This post is sponsored by Sprouts Farmers Market. As always, all opinions and recipes are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that support 40 Aprons! There are certain foods that punctuate my life’s memories, appearing in different forms and in different contexts, meaning entirely different things. The different manifestations of the particular dish ends up defining a period of my life, mutating with growth and movement.One of these especially memorable foods for me? The humble churro. The stick of fried dough, rolled in cinnamon sugar and burrowed inside a cardboard carrying case for on-the-go churro devouring on 5a Avenida in Playa del Carmen. Or maybe balanced on a tiny teacup of dark chocolate sauce in Madrid, toddler hands grabbing incessantly for the curved wand. Or maybe fried by high school students from a giant box in the freezer, the bottom half wrapped in a food service sheet of wax paper with a zig-zag edge, passed out at Disneyland or, you know, Costco. No matter the medium, the churro seems to pop up in my life at different junctures, serving as a representative memory from each moment.It was the churros con chocolate in Madrid that really did it for me, though, that really convinced me of the gourmet versatility of the humble treat. We were staying near the Palacio with my parents and with Leo, and O and my dad had gone exploring during naptime the day before. They came back excited about this little pastry shop with giant vats of chocolate visible through the windows, insisting on taking us there for breakfast the next day. We very generously obliged and found ourselves at an elegant diner-inspired Spanish staple with black-and-white tiled floors and café chairs settled around the bar. Open 24 hours a day just in case, Chocolatería San Ginés is known for their churros and dark chocolate sauce, served in a little teacup to encourage you to finish it all.In fact, the emphasis on the chocolate leads their vernacular: the dish is called chocolate con churros, rather than churros con chocolate. And for good reason! The chocolate was so deep and rich, it inspired me almost more than the churros themselves. Almost.And so, almost a year later, with fall on the horizon, I knew I had to come up with a paleo pumpkin churro of my own, served with a rich, dark chocolate sauce, inspired by the Chocolatería I can’t wait to revisit. The thing is, though, I kind of hate deep frying. So much oil! So much mess. Just… if I don’t have to, I don’t want to. Instead, I opted for cooking these paleo pumpkin churros with chocolate sauce in the waffle iron, making them super easy to bake, yet still crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Kind of perfect for National Waffle Day, don’t you think?These paleo pumpkin churros with chocolate sauce are paleo fall recipe perfection. Truly, don’t let winter take over your crisp autumn days without making these first!
