Churro Squares

Whenever people ask me to choose a favorite recipe of mine, I have ZERO issue saying that it’s this one. These churro squares are hands-down my favorite, mostly for the ease, the simple ingredients (only 4 main things needed say whaaa?) and the almost magic of the recipe?

And when I say magic, it’s because when you put these in the oven, you’ll definitely think “ok there is no way these are going to work” but then they surprise me. every. dang. time.

Also c’mon, who doesn’t love churros? The cinnamon-sugar on top of these transports me straight back to any theme park vacation, it’s the perfect way to “getaway” in a snack, even if it’s just for a few seconds!

Ok so let’s dive into the four main ingredients, which happen to be all of my favorite things: oats, one large egg, maple syrup and almond butter.

I know, it’s crazy that that’s IT. But we can get way with this because when you blend oats into oat flour, it immediately becomes the base of the recipe that can hold all of the ingredients while absorbing all their moisture, delivering both an incredibly fluffy cake with an INSANELY moist texture. You might be skeptical now, but just wait.

The other thing I love about this recipe, is since the ingredients are all liquidy (make sure to pick up that drizzly almond butter!) there’s no electric mixer or creaming necessary. You can use a whisk, or even a fork if that’s all you have!

Of course, for this one combining the dry ingredients in a bowl first, then in a different bowl mixing the wet, then adding them together is an important step. This helps evenly distribute the salt and leavener, while helping avoid any clumps!

And I recommend this recipe use an 8×8′ baking sheet. This is so you can easily cut it into 16 squares and also enjoy a relatively low bake time for this type of recipe. However if you want to use a loaf pan or a smaller baking dish, just add on a few minutes to the bake time.

I wouldn’t recommend using any size bigger than 8×8′ though, because as you’ll see, this batter pours in and looks very thin. But that’s because the rise level is huge! However if it was spread out in a bigger pan, I’m not sure you’d get the same result. Let’s stick to 8×8′ for this one!

And one last thing to know, when working with oat flour, or any gluten-free flour, it’s important to let the cake cool fully to help establish the crumb. This is true for any cake, but especially gluten-free ones, that if you cut in too soon it will be a crumbly mess. I know it’ll be hard to wait to dive into these, but it will be worth it in the end I promise!

And yes, if you don’t have oat flour on hand you can always blend up your own! I do it all the time and you can find a link to my blender here.