the churros,
I'm gonna go over four short and two long,
which I'm gonna freeze for at least 20 minutes
and up to several months.
Then, upon plopping in the preheated fry oil,
I was pleasantly met with churros that kept their shape,
frying up golden brown after about four to five minutes,
a little bit extra time since they were frozen.
And then we have to contend with their color,
normally, churros are rolled in sugar while still warm,
but this proved ineffective with colored sugar.
But after brush down with simple syrup,
the brightly colored sugar
was much more apt to stick to the pastry.
So we're gonna do a few nice pastel colors,
which we're going to allow to cool completely
before slicing and stuffing.
For a macaron-style presentation,
we're gonna split these in half, lengthwise,
with our very sharpest smallest knife.
Now, unfortunately, after cooling,
I found that these churrons had become flacid.
Nevertheless, I'm gonna stuff these guys
just to see what they taste like
before we try another iteration.
And there you have it, they don't look great,
they don't feel great, but they do taste great.
I think during the frying process
not much moisture is allowed to escape the pastry,
so it ends up getting a little floppy and gummy.
But churro dough is almost identical to choux dough,
which when baked at 375 degrees Fahrenheit
for about 35 minutes,
getting brushed down with simple syrup at minute 25,
and baked until deeply golden brown, almost burnt looking.
This will ensure that they have a rigid shell,
for structural integrity,
and that their interiors will stay light, fluffy and dry.
First, we have to allow them to cool completely,
you can speed this along by putting 'em on a wire rack,
or if you're really in a hurry, you can wave them around
in the air in a figure of eight pattern.
Now, onto the color,
the colored sugar was kind of a bust,
so I'm trying out a food coloring spray,
of which I am inhaling an alarming amount.
The blue doesn't look awesome, but the red looks okay,
so we're gonna split these guys lengthwise,
check out their light, webby interiors
ready to be loaded up with frosting.
In goes my second batch of anise-flavored buttercream,
which, this time I added a little bit of orange zest,
which really tied the room together.
Top 'em up, and there you have it, the churron.
And while it only looks barely passable, how does it taste?
Well, it's no cronut, but it is light, sweet
and crisp and uniquely flavored, just like Broad City,
am I right?
Maybe just skip the food coloring
if you value your hand skin.
Thanks again to Cashapp for sponsoring today's episode.
Don't forget to download Cashapp today,
and use code BABISH22 to get $15 for free,
and $10 will be donated to No Kid Hungry, terms apply.