Churros with Chocolate Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

• 150 g plain flour
• 3 tbsp caster sugar, mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon, for rolling
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon, for rolling
• 240 ml water
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for frying
• 1 pinch chilli powder
• 200 ml double cream
• 200 g dark chocolate, 70%, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp golden syrup

Method

1. Start with the dipping sauce. Heat the double cream in a small pan until just steaming and bubbles fringe the edge — don't let it boil, or the cream splits and the sauce turns greasy. Pour over the chopped chocolate, leave for 2 minutes to soften, then stir from the centre outward until glossy. Stir in the golden syrup and the pinch of chilli powder. Taste it — that whisper of salt from the chocolate should lift the bitterness; if it tastes flat, add the tiniest pinch of salt to wake it up. Keep warm over the lowest heat.
2. Tip the water, 2 tbsp caster sugar, the half-teaspoon of salt and 2 tbsp vegetable oil into a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil — that salt isn't optional, it's what stops the dough tasting of raw flour. Take off the heat and beat in the flour all at once with a wooden spoon. Work quickly: 30–40 seconds of hard beating until the dough comes together smooth, glossy, and pulls cleanly away from the sides in a single ball. Rest for 5 minutes — this lets the flour fully hydrate so the dough pipes without splitting.
3. Mix the 3 tbsp caster sugar with the cinnamon on a wide plate, spreading it out so the churros have room to roll.
4. Spoon the warm dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle — the ridges aren't decorative, they give the oil more surface to crisp against. Pour 5cm of vegetable oil into a deep, heavy saucepan and heat to 180°C. No thermometer? A cube of bread should turn deep golden in 30 seconds. Too cool and the churros drink oil; too hot and they brown before the centre cooks.
5. Pipe 12cm lengths straight into the oil, snipping with oiled scissors. Fry in batches of 3–4 — don't crowd the pan, or the oil temperature crashes and you'll get pale, greasy churros instead of crisp ones. Cook for 3–4 minutes, turning once or twice, until deep golden brown and properly crisp — pale churros are doughy churros. Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain briefly on kitchen paper.
6. While still hot and hissing, roll the churros through the cinnamon sugar until thickly coated — the residual oil is the glue, so don't dawdle. Taste one: the sugar should crackle, the inside should be tender, and you should feel that pinch of salt humming underneath. Adjust the cinnamon-sugar plate now if it needs more bite.
7. Pile the churros onto a platter, dust with extra cinnamon sugar, and set the small bowls of warm chocolate sauce alongside for dipping. Serve immediately — churros wait for no one.