These gluten free churros are made the traditional way, with French choux pastry, but it only sounds fancy. The batter is super simple to make, and the churros taste just like you remember!
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What makes this the best gluten free churros recipe
These gluten free churros taste just like “regular” churros, since they fry up so light and crispy, with the perfect taste and texture. The dough is stiff enough to hold all those ridges that make churros famous, but it's still light enough to fry into the airy, puffy fried dough we all love.
This recipe is easier than you might expect, since the pastry paste (the step before you add the eggs) is made with cream instead of milk, so we don't have to cook the paste on the stovetop to cook off any extra moisture. That also means that we don't have to cool the paste before blending in the eggs, so your perfect churro dough is ready for frying in just a few minutes.
You can even make the dough ahead of time and store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Just fry it right before you're ready to celebrate at that Cinco de Mayo party, a special birthday party, or even just for taco Tuesday!
Gluten free churros ingredients list
- Cream – Heavy whipping cream has very little moisture compared to milk, so using cream in this recipe allows us to skip the step of cooking the initial paste mixture on the stovetop before adding the eggs. If you'd like to use milk instead, you'll need 1 full cup, and to cook it like we do in our recipe for classic gluten free choux pastry.
- Butter – Unsalted butter adds a bit of moisture, lots of tenderness and helps the churros crisp and brown in the fryer
- Salt – We use kosher salt to enhance the other flavors and balance the sweetness
- Gluten free pastry flour blend – A combination of an all purpose gluten free flour blend like Better Batter, milk powder for richness, and cornstarch for lightness is perfect for this pastry-style fried dough. If you'd prefer to use a single flour blend, just use Cup4Cup gluten free flour (or our mock Cup4Cup).
- Eggs – The eggs in this pastry add richness, make the dough rise as it cools in the frying oil, and hold the pastry together.
- Frying oil – Any neutral oil with a high smoke point will work for deep-frying. I like to use a combination of Spectrum nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening and grapeseed oil, but you can use canola oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, or avocado oil, too.
- Granulated sugar & ground cinnamon – There's no sugar in the dough itself, so the cinnamon and sugar mixture we toss the warm, fried churros in really stands out. Make sure those churros are still warm, so the cinnamon-sugar sticks!
Equipment list with possible alternatives
- Blender or food processor – You simply can't make a smooth, well-blended choux pastry-style dough like this without a blender or food processor. You don't need anything high-powered, though. If you only have a mini food processor, make the dough in 2 batches or your ingredients won't blend properly in an overstuffed machine.
- Pastry bag – Large, disposable pastry bags are the most convenient to use, but a lined, reusable bag is great here, too, since the dough won't stain the bag like something with chocolate might. If you don't have either, you can use a large zip-top bag. Just snip one of the bottom corners and feed the piping tip through there.
- Large star tip – To get those pretty ridges on your churros, you'll need a large star piping tip. The ridges are what hold onto the cinnamon-sugar mixture best. I like the Ateco #867 piping tip.
- Instant-read candy thermometer – To confirm that you're frying your churros in oil that's heated to a consistent, appropriate temperature, you really need a simple instant-read candy thermometer.
- Stockpot for frying – The best way to avoid using too much oil is to use a relatively deep stockpot with a small bottom surface area. The larger the circumference of your pot, the more oil you'll need to reach 2 inches of depth.
- Wire skimmer or tongs – This tool is just for moving the churros around in the oil so they fry evenly, and then lifting them out after they're done frying without damaging the churros and without taking much oil with you.
- Medium saucepan and whisk for chocolate sauce – You don't need a large saucepan to make the chocolate sauce; just make sure it has a heavy bottom so your sauce doesn't burn.
How to make the churros batter
The pastry dough is basically gluten free choux pastry, a light French egg pastry that is also used to make éclairs, profiteroles, gougères, and cream puffs.
These are Mexican-style churros, made with eggs. This dough must be a bit stiffer, though, so that it holds its shape as it fries, and that only makes it easier to work with.
There are also Spanish-style churros, made without eggs, and with oil and baking powder. I love Spain and I love their churros. I ate my very own weight in churros when I was there for a semester in college, but I find that these are easier to get right every time.
Tips for making perfect churros
Let a food processor or blender do the hard work
I find making choux pastry to be infinitely easier and faster with a blender or food processor. And it's really the only way to make a smooth pastry dough with a nice sheen that fries up just right.
I prefer a food processor to a blender, but only because it can be difficult to scrape all of the batter from the blades of a blender. If you only have a mini food processor, combine the ingredients in two batches, each with 2 eggs and half of the remaining dough ingredients.
Use a piping bag and large star tip
If you’re like me, and you’re making gluten free churros for eating and for show, you’ll absolutely need to use a pastry piping bag with a large open star tip (the Ateco #867 piping tip (affiliate link) is a really good one) so you can show off the ridges on the sides of the churros. The ridges are beautiful, but they’re also functional: they hold onto the cinnamon sugar like it’s their job.
Straight vs. curved churros
The longer you'd like your churros to be without twisting and curving, the larger your stockpot or fryer basin should be. For straight churros, you can use a longer pot or just make the churros shorter. Churro bites are delicious and fun!
Make sure your frying oil is hot enough
Be sure to check the oil temperature with a candy thermometer frequently throughout the process, so your oil stays at a consistent 375°F/190°C. Hot oil will seal the outside of the dough with a crisp layer and then gently cook the inside. If the oil isn't hot enough, the dough will absorb too much oil and won't properly brown.
Keeping GF churros from sticking
When you pipe your churro dough into your frying oil, be sure the dough doesn't stick to the bottom of the stockpot by stirring the oil right away (like you would with pastas). To keep the churros from sticking to each, don't overfill the pan with dough. If you're at all concerned about crowding, just fry in more batches.
Don't skimp on the cinnamon sugar mixture
You won't want to handle the fried dough the very moment it comes out of the frying oil, since it will be too hot and it needs to drain excess oil for a minute or so. As soon as you can handle the dough, though, toss it in the cinnamon sugar mixture. I like to place my cinnamon sugar mixture in a ziptop bag, then add the warm churros in the bag and shake to coat them.
If you wait until they're fully cooled, the mixture won't stick. Those ridges in your churros are there for a reason. Do them justice!
And don't skip the chocolate dipping sauce
The chocolate dipping sauce is, clearly, optional, but if you’re going to go through the minor bother of deep frying why not go all the way?
It's really just a mixture of melted chocolate, milk, and a touch of cornstarch to thicken the milk, and you can make it ahead, store it in a mason jar in the refrigerator and then gently heat it in the microwave at 30% power before whisking again and serving. Plus, it's excellent on ice cream, too!
Gluten free churros ingredients and substitutions
Dairy free churros
To make the gluten free pastry flour dairy free, you can use coconut milk powder in place of regular milk powder. Avoid using Cup4Cup as your pastry flour if you're dairy free, since it's made with regular milk powder.
You should be able to replace the heavy whipping cream in the churros with coconut cream. Just refrigerate a can of full fat coconut milk, upside down, for 12 hours and then open it and skim off the solid cream. For the butter, vegan butter should work well (my favorite brands are Miyoko's Kitchen and Melt).
For the chocolate sauce, make sure your chocolate is dairy free, and use your favorite nondairy milk in place of cow's milk. Go for something with some fat in it or your sauce will be too thin.
Corn free, gluten free churros
In place of the cornstarch in the gluten free pastry flour, try using arrowroot or potato starch. There's a touch of cornstarch in the chocolate sauce, and you can just use arrowroot or potato starch in its place. Like with dairy, avoid using Cup4Cup as your gluten free pastry flour if you're corn-free, as it contains a fair amount of cornstarch.
Storing leftover gluten free churros for later
How long does gluten free churro dough last?
You can make the raw dough and store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, as long as your ingredients are fresh. Let the dough come to room temperature before attempting to pipe it into the oil from a pastry bag. It's ready to pipe when it flows out, unbroken, when pressed through a pastry tip.
How do I reheat churros?
You can refresh your fried churros in a 300°F/149°C oven in a single layer on a lined baking sheet. Sprinkle them with a bit of lukewarm water first, and then warm them for about 10 minutes in the oven before serving.
FAQs
Churros taste a lot like yeasted donuts, with a crisp outer sheet and fluffy fried dough inside. In other words, delicious!
Churros are normally made with a wheat-based conventional flour, so they're not gluten free. These churros are gluten free because they're made with a gluten free flour blend.
Any neutral oil with a high smoke point will work for deep-frying. I like to use a combination of Spectrum nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening and grapeseed oil. You can use canola oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, or avocado oil.
The best oil for frying is usually oil that's slightly “dirty” from already having been used for frying. So if you're looking to impress with your churros, first dirty your “virgin” oil by frying a random piece of gluten free bread you don't need. Strain that out, and start frying your churros!
You can probably freeze the raw churros dough, then defrost it overnight in the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature before frying it. I've never tried this, though, so I'm not sure it won't separate when you defrost it!
Yes, you can freeze your churros once they've been fried. They won't be perfect, but you can defrost them in the refrigerator and then refresh them in a 300°F/149°C oven as described above (sprinkle lightly with lukewarm water first).
You can try baking these churros, but the bottoms of each churro will flatten in the oven and not brown as well. They are also more likely to lose their shape all around during baking. You can try baking them in a 375°F oven, and I think you should sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on top before baking.
I haven't tried this, but I think it would probably work well if you air fry them at a high temperature and spray the tops liberally with cooking oil spray at regular intervals (and before air frying the raw dough at all). Since an air fryer is really just a small, powerful convection oven, you'll probably have many of the same issues as I expect if you bake them.
If your churros feel or taste greasy, it's probably because the oil you used for frying wasn't hot enough, particularly at the start of frying. Frying oil that's hot enough seals the outside of the dough very quickly at the start, so oil isn't absorbed into the dough.
If your churros aren't crispy on the outside, they may have been removed from the frying oil too quickly. If your oil was hot enough (see above), you didn't make ingredient substitutions, and you measured your ingredients by weight as much as possible, soggy or soft churros are probably the result of undercooked churros that remained wet inside.
Churros are best when fresh, though, so if you leave them out without serving them for too long, they may lose some of their texture.
Gluten Free Churros | con chocolate
Equipment
- Food processor fitted with steel blade or blender
- Instant-read candy/deep fry thermometer or mini fryer
Ingredients
For the churros
- ¾ cup (6 fluid ounces) heavy whipping cream at room temperature
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter melted
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ⅓ cups (187 g) gluten free pastry flour (click thru for details; see Recipe Notes for breakdown)
- 4 (200 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs at room temperature, plus more as necessary
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Neutral oil for deep frying
For the chocolate
- 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
- ¾ cup (6 fluid ounces) milk
- 1 teaspoon (3 g) cornstarch
Instructions
Make the churros.
- In a blender or food processor fitted with the steel blade, place the cream, melted butter, salt, and pastry flour, and blend until smooth. The mixture will form a very thick paste that should clump into a rough ball of dough.
- Pour the 4 eggs on top of the paste, lock in the lid, and process until the mixture is smooth and uniformly well-blended (about 2 minutes).
- Open the blender or food processor, and scoop the pastry with a spoon. The dough should be shiny and thick. If the dough isn’t shiny, process again in pulses until it has a sheen, but is still very thick.
- If the dough is too stiff to pipe through the tip of a pastry bag, beat one more egg in a small bowl and add it, bit by bit, processing in between additions, until the dough is the proper consistency.
- Transfer the dough from the blender or food processor to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip.
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a large, shallow baking dish or a large zip top bag, and set it aside.
- Pour 2 inches of frying oil in a heavy-bottom stockpot with high sides and heat the oil over medium heat until the temperature of the oil reaches 375°F.
- Pipe out about 3 strips of dough, 4- to 5-inches long, into the hot oil (if necessary, snip off the end of the strip of dough with kitchen shears).
- Fry for about 2 minutes, gently flip over the churros using a strainer or soft-tip kitchen thongs, and fry for another 2 minutes or until golden brown and firm.
- Remove the churros from the oil to a paper towel-lined plate. Allow to cool very briefly, until they're no longer too hot to handle, before tossing the hot churros in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat.
- If you're using a zip top bag, try cinching or sealing the bag with the churros inside and shaking the bag gently to coat. Return the coated churros to the paper towel-lined plate.
- Repeat with the remaining pastry dough, including tossing the warm, fried churros in the cinnamon-sugar.
Make the chocolate sauce.
- Place the chopped chocolate and most of the milk (reserving about 2 tablespoons of milk in a small, separate bowl) in a small, heavy-bottom saucepan.
- Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted, and the milk begins to simmer.
- To the small bowl with the remaining milk, whisk in the cornstarch until smooth. Pour the cornstarch and milk mixture into the saucepan, and stir to combine.
- Simmer the chocolate mixture, continuing to stir occasionally, until it coats the back of a spoon (about 2 minutes).
- Pour into a small container for dipping, and allow to cool to room temperature before serving as it will thicken as it cools.
- Serve the churros warm with the chocolate dipping sauce. Stir occasionally to loosen the chocolate sauce, as necessary.
- They're best eaten soon after being fried, but can be refreshed in a 300°F oven for about 5 minutes before serving. Try sprinkling them with lukewarm water first, and they will crisp back up a bit.
Notes
- 149 grams all purpose gluten free flour blend like Better Batter
- 19 grams dry milk powder
- 19 grams cornstarch
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Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
cynthia maloney says
Can I use coconut milk in place of the cream?
Nicole Hunn says
Not coconut milk, no, but coconut cream. Please see the text of the post under the heading “dairy free churros” for full information.
Karen says
Hi Nicole,
I have been following you for a number of years, and regularly print your recipes. Recently I have had a pop up asking me to unlock printing, I have to add my email address. It mentions a Grow account, and the address at the top of the page is print.grow.me. This is only new, not sure if it is an American thing, I’m in Australia, or on my side. If I don’t add email I can’t print or close this page. A bit frustrating! Thanks for all your great recipes.
Nicole Hunn says
Hi, Karen, Grow is a service that allows you to save your favorites on my blog and on any other blog that runs the same service, and it allows my advertising management company to serve you more relevant advertisements. You won’t receive any more emails, as you’re already on my email list, and you only have to sign up once. After you sign up for Grow, if you choose to do that, you will only ever have to sign back in if you sign out.
I’m afraid there’s no way for me to customize the window that asks you to sign up for Grow to print, so I can’t explain up front that you won’t receive any additional emails from me or anyone else if you sign up.
If you don’t want to add your email to Grow, you are welcome to browse the website, but you won’t be able to print my recipes which I provide to you free of charge. Thanks for your understanding.
Liz S says
I noticed this recipe was updated after originally published, and I was curious if the amount of eggs were changed? I made this recipe and the dough came out like batter and the churros poofed up when fried, but did not get very crispy and then deflated. They were extremely egg-y. I weighed my ingredients (except the cream which was volume) and used a thermometer to keep oil temp accurate. I used Better Batter but added milk powder and cornstarch. I really want to try again but I am not sure what to change. :(
Nicole Hunn says
The recipe was not changed, no, Liz. As I indicate at the bottom in the notes, it was simplified only, but the ingredients remain unchanged. You may have overprocessed the dough. All I can really say is to make sure you’re measuring by weight, including eggs. You can also try adding the eggs more slowly and processing just until combined after adding about half, then add more very slowly.
Peggy says
These look good. Didn’t realize how much I have missed them until I saw this recipe. Thanks, Nicole!
Lory Sutherlin says
Where do you get the flour that you use in this Churros recipe? I live in a small town, we don’t have a lot to offer.
Jen Small says
Oh my… I can’t wait to make these. I get on here to look for one thing and I get carried away. I could spend hours on here reading and looking at the yummy pics, but alas, I must get back to work. Thanks for sharing! I love your cookbooks and am anxiously awaiting the next one!
Kailey Reeve says
Hey there would your mock better batter flour blend also work well for this? Can’t wait to try these out! :)
Jinan Munro says
What kind of frying oil do you use? Not sure which is the best for frying delicious churros and I definitely don’t want to ruin them by selecting the wrong oil. Can’t wait to make these – they look delish!
gfshoestring says
Hi, Jinan,
I usually use a mix of half nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening and half vegetable oil. I find that it holds a steady temperature well, which is really important to avoid blackening the outside of whatever I’m frying! Good question. :)
xoxo Nicole
Donia Robinson says
I get so confused when you write things like “the chocolate sauce is optional.” ;)
gfshoestring says
Ah, but remember the cake for 1 that I promised might be too rich for 1?…
Donia Robinson says
True, I must trust the master.