by Mario Batali

Tejeringos and Chocolate: Delightful Spanish Dessert Treat Recipe
Tejeringos and Chocolate: Delightful Spanish Dessert Treat

In honor of my youngest son, Leo, traveling to Spain with his school last week, I was inspired to look through old pictures from when I lived there during my own high school years. Though I was born in Seattle and my family is Italian-American (with some French-Canadian thrown in there), I got my true food and wine degree while exploring all that Spain has to offer. One of my absolute favorite Spanish recipes, and one Gwyneth Paltrow also loved on our culinary road trip through the country, is tejeringos from Grenada. Now Leo describes the tejeringos he sampled from street carts the exact same way I remember eating them in a hole-in-the-wall jaunt of my old neighborhood. Isn't it refreshing to know that even 30 years later, some things have remained the same?

The novelty of tejeringos is simple. A lot like churros, they are Spain's delightful addition to the doughnut world. They are, in fact, the sovrano of the churro world -- not too salty or sweet or heavy. Just perfect, and here is why.

It's all about the eggs and the lipids in this Spanish delicacy. While the typical churro recipe contains approximately one tablespoon of butter and one egg per dozen churros, tejeringos call for more of both. Three eggs and eight tablespoons of butter go into this mixture, making the texture much airier than your average churro.

The difference between frying oils when preparing churros vs. tejeringos also adds to the lighter density. The churros we've had on the menu for years at Casa Mono in New York, for example, call for 1 1/2 to 2 inches of vegetable oil. This recipe uses eight cups of extra virgin olive oil to fully deep-fry these babies to perfection. They should be super crispy, so be patient and let them really brown. Keep in mind that the olive oil for frying makes this dessert less sweet than the classic churro. Simply add cinnamon sugar or confectioners' sugar, as desired, to up the sweetness as well as to earn presentation points.

Tejeringos are the perfect treat to impress a date, and a spicy chocolate is the perfect pairing. The dough in this recipe often crumbles when dipped into sauces with high viscosity, however. In order to prevent losing your tejeringo in a dipping sauce, simply drizzle the spicy chocolate over your platter of fried deliciousness and dust with more confectioners' sugar (recipe found below).

Mario's Tejeringos Recipe

Excerpted from "Spain: A Culinary Road Trip: (ecco, 2008)

Makes about 12 tejeringos.

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

1 tablespoon sugar, plus about 1 cup for dusting

Pinch of salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 large eggs

8 cups extra virgin olive oil, for deep-frying

Combine 1 cup water, the butter, sugar and salt in a small, heavy saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until butter melts.

Turn the heat to low, add the flour (in one shot), and stir vigorously until the mixture forms a ball.

Remove from the heat and add the eggs one at a time, stirring constantly.

Transfer to a bowl and allow the batter to rest for 10 minutes in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, heat 3 inches of olive oil to 365 F in a large, heavy pot. Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip.

Pipe 4-inch long strips of dough into the hot oil, without crowding, and cook for 4-5 minutes until golden brown. Drain on paper towels, and repeat with the remaining batter.

Dust generously with sugar and serve.

PrepTime: 10 mins

CookTime: 10 mins

TotalTime: 20 mins

Spicy Chocolate Recipe

Serves 8-10.

2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, ground in a blender until fine

Dash of cayenne

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 grated nutmeg

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

8 cups milk, heated

Mix everything except the milk together in a bowl until thoroughly combined. For each serving, use a 2-to-1 ratio of milk to chocolate. Spoon the chocolate mix into a cup and cover with double the amount of very hot milk. Stir until the mixture is smooth and very thick. Chocolate is best drizzled over tejeringos.

Tejeringos, Spanish Chocolate Donuts, Spanish Desserts

 

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"Tejeringos and Chocolate: Delightful Spanish Dessert Treat"

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