Churros with hot chocolate

The breakfast of champions and of nights that ended late: ridged dough piped into hot oil and dipped into chocolate so thick a spoon could stand in it. The dough is a simple choux without eggs.

Ingredients

• For the churros: 250 ml water, 200 g plain flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, a splash of oil
• Oil for frying and sugar for coating
• For the chocolate: 200 g dark chocolate (55-70%), 250 ml whole milk, 1 tbsp cornflour, 1 tbsp sugar

Method

1. Bring the water with the salt, sugar and splash of oil to the boil. Tip in all the flour at once and stir hard over the heat for 1-2 minutes until you have a smooth ball that leaves the sides of the pan.
2. Let it cool 5 minutes, then load into a churrera or a piping bag with a large star nozzle.
3. Pipe 10-15 cm strips directly into oil at 180 C (cut with scissors) and fry 2-3 minutes until golden. Drain and roll in sugar.
4. For the chocolate: dissolve the cornflour in a little cold milk, heat the rest with the chopped chocolate and sugar, add the cornflour milk and simmer, stirring, until properly thick.
5. Serve the churros hot with the chocolate for dipping - or dunked, no judgment.

Tips

• The oil must stay around 180 C: too cool and they soak, too hot and they burn outside while raw inside.
• In Madrid they are dipped in chocolate for breakfast after a night out - churros at dawn are a tradition, not a snack.