Healthy Homemade Churros
I don’t think the words “healthy” and “churros” have ever gone into the same sentence before today, but alas my fellow health-seeking friends… Healthy Homemade Churros finally exist!
And no need for the deep fryer and gallons of drying oil!
Looky here ^^ super soft and moist on the inside.
These churros aren’t made with processed and bleached white flour, they are 100% whole grain (and gluten free too)!
These aren’t packed with refined sugar and hormone-filled butter either, they are low in sugar and free of butter.
Nor are these churros fried in sizzling hot oil (which destroys nutrients, eliminates delicate vitamins, yada yada yada), these babies are baked in the oven!
^^ And with that wonderful crunchy, “sugary” sweet coating reminiscent of real churros.
Healthy Homemade Churros
Ingredients
- 210g (1¾ cups) Oat Flour
- ¼ cup Sucanat (or dry sweetener of choice)
- 1 tbs Ground Flaxseed
- 2 tsp Double-Acting Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ½ cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 60g (5 tbs) NON-Hydrogenated Shortening
- 2 tsp Vanilla Paste (I used homemade!)
- 2 tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
- 2 tsp Natural Butter Flavor
- 6 tbs Homemade Vanilla Sugar (or dry sweetener of choice)
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 2 tbs Coconut Oil (melted)
Instructions
- Line two cookie sheets with silicone baking mats and prepare a pastry bag with a piping tip (use the one that looks like shark teeth, like ^^^^^^).
- In a small bowl, whisk together the oat flour, sucanat, flax, baking powder, and salt.
- In a medium-sized saucepan, add the almond milk, shortening, vanilla paste, stevia extract, and butter flavor. Stir with a rubber spatula over medium/low heat until shortening is completely melted. Remove from the heat.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Add the dry ingredients from the small bowl into the saucepan. Stir together. When all is incorporated, place the pan back over the heat and stir with the spatula until thick and it forms a ball (takes ~8 minutes).
- Scoop the dough into the prepared piping bag and pipe long churros out onto cookie sheets (use an oven mit if the bag is too hot for you to handle). Bake for ~12-13 minutes. Carefully transfer the silicone baking mats off the hot baking sheets and onto the counter.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the vanilla sugar and cinnamon. Brush the melted coconut oil over the churros and sprinkle on the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Let cool, serve, and enjoy!
If you have ever seen a nutrition label for typical churros, you will appreciate how much better the DWB nutrition label is. Only 230 calories and 7g of sugar, plus the benefits of 3g of fiber, 5g of protein, healthy fats and whole grains!
Sweet teeth, rejoice!
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With love and good eats,
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– Jess
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Indulge − no strings attached!
Hi Jessica,
Do you have any suggestions for replacements for oat flour for someone who does not currently eat grains. Do you think almond flour would work?
Thank you- recipe looks amazing!
Oat flour is a very unique ingredient, its fiber content seems to absorb liquid well and create a nice dough. In my experience, almond flour tends to make baked goods crumbly, so in order to compensate for that you need to use more binding ingredients (such as ground flaxseed, eggs, etc). Since this recipe is eggless, you might run into more problems with a crumbly texture. If you don’t mind some recipe testing and possibly some trial and error, you can give the recipe a shot using almond flour, more ground flaxseed (or an egg or two) and a little more almond milk if needed (you probably won’t need this if you use eggs).
Good luck!!
-Jess
Oh wow. You’re really making me crave churros now. I used to get those yard sticks of a churro from Costco when I was a kid. Mmm, all that cinnamon sugar dropping all over the car on our way to ice skating practice. Can’t believe you made a healthy churro! You are always so innovative!
Awww thanks so much Pauline!! You totally made my day 🙂
And those Costco churros? Oh gosh, I used to get those all the time too!! It’s amazing how you remember those little details about skating practice when you think of churros… all I remember is being at Costco getting criticized for wanting churros and ice cream when everyone else was getting savory stuff like pizza and hot dogs haha
Wow…these look amazing!! Churros have been on my ‘to do’ list to healthify for abut a year and I still hadn’t got round to attempting it. Great job! 🙂
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I made these today except I halved the recipe and used butter not shortning. The mixture did not form a ball until I had to add more milk/butter. Also it was too hard to pass through the piping bag so I hand formed them. In oven right now.
I’ve heard that sometimes halving a recipe can change the overall outcome, but for me, most of the time it works out okay. The butter for shortening substitute shouldn’t have affected the recipe all that much either. Was your dough cold (from cold almond milk or cold butter)? If it was, it may have been more firm and harder to pipe.
I hope you liked the recipe though!! 🙂
-Jess
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It’s Cinco de Mayo today,., and I have a craving for churros, haha. I can’t wait to try the recipe!!!
Uh Churros and flan originally came from Spain! “Traditional Mexican Desserts!”
Besides the fact that tradition is just something that has been established and used for a long time not where it originated, Mexico was part of Spain and gained it’s independence. So, obviously, their food would reflect where they came from.
I have some food issues. So hearing that l could use almond flour was a big help.
Is there a possibility to use an airfryer for baking/frying churros? It will probably be less healthy but I was just curious.
I’m sure that’ll work but I’ve never tried it. Feel free to test it out!! 🙂