Baked Churros
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Baked churros are just as good as fried churros! Homemade churros cooked in the oven come out golden brown, with a crunchy exterior and a soft interior. This baked churros recipe is incredibly simple to make, and you don’t have to worry about hot oil!
Are Baked Churros Better Than Fried Churros?
I seriously have been on the craziest cinnamon and sugar kick as of lately. After indulging in too many slices of Homemade Cinnamon Swirl Bread I made these oven baked churros to take down to my mom’s last weekend. At first, she wondered if it’s possible to bake churros in the oven and have them taste as good as deep fried churros.
She just raved about them once she tried them! She was a little unsure before she got a taste of those little heavenly choux pastry sticks.
Whenever my mom hears a recipe name that isn’t familiar to her, she’s a little hesitant to dive in. I guess that’s pretty typical though. I’m the same way with dinner recipes, but I really don’t need to worry too much about that since I do all of the cooking.
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Ingredients Need
See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for all ingredients and quantities.
- butter – I used unsalted butter for this recipe, but salted butter works great too. Just omit the salt in the recipe or just reduce it 1/8 teaspoon.
- light brown sugar – Pack the brown sugar in the measuring spoon to get an accurate reading.
- granulated sugar – Also known as white sugar. This is used in the churros and also coats them.
- salt – This helps balance out the sweetness of the baked churros.
- vanilla extract – Use your favorite store-bought or homemade vanilla extract.
- all-purpose flour – This is an important part of the recipe. I used King Arthur brand with a higher protein content. If you use another brand you may need to add an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons.
- large eggs – You’ll want your eggs at room temperature to help them work into the dough easier.
- ground cinnamon – The best part of these churros is the cinnamon and sugar coating.
How to Make Baked Churros From Scratch
Before we get started, we need to do a little prep work. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. and line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Now let’s get to the choux pastry.
Step 1: Heat the water, butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Stirring often to help it along.
Step 2: Once the mixture comes up to a boil, remove from the heat and stir in the flour and vanilla extract. The mixture will look like a ball.
Step 3: Stir in the eggs one at a time until completely incorporated.
Step 4: Once the dough is loosened up by the eggs but pipeable, place it in a disposable piping bag fitted with a 4B piping tip.
Step 5: Begin piping 6 to 7 inch long churros on the prepared baking sheet. You should be able to fit two rows of 8. I like to give the dough a light coating of nonstick cooking spray to help them brown up.
Step 6: Place in the preheated oven and bake according to the directions.
Step 7: Roll the baked churros in cinnamon and sugar until well coated.
How to Store and Freeze
These baked churros are best enjoyed warm and fresh out of the oven but my family will continue to eat on them for the next 2 days. Store them in an airtight container or storage bag. The sugar coating might start to dissolve by the 2nd day. You can reroll them in cinnamon and sugar if you would like.
I haven’t frozen baked churros before, but I’m sure they’re fine stored in a freezer-safe container or freezer bag for up to a month. You will need to reheat them in the oven at 350 degrees F for 5 to 8 minutes.
Recipe FAQs
It’s likely the all purpose flour that you used. I would recommend adding 1 to 2 tablespoons more of flour. It will be okay to do this after the eggs are incorporated.
Unfortunately no. There aren’t any great egg substitutes that will work for these churros.
Yes! I used 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream. I heated them in 30-second intervals and stirred after each interval until smooth and creamy.
That’s a great question. You could dip these in a number of things such as caramel sauce, cream cheese glaze like what I used here, dulce de leche, melted nutella, etc.
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Baked Churros
Ingredients
Churros
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 large eggs room temperature
Coating
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
Churros
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Spray non-stick spray on the parchment paper to make sure there will no absolutely no sticking.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, add in the water, butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt. Stir to combine and help dissolve the sugar. Continue to stir occasionally.
- Let the water come up to a boil. The butter should be melted completely. Remove from the heat and immediately add in the vanilla and flour.
- Stir until the flour is incorporated and forms a ball.
- Make a well in the center of the dough. Add your first egg into the well and stir until the egg is completely worked into the dough.
- Repeat the last step with the next two eggs.
- Add the dough into a piping bag fitted with a 4B OR 1M tip. I chose a 4B. The dough is pretty thick and will take a little muscle to pipe out.
- Pipe the churro dough in straight lines. I did 6 – 7 inch lines of dough and about 16 on the baking sheet.
- Spray the churro dough with non-stick cooking spray.
- Place into the preheated oven and bake for for 25 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes.
Coating
- Add the granulated sugar and cinnamon into a large storage bag. Seal it up and toss it around to mix it up.
- Drop 3 – 4 baked churros in it at a time and roll around to coat them. Repeat with the rest of the churros.
Notes
Nutrition
(Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietitian for special diet advice.)
Followed the recipe and they became eclairs
Just wondering if these can be stored and reheated or need to be eaten immediately? Thank you
They are definitely best when eaten fresh. However, you can fry them, let them cool then put them in a large gallon sized ziploc bag to freeze. Reheat them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes to make them warn and crisp again.
I’ve made these twice, wanting them on a dessert charcuterie board but the did not turn out. The first time the dough was really runny so I added flour until I thought it looked right. They were really dry after baking. The second time I followed the recipe and they were too runny, like pancakes. What did I do wrong?
It could be the type of flour you’re using. They all have varying protein content which can really mess with recipes. Try using King Arthur’s all-purpose flour or Gold Medal is another great option. I just made these tonight after I got your message using King Arthur’s brand and they came out perfectly.
Yay!!! Can’t wait to make these beautiful cinnamon sticks! I already know my family’s going to love them. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!???
You’re welcome! 😀
I did everything the directions said, I even used the flour that was recommended. Yet the dough still came out really runny which caused the churros to burn, they were not edible. What did I do wrong?
Sorry that your dough was runny! Make sure the ingredients in the pot come to a full boil before adding in the flour. If it is still runny, try stirring the flour into the batter over low heat until the dough ball forms. A little extra cooking time may help evaporate some of that liquid. I hope this helps!
What does the “T” mean when you say 2 T. Gradulated sugar?
tablespoon but I’m going to be updating the post with the actual word. 🙂
This recipe was gnarly but rad. The only problems we had with them, was that they were dry and hard to coat. However, they were tasty.