“Food is so primal, so essential a part of our lives, often the mere sharing of recipes with strangers turns them into good friends. “
Jasmine Heiler
Let’s get talking first, shall we? The interview to begin with…then we’ll take a look at this delicious recipe from the section in her book called “Sweets & Treats”.
My interest in food began when I was 18, and I moved out and got my first apartment. I had to learn to cook or else I would starve. The first thing I made was curried chicken and it turned out delicious, so I tried experimenting with different recipes and discovered that I really love to cook.
2. What made you want to write cookbooks, & also, interestingly, a book on how to write & publish a cookbook?
I was looking through some cookbooks wondering what to make for dinner and I couldn’t find a recipe that appealed to me, so I thought it would be really fun to write a cookbook with my favorite recipes. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into, but once I started, I was hooked on cookbook writing.
My first cookbook, Really Good Recipes, was a self-published compilation of recipes I’d made and enjoyed, and wanted to share. I also wrote it because my daughters had moved away from home and kept calling me for my recipes.
Then I thought it would be fun to learn how to cook professionally, so I enrolled in a culinary arts college. While I was there, I wrote and self-published three more cookbooks: Food Feasts, Best of the Barbecues, and The Cheapie Chicken Cookbook, and learned a lot—not just how to cook, but how to write, publish, market, and promote my cookbooks. This led me to write a how-to guide for other cookbook writers: Recipe for a Cookbook: How to Write, Publish, and Promote Your Cookbook.
My interest in food began when I was 18, and I moved out and got my first apartment. I had to learn to cook or else I would starve. The first thing I made was curried chicken and it turned out delicious, so I tried experimenting with different recipes and discovered that I really love to cook.
2. What made you want to write cookbooks, & also, interestingly, a book on how to write & publish a cookbook?
I was looking through some cookbooks wondering what to make for dinner and I couldn’t find a recipe that appealed to me, so I thought it would be really fun to write a cookbook with my favorite recipes. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into, but once I started, I was hooked on cookbook writing.
My first cookbook, Really Good Recipes, was a self-published compilation of recipes I’d made and enjoyed, and wanted to share. I also wrote it because my daughters had moved away from home and kept calling me for my recipes.
Then I thought it would be fun to learn how to cook professionally, so I enrolled in a culinary arts college. While I was there, I wrote and self-published three more cookbooks: Food Feasts, Best of the Barbecues, and The Cheapie Chicken Cookbook, and learned a lot—not just how to cook, but how to write, publish, market, and promote my cookbooks. This led me to write a how-to guide for other cookbook writers: Recipe for a Cookbook: How to Write, Publish, and Promote Your Cookbook.
3. Where do you get your inspiration from?
I love to putz around in the kitchen and just make up recipes from scratch. It’s so fun to create something delicious from ideas in my mind.
4. What is your favourite cuisine?
I have two favorite cuisines: Italian and Mexican.
5. Which is your favourite cookbook in your collection?
I have over 500 cookbooks, and I love them all, so it’s really difficult to choose a favorite, but I’d have to say that my favorite cookbook is my newest cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio
6. Is there an indispensable gadget in your kitchen that you can’t live without?
I have a mini food processor that I totally love. It chops my onions for me. It grinds my spices for me. It makes bread crumbs for me. It grates carrots for me. It does everything but put itself in the dishwasher.
7. Any culinary disaster that you can now look back & laugh about?
A few months after I started cooking for myself, I decided I would make a Thanksgiving dinner – a lavish feast — for my family in my first apartment. Everything went fine except for the gravy. I love gravy and I didn’t know that you were supposed to pour off the fat. I thought I’d be pouring gravy down the drain, so I served the drippings as gravy. It was more like gravy grease, and I had to feed my family Alka-Seltzer for dessert instead of pumpkin pie. LOL.
8. What is your idea of a perfect, simple meal?
Something that can be cooked in one pan, that requires minimal prep, and tastes absolutely delicious, like you slaved over the stove for hours when you really only spent 15 minutes in the kitchen. Having said that, let me also say that my idea of a perfect, simple meal would be spaghetti and a salad, or tacos and guacamole, or—and this is my favorite: A hot, steaming bowl of chili topped with cheese.
9. And what might be your greatest culinary indulgence?
Learning how to make turkey gravy properly.
10. A new year resolution, if any?
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I plan to write more cookbooks and promote my newest cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio.
I love to putz around in the kitchen and just make up recipes from scratch. It’s so fun to create something delicious from ideas in my mind.
4. What is your favourite cuisine?
I have two favorite cuisines: Italian and Mexican.
5. Which is your favourite cookbook in your collection?
I have over 500 cookbooks, and I love them all, so it’s really difficult to choose a favorite, but I’d have to say that my favorite cookbook is my newest cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio
6. Is there an indispensable gadget in your kitchen that you can’t live without?
I have a mini food processor that I totally love. It chops my onions for me. It grinds my spices for me. It makes bread crumbs for me. It grates carrots for me. It does everything but put itself in the dishwasher.
7. Any culinary disaster that you can now look back & laugh about?
A few months after I started cooking for myself, I decided I would make a Thanksgiving dinner – a lavish feast — for my family in my first apartment. Everything went fine except for the gravy. I love gravy and I didn’t know that you were supposed to pour off the fat. I thought I’d be pouring gravy down the drain, so I served the drippings as gravy. It was more like gravy grease, and I had to feed my family Alka-Seltzer for dessert instead of pumpkin pie. LOL.
8. What is your idea of a perfect, simple meal?
Something that can be cooked in one pan, that requires minimal prep, and tastes absolutely delicious, like you slaved over the stove for hours when you really only spent 15 minutes in the kitchen. Having said that, let me also say that my idea of a perfect, simple meal would be spaghetti and a salad, or tacos and guacamole, or—and this is my favorite: A hot, steaming bowl of chili topped with cheese.
9. And what might be your greatest culinary indulgence?
Learning how to make turkey gravy properly.
10. A new year resolution, if any?
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I plan to write more cookbooks and promote my newest cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio.
A churro is Spain’s answer to the donut, a crunchy, deep-fried sweet snack that resembles the horns of the churro sheep. They are popular not only in Spain, where they are often served at breakfast, but also in Mexico, and several other Latin American countries. North Americans are not strangers to churros, which are often found in amusement parks and at county fairs. 
Most cafes in Spain offer churros in the morning, and the most traditional accompaniment for them is a cup of hot chocolate, which may also be spiced with cinnamon. People often dip churros into the chocolate and claim this as the ultimate churro experience.
I’ll vouch for that…it is indeed! Though the recipe didn’t say it, I made a hot chocolate sauce to accompany these crispy bites…delicious beyond words!
I’ll vouch for that…it is indeed! Though the recipe didn’t say it, I made a hot chocolate sauce to accompany these crispy bites…delicious beyond words!
Recipe from Gloria Chadwick’s latest book Food and Flavours of San Antonio
My review & notes are at the bottom.
Churros are often referred to as Spanish doughnuts.
1 cup water
3 tbsp. butter, diced
2 tbsp. brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon, plus more for dusting
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 medium eggs
Vegetable oil, for frying
Confectioners’ or superfine sugar, for dusting 
-Add the flour all at once, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. Remove the pan from the heat and beat rapidly until the mixture pulls away from the side of the pan.
-Let cool slightly, then beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is thick and smooth. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a wide star tip.
-Heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Pipe 5″ lengths of the dough into the oil. Deep fry for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
-Dust the churros with confectioners’ sugar and a light topping of cinnamon.
-Serves 12
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First things first, the churros were excellent! They tasted great!!
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The recipe is fairly straightforward, but you need strong forearms to beat the batter rapidly as it becomes a thick glob after you put in the flour. Reminded me of choux pastry dough, which we used to make eclairs out of for the Pierre Herme’s Daring Bakers challenge; quite similar.
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It was a bit tedious to beat in the eggs too, but once done it was a breeze.
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A point worth adding might is to keep a knife handy to slice the dough free from the nozzle after piping it out into the oil.
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I made a mixture of ground cinnamon & powdered sugar, & sifted it over the churros rather than doing them separately.
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The churros weren’t very sweet, so this hot chocolate sauce paired beautifully with them. The recipe made about 18-20 5″ long churros, & served about 8.
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These are best eaten fresh. However, they’re quite delicious warmed in a moderate oven for 10-15 minutes to crispen them again. Don’t microwave them because they lose their beautiful crsip texture!
totally enjoyed the interview! and those churros look absolutely delicious!
I’ve eaten churros once! And I quite liked them. But 🙁 not good for everywhere else apart from tongue!
Love the pics, Deeba!
That was a great read Deeba…The churros look perfect…have seen it around but never had it yet…
Those look phenomenal! Great interview! I’m dying to check out her cookbook.
These churros looks delicious, you did a great job!
These look awesome deeba!
Deeba, I totally love the churros, especially with the chocolate sauce you made. Your photos are just amazing! Thanks so much for doing the blog interview. Hope you can make it back to San Antonio sometime soon. 🙂 Hugs.
Great photos of the churros! They look wickedly good 🙂
Great photos of the churros! They look wickedly good 🙂
wow churros look great! wish to try them I love cinnamon . your photos are amazing.
Wow droolworthy…..Looks yum. Where is the recipe for chocolate sauce…..?
i need one to dip into the chocolate! these look really perfect! I am looking forward to the cookbook now!
I love churros! Miss having them for breakfast in Spain! Yours came out perfect!
These churros dipped in the chocolate sauce are fantastic!
The chocolate sauce took those churros to a new level! YUM!!!!!!
Amazing! Can’t believe you made churros!
Oh my goodness, they look awesome I like them with dulce de leche a tradition here in my country or with chocolate!!
Deeba a very nice interview too 🙂
All the best!
Gera
I am with you on it….dunking a churro in hot chocolate….heaven! 🙂
love the pics (as usual) and that was a great interview…will wait for ur book eagerly.
I’ve never made them before, they look like strips of heaven, especially when dipped in CHOCOLATE!
Lucky you to receive a copy of Gloria’s cookbook:D Her Tex Mex recipes sound amazing and churros are one of my favourite Mexican treats. They also sold them in Cuba, which makes sense with it’s Spanish influence:D
I meant to try to make churros long ago and completely forgot. I love these and the photos of yours look amazing! I need to do these ASAP
First your photos are fabulous! I want to run out and make some myself.
Second thanks for the interview I enjoyed reading it and will give Gloria's cookbook a look. (I have a B&N gift card to spend).
Third how have I missed visiting your blog?
~ingrid
Judging by your photography, these churros probably taste way better than any churro I’ve had at Disneyland. I love that these are also manageable, and not like the super-long sticks you usually get. These are more like the ones you eat leisurely on a rainy day. Lovely photos.
Looks delicious!I enjoy curro with coffee.Smell so good!Thanks for the recipe 🙂
What a great interview and review, you did a wonderful job. And the churros look so scrumptious, the chocolate sauce was a great idea!
They turned out great, I love a good churro! It’s so wonderful, you made them….my kids go crazy for these every time!
I’ve never made churros, but have enjoyed them many times while traveling. Thanks for the great instructions.
Great job on the churros, Deeba! Lovely pictures too. What a great idea to serve them with choc sauce. I’ve eaten churros in Morocco (just south of Spain) many times. They serve them plain and are usually enjoyed with a cup of cafe au lait or tea. I’ve also had mini-churros that are thinner and shaped into a small ring.
You know that churro looks much better than any churro I have eaten. How did the dark color come? brown sugar? all the ones that i have eaten, looks lighter.
Yummy, deep fried sweets are the best!
churros!! ahhh.these really take me back. love em with loads of cinnamon sugar. x
Seem very interesting…
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