Gluten Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free Vegan Churros

Gluten Free Egg Free Dairy Free Vegan Churros

My brother told me I had to make my recent Gluten Free Churros when we visited them for thanksgiving in Albuquerque. One of his four boys, though, has several food allergies, so I had to make them without eggs or milk this time. I wasn't sure if they would turn out well using soy milk, non-dairy shortening, and egg replacer, but you know what? Five out of the six boys LOVED these, and one of the the non allergic kids even exclaimed, "They taste just like the regular churros!" I mean, when you fry any kind of dough and then toss it in cinnamon sugar, it's hard to go wrong. 
These churros don't taste exactly like the ones made with regular all purpose flour, but they are delicious nonetheless. If you need to eat vegan, and you want a sweet fried treat, I think this will satisfy your needs.

Gluten Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free Vegan Churros
     --Adapted from Gluten Free on a Shoestring

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Silk Soy Milk (Vanilla flavor) 
• 4 tablespoons Earth Balance Baking Stick
• 1 1/3 cups Better Batter Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
• 5 tablespoons Ener-G Egg Replacer powder whisked with 15 tablespoons warm water
• canola oil for frying
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions:
In a medium sized heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring the soy milk and Earth Balance baking stick to a simmer. Stir in flour and stir vigorously for a minute or two, until the mixture comes together and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of a standing mixer (or you can leave it in the pan to cool--but it will take longer).  When dough is cool enough to touch (about 10 to 15 minutes in the mixing bowl, longer in the pan), beat in the egg replacer mixture, a fourth at a time, incorporating each addition before adding the next.
Place a cooling rack over a sheet pan and cover with paper towels. Set aside.
In a shallow baking dish, mix the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large sized heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, bring about 2 inches of canola oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
While oil heats, transfer batter to a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip (It really is worth investing the $6-$7 to make this happen, and there are so many other uses for these tools).
When oil has come to temperature, carefully squeeze about 5-6 inch ropes of batter into the oil, and use kitchen scissors to cut the end. Fry about 4 ropes at a time, turning when one side is well-browned. If churros seem to brown too quickly, reduce heat to medium and/or add a little more oil. I ended up frying churros about 1.5 minutes on each side.
Remove fried churros to the paper-towel lined cooling rack. Squeeze more churros into the hot oil. Then place the fried churros in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and turn to coat with cinnamon sugar. Place sugared churros on another paper towel lined surface and continue with this frying and coating cycle until you are out of batter.

It's really the frying that makes these taste authentic.