Churros

Vegetable oil or peanut oil

1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter

1 cup water

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons chocolate extract, or to taste

3 eggs, at room temperature

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pour oil into a deep skillet or Dutch oven, you want it a coupld inches deep. Put over high heat and heat to 350 degrees. Check the temperature with a digital or candy thermometer.

At the same time, begin to make churro dough by bringing water, butter and salt to a rolling boil in a 3-quart saucepan. Stir in flour and extract and briskly stir mixture over low heat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball (about 1 minute). Remove from heat.

Beat all 3 eggs in separate bowl until smooth; add to while stirring the mixture. Stir until throroughly combined.

Spoon the mixture into a cake decorators' pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Squeeze 4-inch strips of dough into the hot oil; use kitchen scissors to snip dough to desired length as it comes out of the bag. Any longer than 4 inches and the churros will curl in the oil, which isn't a bad thing. Fry 3 or 4 strips at a time until they are golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes on each side. Remove to a cooling rack to drain.

Mix sugar and cinnamon in a shallow dish. While churros are still warm, roll churros in the cinnamon sugar. Alternately, you can sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Serve with chocolate sauce, for dipping, if desired.

Makes about 30 churros; serves 10.

Henry Gabriel and Deborah Pankey