Portuguese faturas

Choux pastries with cinnamon sugar, served at festivals in the north of Portugal.

Ingredients

250ml (1 cup) water

125ml ( cup) butter

Pinch of salt

Rind of 1 lemon, sliced

120g (1 cup) cake flour

3 extra-large eggs, beaten

Oil, for deep-frying

Sugar mixed with ground cinnamon, for dusting

Method

Combine the water, butter, salt and lemon rind in a pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, discard the lemon rind and stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat and return the pan to the stove. Stir until the dough forms a ball. Remove from the heat.

Add the eggs, beating continuously until smooth. Spoon the dough into a piping bag with a large star nozzle.

Heat the oil in a deep pan until a cube of bread browns in seconds when dropped into the oil.

Pipe out 4 tubes of dough, each about 15cm long. Trim the ends with a pair of scissors and drop the strips into the hot oil. Fry in batches of 4 until golden brown, turning once.

Remove, drain on paper towel and roll in cinnamon sugar while still warm.

Makes 12-16