Because I'm crazy? impulsive? inspired? (we should go with that last one) I decided the other morning after Mass on the feast of Saint Ignatius that we needed something Spanish for dessert. He was a Spanish soldier who had a huge conversion to the Catholic Faith while recovering from a battle injury, and later went on to form the Society of Jesus, i.e. the renowned Jesuit order, in part to help fight heresy spreading in the Church. He's one of the great and most influential saints of Church history. I was partly educated at a Jesuit college where I intellectually reverted to the Church helped along by a Jesuit priest. Despite that I ended up leaving because as a whole it wasn't being very faithful to the Church, I still have a soft spot for their founder and purpose. I am pretty ignorant in Spanish food and culture (though I did take 6 years of the language in school and do remember some if that gives me any credibility?! #no) so I needed to look up the common desserts of Spain.  I settled on homemade churros. Simple ingredients all on hand, no turning on the oven in an 82 degree/no air conditioning kitchen, and basically FRIED DOUGH so...yes. Do I have any idea if Saint Ignatius ate churros? Not a bit. But I'm pretty sure he would have given the chance. I'm not sure historical accuracy is relevant here. It's the intention, right? We're celebrating a great saint, his homeland, and my kids are learning that feast days = delicious.

I will most definitely be making these again! I had no idea they would be so easy and addictingly good! I may need to find more Spanish saints to adopt me. This will most likely be making a comeback come mid-October for one of my favorite ladies, Saint Teresa of Avila but we'll see if I can wait that long.

I was inspired by this recipe which I needed to tweak just a tad.

El Ingredientes:

Olive oil for frying

1 1/4 c. water

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

powdered sugar for sprinkling and/or chocolate sauce for dipping 

(I had a small amount of leftover chocolate frosting in the fridge that I just heated a bit in the microwave and it was perfect.)

El Direcionnes:

Begin heating olive oil in your frying pan. I used my large cast iron that I use for nearly everything and filled it up about an inch or so.

Heat water to boiling. You can use a kettle and then measure it out or microwave in a glass measuring cup. Meanwhile, sift flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together. Add the hot water to the dry ingredients and mix until well blended 2-3 minutes. 

Pour the batter into a pastry bag with a large star tip. You can also use a simple ziploc bag with a small corner cut as a substitute. Once the oil is medium high heat, pipe the batter into the oil. I piped the IHS used in the Jesuit emblem as well as the traditional spirals. 

Once dough is golden (about 1-2 minutes), flip and fry the other side. When done, rest on top of paper towels or rags and continue frying batter until finished.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and/or serve with the chocolate sauce.

Devour with your children. Or by yourself. Whatever.

This was using the original recipe I found. You can see I needed to add more water! The batter should be more...battery...and able to pipe out of the bag.