We love churros. It’s an awesome pastry, very popular in many countries around the world but not very common in South Africa. So we decided to find out who offers the best churros in Cape Town. Before we get into the details of the Churros Challenge, some more info on churros for those who are not familiar with it…
What are churros?
Churros a.k.a “the Spanish doughnut” are made from a pastry, similar to choux pastry, which is piped through a star nozzle into hot oil and fried until it is golden brown. Then, depending on the recipe, is rolled in either castor sugar, cinnamon and sugar, or icing sugar. Finally you dunk these bad boys in a pot of hot chocolate, but real hot chocolate made from dark chocolate melted in cream that has been heated on the stove with a cinnamon stick sitting in the pot.
Since churros are a breakfast in Spain, the Spanish often dunk these confectioneries in their coffee.
The History of the Churro:
No one is sure how exactly the churro came to exist. There are a couple of theories, one involving shepherds who created a cake-like dough to fry as a substitute for baked goods which were obviously unavailable in the mountains. The other theory involves the Portuguese developing the churro as a variation of a doughnut recipe they brought back from China.
Either way, the important thing is that churros exist today and we enjoy eating them!
The Challenge
Churros are popular all over the world, and you can find many interesting variations such as these interesting (and delicious looking) stuffed churros: filled with dulce de leche, custard, orange curd, chocolate ganache and lemon curd.
We suspect the offerings around Cape Town will be closer to the original recipe. While the recipe sounds simple, it’s not that easy to get the churros to be light and fresh, and the chocolate also needs to be up to scratch.
So we found 6 restaurants which offer churros (please leave a comment below if you know if any others we should add to the list):
• Bistro 1682 at Steenberg
• French Toast
• El Burro
• Sotano
• Food Barn Deli
• La Belle Café and Bakery at the Alphen Boutique Hotel
The scoring will be done as follows:
10 for Presentation (look, size, portion size)
15 for Churro (flavour, density & texture, freshness)
15 for Chocolate (consistency, flavor, quality)
5 for Service
5 for Venue
Total: 50 points
Results will be posted on 21st January 2013
Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates as we visit the restaurants.
Comments
10 responses to “The Churros Challenge”
The Pot Luck Club have amazing churros
Thank Sean. Unfortunately Pot Luck Club is closed, opening in their new venue in February I believe.
We’ll have to go and try their churros when they re-open and add our thoughts here.
I’ve had churros at Cafe Sofia before. Not sure if they’re still serve them thought, not listed on the menu on their site.
Thanks Nicola, we’ll give them a call and see if they offer them at any of their restaurants.
Also just remembered that I saw them on the menu at El Hombre Loco. They are in the refurbished food court at the V&A Waterfront, not sure how wide you want to cast your net for this search.
We won’t discriminate, will definitely check out El Hombre Loco. Thanks.
We’ve decided to add a public participation element to the Churros Challenge. Vote for your favourite via the link below…
http://on.fb.me/WlAl1b
French toast had AMAZING churros – so sad that they are now closed 🙁
Yeah, French Toast will be missed for a few other reasons as well. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to at least try the churros before they closed.
ok so I tried to get churros at the food barn deli and the waiter told me they don’t serve them… ?
A person on twitter said the deli does but only after 6pm
hope this helps anyone trying them out
Betty Bake