I was looking for something to cook with my students when planning an unit about Spain. I had done non-alcoholic versions of Sangría in the past and gazpacho, and suddenly I thought of Churros. Churros are delicious flour dough sticks Spaniards love to eat at breakfast time dipped in a thick hot chocolate.

I thought about how much kids would love them and so I decided to type churro maker in the Amazon marketplace and I discovered a waffle like press to make them! It was perfect as I did not want to fry them! You can buy it at Amazon* right HERE. This is it:

About the Dough

This was my set up. I always mark the area where students can’t go with blue painters tape…even the floor.

Did you notice on my computer the Slides Presentation about Spanish Cuisine? HERE it is. ^ ^ I only used the portion about churros… as you really need the time to make the churros!

To make the churros themselves I found a churro flour mix. You can buy it at Amazon* right HERE.

Even though it says add boiling water, I just added natural temperature water and it worked perfectly! My students enjoyed adding the ingredients and mixing without me worrying about them getting potentially burned! One thing I discovered as I made them is that you need a pancake / waffle consistency on the thick side. Then using a laddle just pour it on the churro maker until you fill them up on the bottom 1/2 of the press. Then you let them. cook for about 1 1/2 minutes and spin the churro maker around (just like a waffle maker) and then cook it for an additional 2 1/2 minutes and they are done!

GLUTEN FREE option! For my students who had glutten allergy I bought a pancake /wafffle mix that was gluten free, it worked really well! They have a slightly difference in texture but it is still pretty close and when you dip them in hot chocolate you can barely tell the difference!

ABOUT NUTS ALLERGIES: This flour is made in a facility that processes nuts, so if your student who is allergic to nuts is not severely allergic this will work (I had one of these students.) I would check with the parent if you are not sure about how severe their allergy is just in case!

By the way when the churros come out they are all stuck to each other, so use a child friendly knife to have your students cut them into separate sticks.

Another part of the churros is to add sugar and cinnamon on them. Well, this is where I ran into a bit of a problem as it would not stick to the churros. One solution it to put the sugar and cinnamon in a plastic ziplock bag and as they are hot the steam will make the sticks wet and then eventually the sugar and cinnamon will stick to them. I also tried using a brush and I had students brush a bit of water to the sticks after we cut them (separating them) and then rolled them in the sugar / cinnamon mix.

About the Chocolate Dip

Yes! a churro would definitely not be the same without it! So one option is to buy the Valor brand chocolate which is highly used in Spain. It is in Amazon* right HERE and looks like this:

You will need whole milk too. If you have a LACTOSE INTOLERANT student just use Lactose Free milk. I made the chocolate ahead of time and let it cool down at almost a pudding state so students would not get burned. They absolutely loved it. Another way you can make this thick chocolate is with milk, chocolate and corn starch (which is great as it keeps it all gluten free.)

About Amounts

How much do you need? Well after doing it with various of my classes, I would say you need a cup and half of the dough mix for every 4 churros (4 students). The mix in the box above gave me about 20 churros. Chocolate wise I used the bag above for about 20 students. I used it with about 3/4 of a gallon of milk. Sugar about a cup and Cinnamon 2 tablespoons for covering the 20 churros.

Activity for when kids are waiting for their turn…

As only 4 churros come at at the time, you will have students waiting … so what to do with them? I created a worksheet for them to draw churro animated characters. They loved it! The worksheet in included in the Slides Presentation above, but here it is also in jpg format:

Here are some of the incredible Churro characters my students created:

I hope this inspires you to try it. Your students will absolutely delight in them… one of my classes even said. This is the best class of all your classes ever Ms. Acuna! ^ ^

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