Churros with Mango and Strawberry Dips

Aaaaah churros! Who doesn't love some good old churros? Greasy, sugary goodness. 
They always take me back to my very first trip to Spain when I was 8 years old (since then, Spain has become one of my favourite countries to visit). My parents and I drove around the stunning region of Andalusia - a region famous for its sherry, horses, flamenco, beautiful cities and not to forget the region's probably most celebrated son - Pablo Picasso. 

We visited quite a few cities during our time there, but the one I remember the best (strangely enough) is Jerez de la Frontera. I might just remember it the best, because we did the most sherry tasting there... Imagine an 8 year old, pale as paper girl running from one bodega to another in the crazy hot August weather. It was a rather memorable stay for me and let me tell you - now I know my sherries! Not that I could take part in sherry tasting sessions back then (to be fair, I was allowed to take a nip of the one or the other glass of sherry), but I still remember a bit of what we were told at Sandeman, Tio Pepe & Co.

Anyways - what was memorable as well was breakfast in Jerez. We never had breakfast at the hotel, simply because my parents wanted to experience the city of Jerez, rather than the hotel's continental breakfast (that's actually a great tip for anyone who likes to travel IMO), so we used to go to the city's market hall in the morning- "Mercado Central de Abastos".   It's just as amazing as probably most other Spanish mercado - lovely flair, food and people. 

In the market there's a little booth that was selling freshly fried churros tossed in cinnamon sugar. Believe you me from the first bite on I was in love with this deliciousness and it went on to be our -or at least my- breakfast for the rest of our stay in Jerez. 

I for one prefer to eat churros without any dip at all, just sprinkle on some cinnamon sugar and I'm good to go. I've tried them dipped in chocolate sauce once it honestly destroyed the whole dish for me...but that might also be, because I just don't really care for chocolate (oh God, have I just given away my biggest secret?!). 
The only thing that I could see myself enjoying was dipping the churros in something light and fresh, something that kind of "breaks" the richness of the churros, not enhances it. 
So I came up with 2 yummy dipping sauces - a mango/ ginger dip and a strawberry/ lime dip.

Now, heat up the oil, listen to some Paco de Lucia, pour yourself a glass of sherry and get cooking!:-)

xoxo
Agnes

Churros with mango and strawberry dipping sauce

serves 4 

Ingredients:

Churros:

1 Cup (250 ml) water

1 Cup (160 g) all purpose flour

½ Cup (110 g) butter

3 eggs

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Oil for frying

Cinnamon Sugar:

¼ Cup (40 g) sugar

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

Mango Dip:

1 mango

½ tbsp honey

¼ tsp ground fresh ginger

1 tsp lime juice

Strawberry Dip:

1 ½ Cups (300 g) fresh (or frozen) strawberries

1 tbsp honey

juice of ½ lime and

zest of 1 lime

Method:

1. In a medium sized pot, bring water and butter to a boil. Stir in the flour and keep stirring quite vigorously until all the flour is incorporated and there are no more lumps.
2. Take the pot off the heat and add in the eggs. Stir after each egg until it’s fully worked into the dough. Finally, whisk in the sugar, salt and vanilla.
3. Fill a pan with oil (you want it to be about half-full) – for frying the churros. Using an icing bag, pipe the batter into the hot oil and fry until the churros turn a nice, golden brown colour.
4. Drain off any excess fat by placing the churros on a paper towel.
5. Mix sugar and cinnamon, then toss the churros in the sugar mixture.
6. Place all the ingredients for the mango dip in a mixer and blend until smooth. Do the same for making the strawberry dip. Alternatively you could use a hand-held blender or a fork.
7. Churros are best served warm.

GREATEST Monkey Bread EVER!

Tell me - does this look amazing or DOES it look amazing?! In case you were wondering - it does. Actually, I only recently dicovered the ooey gooey deliciousness they call "monkey bread" and now I wish I knew about it earlier. Not gonna lie - I knew similar cakes like this before (bread? Cake? What's the difference!), but monkey bread isn't only a tasty treat, it's also fun to eat. I mean come on, how often do you get the chance to pull little cinnamony "loafs" of heaven apart? It's like the ULTIMATE CINNAMON ROLL!
Also it's incredibly easy to make, I mean seriously - you don't need too many ingredients and the few things you've actually got to do are manageable. It WILL take up a bit of your time, as the dough needs to rise, but you can't have everything, can you?
Well then, what are you waiting for? Start baking!:-)

INGREDIENTS:

for the dough:
3 1/4 to 3 1/2 Cups (360-400 grams) of all purpose flour
1/4 Cup (55 grams) granulated white sugar
2 tbsp (30g) melted butter
1 Cup (250 ml) warmed milk (not hot, otherwise the yeast won't rise)
1/3 Cup (80 ml) warm water
1 package of active dry yeast
2 tsp salt

for the coating:
1/4 Cup (55 grams) granulated white sugar
1/4 Cup (50 grams) brown sugar
1/2 stick (55 grams) melted butter
3 tsp ground cinnamon


1. First of all, do what I always do to improve my chances of ending up with a perfectly risen dough and turn on your oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 2 minute, so your oven feels cozy warm;) (NOT hot, I repeat NOT HOT). Now heat some water in your water kettle, fill it into an oven proof bowl and put it in the oven under the baking sheet. This creates a warm and moist environment for your dough.
2. Put the flour and salt in a big mixing bowl and give it a stir.
3. In another bowl mix all the other ingredients for the dough.
4. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the liquid mixture. Now take a wooden spoon and stir it all together. When most of the liquid is incorporated into the flour put away the spoon and start using your hands to knead the dough. If you notice the dough to be too tacky, put in some more flour, if it's too dry, add a teeny tiny bit of milk. Knead the dough until it's smooth for about 5 minutes.
5. Spray a large bowl with non stick cooking spray (or simply brush it with any tasteless oil like canola oil) and put in the dough.

6. Put the dough in the oven (or if you don't want to use this method, simply in a warm place) and let it rise for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.
7. Once the dough is ready mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Have your melted butter ready in another. Thoroughly butter your Bundt pan.
8. Pick little pieces from the dough and form them into balls. Coat each ball with the butter first and then roll it in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Then you put the ball in your pan. Stack up the dough balls until there's no more dough left.

9. Put it in the oven again and let the dough rise for another 30 minutes.
10. Take the pan out of the oven and preheat it to 350°F (180°C).

11. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until it's golden brown on top.

12. Let the monkey bread cool for about 15-30 minutes, then put it out on a plate and start pulling apart!

The perfect Red Velvet Muffin!

So, with Valentine's Day upon us the idea is obvious to post a recipe for something that somewhat has a "romantic" appearance, right? Once you can't get the romantic theme out of your head you're already thinking of love and what's the colour of love? Right! Red! What's red.... Actually the first thing that came to my mind weren't strawberries, raspberries, not even a bloody steak recipe was amongst my first thoughts! Haha. Well, anyways, what I was thinking of right away were Red Velvet Muffins! You might think now: Red Velvet Muffins? No Red Velvet Cupcakes? 
Don't get me wrong - I like cupcakes, I really do, but as of now I've got a bit of a "cupcake trauma". All the latest cupcakes I tried -not only the ones I made myself, but also those that were storebought- were incredibly sweet. The one and only thing that they tasted of sugar. So I'm on "team muffin" for now. Not for long, I hope (actually I KNOW, since there are so many yummy recipes to try that I won't be able to resist for too long). Then again, muffins are such a delicious treat an can be just as good, if not even better than cupcakes (just think of raspberry-streusel muffins!!*sigh*).
Now, you also can take this recipe say as a "cupcake base", as it's really delicious not only by itself, but also with any kind of frosting you like (a banana frosting for example, one of my favourites).

Here we go! Hope you like this red, chocolatey goodness just as much as I do:)

INGREDIENTS (makes 12 muffins)

85 g butter (3/4 stick; unsalted)
175 g granulated sugar (3/4 cup)
1 egg 
1 1/4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
190 ml milk (3/4 cup)
220 g all purpose flour (1 3/4 cup)
2 tbsp liquid red food colouring
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
 *note: all ingredients should be at room temperature
1)

Preheat your oven to 200°C (350°F). Put the butter and the sugar into the bowl of your stand mixer (if you don't have one, you can always use a hand mixer) and cream together, starting on low speed, when the butter and the sugar are roughly mixed together already, gradually turn on high speed, for about 4-6 minutes, or until mixture looks light and almost fluffy.

2)

 Put in the egg and mix together for another minute or so. 

3)

 While beating in the egg, take a small bowl and combine the cocoa powder, the food colouring and the vanilla, stiring the mixture until it's got a paste-like consitency. Then mix the "paste" into the batter -on medium speed- teaspoon after teaspoon. Keep on beating the mixture for another minute or two, just to make sure you end up with a smooth batter, without any cocoa-powder-lumps. Use a spatula to occasionally scrape batter from the sides of your mixing bowl.

4)

 Put the salt into the milk. When the cocoa powder paste is blended in, alternately mix in a bit of the milk and a bit of the flour (about 1/4 of the milk or the flour at a time), on low speed. Mix until the batter is smooth.

5)

 In a glass, put in the baking powder, then put in the apple cider. It will come to a reaction and bubble. Give it a stir and mix it into your Red Velvet batter on medium speed.

6)

 Either butter your muffin tray, or put some lovely muffin liners (there are so many beautiful designs, it never ceases to amaze me) in the forms. Now spread the batter into the forms, until each form is about 3/4 full (~1 heaped tablespoon). Bake for 17-20 minutes (to check if the muffins are ready to be taken out and enjoyed, take a toothpick, stick it right into the middle of one muffin and if it comes out clean, your muffins are done!), take them out of the oven, let your muffins cool completely and you're ready to indulge in these perfect, red velvet muffins! You can store them for 4-7 days:)

Happy Valentine's Day!