Churros Magnificos

I sense a theme lately in my posts.  Must be a Mexican mood!  For dessert for my mom's birthday, I decided to make her favorite Disney dessert.  She calls them Charos (yes, like the singer - I don't think she would taste good deep fried, but it might be a way to get her to be quiet), but the actual name is Churros.  We have been going to Disneyland with her for about 5 years and she still hasn't learned how to say them, but she sure knows how to eat them!  They ARE especially tasty at the end of a fun-filled, junk-foodie day at Mickey's home.
I have tried churros before with very unhappy results.  So, armed with a new recipe and an important innovation from Drew, I was ready to make this dessert.  The results were pretty good!  I got the recipe from Ultimate Mexican.  It is simple to prepare and tastes and smells great!  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
vegetable oil for deep-fat frying
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Procedure:
1. In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, brown sugar, and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon.  Cook and stir mixture until it forms a ball and pulls away form the side of the pan.  Remove from heat.  Let sit for 10 minutes.  Add vanilla and egg, beating well with a wooden spoon. 
2.  Transfer batter to a pastry bag (or cookie press, see below) fitted with a star tip.  Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper.  Pipe 4 inch long logs onto prepared baking sheet. 
3.  In a deep saucepan, heat 3 inches of oil to 375F.  Fry logs, a few at a time, in hot oil about 2 minutes or until golden brown on both sides, turning once.  Drain on paper towels.  Keep warm while you do the remaining batches.
4.  In a medium bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon.  Roll warm churros in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Serve warm.

The innovation Drew came up with was using a cookie press to create the traditional churro shape.  I have a Pampered Chef cookie press that has never seen action.  I opened it up and checked out the designs and Drew helped me pick one that would work - it was perfect.  The press also made forming the Churro dough into churro shapes so simple.  If you don't have a cookie press, you can use a pastry bag fitted with a star tip.