Friday, November 29, 2013

Gluten Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free Vegan Churros


Gluten Free Egg Free Dairy Free Vegan Churros
My brother told me I had to make my recent Gluten Free Churros when we visited them for thanksgiving in Albuquerque. One of his four boys, though, has several food allergies, so I had to make them without eggs or milk this time. I wasn't sure if they would turn out well using soy milk, non-dairy shortening, and egg replacer, but you know what? Five out of the six boys LOVED these, and one of the the non allergic kids even exclaimed, "They taste just like the regular churros!" I mean, when you fry any kind of dough and then toss it in cinnamon sugar, it's hard to go wrong. 
These churros don't taste exactly like the ones made with regular all purpose flour, but they are delicious nonetheless. If you need to eat vegan, and you want a sweet fried treat, I think this will satisfy your needs.

Gluten Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free Vegan Churros
     --Adapted from Gluten Free on a Shoestring

Ingredients:
Instructions:
In a medium sized heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring the soy milk and Earth Balance baking stick to a simmer. Stir in flour and stir vigorously for a minute or two, until the mixture comes together and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of a standing mixer (or you can leave it in the pan to cool--but it will take longer).  When dough is cool enough to touch (about 10 to 15 minutes in the mixing bowl, longer in the pan), beat in the egg replacer mixture, a fourth at a time, incorporating each addition before adding the next.
Place a cooling rack over a sheet pan and cover with paper towels. Set aside.
In a shallow baking dish, mix the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large sized heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, bring about 2 inches of canola oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
While oil heats, transfer batter to a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip (It really is worth investing the $6-$7 to make this happen, and there are so many other uses for these tools).
When oil has come to temperature, carefully squeeze about 5-6 inch ropes of batter into the oil, and use kitchen scissors to cut the end. Fry about 4 ropes at a time, turning when one side is well-browned. If churros seem to brown too quickly, reduce heat to medium and/or add a little more oil. I ended up frying churros about 1.5 minutes on each side.
Remove fried churros to the paper-towel lined cooling rack. Squeeze more churros into the hot oil. Then place the fried churros in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and turn to coat with cinnamon sugar. Place sugared churros on another paper towel lined surface and continue with this frying and coating cycle until you are out of batter.


It's really the frying that makes these taste authentic.

20 comments:

  1. I bought a small star tip, would that work? Also, can I use 3 tbsp of olive oil instead of earth balance? I'm allergic to corn so oils are easier to find. Please let me know thank you!

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    1. Ririchiyo, I think using olive oil would be fine. If you're frying in canola oil, you could probably use that instead of the Earth Balance too. I think. As far as the size of the tip, a small star is going to make tiny, crisp churros. I like my churros crisp on the outside and moist in the middle, so a medium tip is the smallest I use. When you say "small star tip" I'm imagining a star tip that has less than a 1/4 inch opening. The one I use has an opening with about a half-inch diameter. Does that make sense? At any rate, give it a go, and see what happens. Let me know if it works for you. Good luck!

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  2. In your recipe it says "5 tbsp of egg replacer" but for Ener-g egg replacer the ratio is 1 1/2 tsp powder + 2 tbsp warm water = 1 whole egg. Your recipe suggest we need almost 10 eggs! O________O Is that a typo or do these churros need that much eggs? ^^;

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Thanks for pointing that out. I rarely use the vegan version of this recipe, so I'm checking with my sister-in-law who does. I'll get back to you and change the amounts up there if she says she does something different. :/

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    3. Yep. The recipe is written correctly. That's what we used for what you see pictured and what my sister-in-law uses when she makes these.

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    4. Do you think if I tried using 4 Ener-g egg replacers it would be awful? I don't want to consume to much carbon from the calcium carbonate since it will upset my stomach so that's rough 1.5 tsp of just baking soda. >_<

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    5. I definitely think it's worth a try. I would probably try to use a medium size tip, as opposed to a large one, to make sure it cooks through. Let me know if you try it and how it goes for you. Hey, how about trying ground flax seeds as an egg replacer. Have you tried that? I have not, but I hear it works.

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  3. I used agar flakes as a substitute and it worked perfectly!

    Question: Do you think these could be baked instead of fried?

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    1. I'm pretty sure you could bake these, although I have never tried it. If you do try it, please let me know so others can benefit from your experience. :)

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  4. I usually use flax seeds as an egg replacer (1TBS Flax seeds mixed with 3TBS hot water = 1 egg). Does 5TBS Flax + 15TBS Hot water sound like it should be about right?

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    2. I think that sounds right. It sounds like a lot, but churro batter is almost like a cream puff dough which has a lot of egg. Hope it works--I've not tried flax seed as an egg replacer yet.

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    3. Vanessa did it work?

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  5. My daughter is allergic to rice and the gluten-free all purpose baking flour in the ingredients has "rice flour" in it. Have you tried a paleo baking flour mix or rice-free flour alternative for this recipe?

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    1. I'm sorry. With this recipe I've only used Better Batter and King Arthur Gluten Free, both of which contain rice.

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  6. If I wanted to use regular eggs, how many would that be?

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    1. You would use 4 large eggs at room temperature. See the following link for the version of this recipe that uses eggs (and butter):
      http://www.food-pusher.com/2013/11/gluten-free-churros.html

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  7. Hey, do you know if the Ener-g egg replacer has any protein in it? I cant have eggs because im not allowed to have a lot of protein. Do you think you can look for me? Thanks I appreciate it.��

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    1. Go ahead and Google this phrase "ener g egg replacer ingredients" and Google will give you an instant list of ingredients so you can check to see if each of the ingredients will be okay for you.

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