There are so many wacky mish-mashes and hybrids of two or more beloved foods in the world, and I find myself drawn more by curiosity than appetite to see if they do justice to either of the original inspirations, or both, or if they have successfully made something mind-blowing and delicious, finding the elements of muchness contained in each inspiring component and successfully improving on one or both.
And in light of the popularity of last week's post about the Burger King Mac N' Cheetos, as well as the abundant availability of these #Frankenfoods, I've decided to designate my Friday blogs to trying them out.
First on the list is the Oreo Churros:
I am a huge fan of Oreos, they're one of my top- if not the top- store bought desserts. So when I was at Walmart several months ago and I first saw this on display in the end-cap of the freezer section, it took all my resolve not to buy a box right away. It wasn't in the grocery budget, and I could always wait and get them when I was throwing a party or something. It just seemed like a random, decadent, and risky thing to just buy on impulse and make at home on a random evening (not that there's anything wrong with that on principle, but adding in the not-being-in-the-budget thing and I didn't buy it). But last week I found these sirens of the frozen foods section on clearance, and I realized my window of opportunity might be coming to a close.
So I bought them, and found an opportunity to make them up fairly soon. When something may be limited time only, you want to leave yourself some opportunity to go back and stock up in the event that it becomes your new favorite vice. One of my husband's favorite desserts is churros, so I saw this as a strong possibility.
This is what they look like straight out of the box:
They're dense, about 2.5" long, already partially cooked prior to being frozen, so all you really have to do is heat them up and crisp the outsides. Super easy prep- always a bonus. The box said there were "about 20" pieces in the box, and there were in fact 16. IN WHAT WORLD is 16 "about 20"? I only felt slightly ripped off because I'd gotten them on clearance and was just taste-testing anyway, but don't count on planning for specific numbers based on accurate labeling.
I heated them in the toaster oven according to the instructions, and prepared the sugar coating in a small bowl. I didn't come up with this- it came in a packet in the box. It's a mixture of white sanding sugar and oreo crumb/dust:
The finished product came out looking really good, if perhaps a little dirty. I properly rolled about 6 of them in the sugar coating before I got impatient and just sort of sprinkled/dumped them over the tops on the plate.
They were not bad! Good, even, though they failed to earn the distinguishment of surpassing their original inspirations. As churros, they were probably about as good as a frozen churro could be, especially a chocolate one. They were quite dense, even for a churro, which I mostly chalk up to the recipe being too heavy on whatever ingredients make it taste like an Oreo. Churro dough usually resembles more of a Pate Au Choux, or a cream puff dough, which is significantly lighter and eggier than a cookie dough. Also, whenever you add cocoa to a recipe, it tends to become a little heavier. That's just the nature of cocoa as opposed to flour.
And if I had to choose between these and an Oreo, I'd almost always choose an Oreo. However, if I were craving a warm dessert with a molten center, and also craving Oreos at the same time, this would be a perfect solution for a low price and minimal effort.
Finally, my favorite parts were definitely the sugar coating and the fluffy, creamy centers. I expected it would be a slight variation on the original Oreo cookie filling, perhaps a bit more sugary to stabilize the shortening at high temperatures. but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was much more like marshmallow fluff- very airy, gooey, and smooth.
Verdict: Worth a try, just to experience something new. It's pretty good, but you probably won't buy them twice.
Do you know of any hybrid #FrankenFoods you'd like me to review? Have you tried the Oreo Churros? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!
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