Banana Nice Cream Churros Cups
Okay, we are genuinely obsessed with these right now. Crispy churros cups filled with creamy banana nice cream; it sounds a bit extra but trust us, once you've made them you'll want to serve them at every dinner party for the rest of your life. The outside is golden and slightly crunchy, and the banana nice cream inside is smooth, cold, and just sweet enough to feel like a total treat. It's that hot and cold contrast that gets us every time. If you want to make something that genuinely impresses people without any dairy or eggs, this is the one.
Before You Start
- Muffin tray (inverted) brushed with oil
- Piping bag
- Blender
- Freeze churros cups for about 1 hour until solid
- Oil heated to 180°C for frying
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 475ml water
- tbsp vegetable oil for frying - around 1 litre
- 200 sugar
- 240 plain flour
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 frozen bananas
- cinnamon sugar
- dark chocolate melted
- hazelnuts crushed
Method
Form the churros cups
- Put the water, sugar, vegetable oil salt and vanilla extract in a pan and heat
- Once it’s warm and blended together, add the flour and stir into a sticky dough
- Leave the mixture to cool, then fill a piping bag with it
- Flip a muffin tray upside down and brush oil around the inverted cups so they're well greased
- Then pipe the churros batter around each one, forming cups
- Freeze the churros cups on the tray for about an hour until solid
Prepare the churros cups
- Carefully drop each frozen churros cup into hot oil (180°C) and fry for a few minutes until golden brown
- Roll each churros cup in cinnamon sugar
Make the nice cream and serve
- Blend the frozen bananas, maple syrup and cinnamon together
- Make sure you do this whilst the bananas are still frozen
- Serve the nice cream in the churros cups and drizzle over melted dark chocolate, crushed hazelnuts and some more cinnamon sugar
Tips & Variations
- Freeze your bananas properly: We can't stress this enough; your bananas need to be fully frozen and properly ripe (lots of spots on the skin) before blending. That's what gives the nice cream that creamy, almost gelato-like texture instead of being icy.
- Don't rush the cooling step: Let the churros dough cool down before you pipe it. If it goes into the piping bag too warm it gets really hard to work with and won't hold its shape as well around the muffin tin.
- Serve straight away: Fill the cups right before you serve them. If the nice cream sits in the warm churros cup for too long it melts fast, and while it's still delicious, it gets a bit messy. Ice cream into cup, cup onto plate, straight to the table.
Why This Works
The trick is freezing the piped churros batter on the upturned muffin tray before frying. It helps them hold their cup shape perfectly and means you get that crispy shell without any collapsing. The banana nice cream does all the heavy lifting on flavour, so the more frozen and ripe your bananas are going in, the creamier and more scoopable it comes out. Get those two things right and the whole thing comes together beautifully.