A little over a year ago Nick and I flew to Seattle to visit Nick’s parents. We were pretty hungry after our flight so we decided to grab a snack at Jack in the Box. Well we got a small order of churros bites (really random that Jack in the Box would make them) and OH MY! They were the best churros I had ever had! Why? Because they were filled with caramel! We almost went back and got more. I attempted making churros the other day and they were good, but too thin to pipe caramel into (you need a gigantic start tip for the dough which I don’t have…yet) so I came up with these yummy churro donut holes. And boy are they good!
The dough recipe is slightly adapted from my grandmother’s fried scone recipe (coming soon!) with the ingredient ratios slightly altered because I had to forth her recipe (good thing because this recipe makes 50 donut holes) and measuring conversions can always get a little complicated. You might be asking “Why is there baking powder and yeast?” I asked the same thing too but baking powder is double acting meaning the leavening takes place upon mixing with liquid and also during cooking so with the yeast it really just helps the donuts get extra puffy.
Just look at that! Y-U-M! You will just die when you bite into these light and tender donut holes! Cinnamon & sugar stuck to your lips and yummy warm caramel gushing out…Mmmm. You just have to try them! This are where it’s at people!
Dulce de Leche Churro Donut Holes
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm scalded milk 110-120 degrees F
- 2- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 1/2 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/8 teaspoon yeast
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 can Dulce de Leche
- Vegetable or canola oil for frying
Instructions
- Heat the milk in the microwave for 1-2 minutes to scald and allow it to cool to 110-120 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, mix 2 cups flour with the rest of the dry ingredients (yeast included). Mix in the milk and oil with a wooden spoon (scrape sides of bowl as needed). Add the remaining 1/2 cup flour as needed until dough begins to form a soft ball. Cover with lid or towel and let rise 30 minutes. (After the 30 minutes you can proceed with the rest of the recipe or refrigerate dough up to 1 week.)
- Mix sugar and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Fill a large pot with 1.5-2 inches of oil and heat oil over medium-high heat until 350 degrees F and then slightly reduce heat.
- While oil is heating, empty dough onto a lightly floured surface. Roll dough out until it is 1/2 inch thick. Cut dough with a small circle cookie cutter. Dust off any excess flour.
- Toss the dough circles in the pot but only enough so that you aren't over crowding the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then flip to cook the other side 1-2 minutes until both sides are golden (often the donut holes will flip themselves). Remove with a heat resistant slotted spoon and place on a paper towel lined plate.
- Toss the warm donut holes in the cinnamon & sugar mixture.
- Place Dulce de Leche in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute (in 30 second intervals) or until melted. Place in a piping bag with a 230 filling tip. Poke the tip into the donut hole going about halfway in and then squeeze the bag from the top. The donut will push itself off the tip once the donut hole is full.
Recipe Source: Garnish & Glaze original recipe
(Sorry, nutrition facts coming soon for this recipe. I’m trying to find a way to calculate for how much oil is actually consumed.)
Judi
May 1, 2014 at 12:44 pmThese look so good Melanie! We don’t deep fry hardly ever but we do make clam fritters on New Years every year. We once tried to calculate usage of oil and we’re quite surprised when we remeasured the oil after frying how little oil had actually been used. I will be curious to see how you figure it out :).
Melanie
May 1, 2014 at 9:24 pmI’ve never heard of clam fritters or even tried clam but I am sure it’s delicious because anything fried and crispy always is! And what a brilliant idea for how to calculate the oil! It didn’t look like the oil level in the pot went down that much and a lot of oil was soaked up by the paper towel. I guess I’ll just have to make them again and measure the difference to see! But hopefully I can find some calculation so I don’t have to measure the remaining oil for every recipe.
Lynnie Chard
May 1, 2014 at 7:31 pmThe recipe really needs to say what and when to do with the yeast and where~~~I have never really made a recipe like this before and it is a little confusing. I want to make these!!!
Melanie
May 1, 2014 at 9:12 pmLynnie,
Sorry that the recipe was confusing (I just made some edits to make it more clear). It’s really just an easy/lazy recipe because you don’t have to seperately activate the yeast with water like normal. As the recipe says, you just mix all the dry ingredients together (including the yeast) and then you add all the wet ingredients (make sure the heated up milk has cooled down as stated in the recipe). Let me know if you have any more questions. Enjoy!
Denise | Sweet Peas & Saffron
May 3, 2014 at 10:05 amWow, these look and sound like heaven!
Melanie
May 3, 2014 at 3:01 pmThanks Denise! It truly is like a bite of heaven, especially when they are still warm.
CakePants
May 3, 2014 at 4:35 pmThese looks ridiculously delicious!! If you had an online store for customers to place orders, I’d be stocking up on these immediately!! (I personally am too scared to fry things myself, but these are making me want to overcome my fear…)
Melanie
May 3, 2014 at 6:24 pmYou must overcome come your fears of frying! The tricky part is getting your oil temp right but if you use a candy thermometer (they can attached to the side of the pan) you should be good! Good luck!
Ridwan
May 3, 2014 at 5:32 pmLooks so good, I’m a big fan of dulche de leche, can’t wait to make this yummy donut 🙂
Melanie
May 3, 2014 at 6:21 pmThanks Ridwan! I hope you get to try it soon! 🙂
dina
May 3, 2014 at 7:34 pmthese look addictive!
Melanie
May 3, 2014 at 7:53 pmThey are! I had to send them off to school with my husband so we didn’t eat them all.
Peter Bass
May 5, 2014 at 7:22 amSo it would be a bit of a process but a way to measure the scant amount of oil in them is by measuring (volume or weight) the oil before you fry them and after then the difference is what is, in theory, in the donuts but also have to take into account what drips off after you pull them out of the fryer. Then divide the difference by how many donuts you made. just a thought. may not be perfect but should get close. Hope this helps.
Melanie
May 5, 2014 at 8:44 amThank you Peter! Yeah I’ve been thinking about trying something like that. I’m excited to see how much is actually absorbed into the donut.
Ramela
May 5, 2016 at 5:40 pmI made these cute and delicious little gems and we loved it! Thanks for the recipe. I only had a total of 30 pcs., maybe my cutter is a little bit bigger than yours, they’re to die for!