There’s a reason why they only come in packs of four.
Ever since we heard McDonald’s Japan would be adding bite-sized churros to its menu, we’ve been wistfully fantasising about them, imagining the glee we would feel at throwing them into our mouths one after the other, with the same can’t-get-enough abandon we bring to the chain’s chicken nuggets.
So as soon as they were released on 16 February, we headed out to snare ourselves a box of the new sweets.
▼ They’re officially on the menu as “Hitokuchi Churros“, which translates to “Bitesized Churros“.
When we lifted the lid on the box, we could see that the sweet morsels inside were definitely a lot shorter than regular churros. Plus, in Japan, churros are usually eaten out of a bag at theme parks like Tokyo Disneyland, so this was already gearing up to be an unusual experience.
Lifting one of the sweets out of the box, it appeared to be around six centimetres (2.4 inches) in length, which, in our opinion, is slightly larger than “bite-sized”.
What was more interesting, though, was the fact that it felt hard to the touch — so hard we couldn’t even make a dent in it when we pressed it between our fingers.
After taking a bite, though, we were rewarded with a delicious, gooey chocolate centre. McDonald’s refers to this filling as “molten chocolate“, which is best eaten warm for the most decadent chocolate experience.
The filling was incredibly delicious, but the one thing we couldn’t quite get used to was the texture of the churros. They were much harder than we thought they would be, crunching with each bite like a cookie rather than a fried piece of dough.
Each one had a beautiful, distinctive churros shape, though, and when we thought about it, we realised this was probably due to the hard texture. If they were soft and chewy like regular churros, these bite-sized sweets would probably become a mushed-up mess by the time they were served to the customer.
▼ The texture is more like a sweet that’s been baked in an oven rather than fried in oil.
Fortunately for us, we love cookies, so we chose to see these as churros cookies instead of regular churros. In fact, McDonald’s may have missed a brilliant opportunity to market these as cookies, because as it turns out, churros, in baked confectionery form, are pretty delightful.
The dense texture of these sweets makes for a pretty filling dessert, though, so you wouldn’t want to eat any more than four in one sitting.
▼ Oh, and definitely eat them while they’re hot, because that melty chocolate centre is divine.
If you like your churros soft and chewy, then these little sweets might not be for you. But then again, you might want to give them a try anyway, because churros cookies are a rare treat, especially in Japan.
The Hitokuchi Churros are priced at 240 yen (US$2.10) and will be only be on the menu for a limited time.
Related: McDonald’s
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