churrosupcloseThe months of November and December are my favorite time of year because it’s the holiday season. We have two major holidays coming up here in the States, Thanksgiving on November 26th and Christmas on December 25th. I’ve already started planning my Thanksgiving menu 2 weeks ago. I’ve started my Christmas list which includes decorations, dinner menus, cookie recipes and all things Christmas. Yes..I’m one of those!

Every Thanksgiving there’s always that plain old pumpkin pie in a store bought crust that seems to find it’s way on every table. I have nothing against the pumpkin pie, but after a few years of the same old predictable dessert I’ve starting seaching for more creative ways to use pumpkin. Pumpkin is always on my Thanksgiving menu but in recent years it’s been in the form of pumpkin cheesecakes, pumpkin ooey gooey butter cake or pumpkin soup. I started brainstorming different desserts in which to use pumpkin this year and I came up with a pumpkin churros. Churros is traditionally found in Latin countries. It is a soft dough that is fried until crispy and sprinkled with sugar and can be served with a chocolate dipping sauce or hot chocolate. I had my first taste of these lovely fried confections on the streets of New York City from a roadside vendor and I was blown away. I’ve made it from time to time but decided to put a new spin on an old favorite. I replaced some of the water in the original recipe with pumpkin puree and added pumpkin pie spice in the flour. The result was a moist, light, pumpkin flavored churro that was crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside, just like the original.  I like the idea but not sure it will make my Thanksgiving table, because serving it warm will be tricky.  I doubt I will have time to stop in the middle of dinner to fry churros for dessert.  Unfortunately my search continues…

Pumpkin Churros

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

Sugar

Cinnamon

Vegetable oil

Mix cinnamon and sugar together ;set aside.  Mix flour, salt and pumpkin pie spice and set aside. Heat pumpkin puree, butter, vanilla and water until it comes to a boil.  Remove from heat and stir flour in quickly.  Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball.  Remove from heat and beat eggs in one at a time by stirring quicky until well incorporated.  Mixture should be smooth.

Heat vegetable oil.  Spoon mixture in a pastry or ziplock bag fitted with a star tip.  Squeeze strips of dough into hot oil.  Cook until golden brown, making sure to stir occassionally so that the churros doesn’t stick together.   Drain, roll in cinnamon sugar.  Serve warm.

churros