Desserts: #74 Churros

Churros are a deep fried pastry that I imagine eating at a Mexican carnival. In fact, I associate is as a general Latino dessert. There are conflicting origin stories to this delectable and neither are from South America. One story claims that the churro was invented by Spanish shepards as an easy food to make over an open fire in the mountains. Another claim that the Portuguese brought the food to the west by adapting a similar one from the Chinese. I have lived in the Midwest my whole life and while I am familiar with fairs (Iowa has one of the nation's largest state fairs) and their food, churros haven't brought their dominance this far north. Regardless of where these pastries came from, they are

delightful in my book. Churros are generally served with sugar and sometimes cinnamon sprinkled on top of the pastry after they are fried. They are usually filled with a fruit or sweet cheese filling as well. I had these particular churros at Super Burrito and Lupita's. When I got them, they were still warm and soft. Every other time that I have had churros, their outer shell has hard and crunchy. I very much preferred them soft. The first was filled with a Raspberry jelly while the second was filled with a cream cheese filling. They were so good that I immediately bought four more so that I could take them home to my family. For my 101 foods list, I try to make as many of the foods myself, but frying is not a real option in my kitchen, as I don't actually have a fryer. I think that I might try to come up with a recipe for a baked alternative and then try. After one bite of these particular churros, they became the new standard for me to judge others against.