This Is Why Churros Can Sometimes Explode
This week in food news, a teen is making churros for Spanish class. I know what you're thinking: must be a slow news week. I thought so too. Until I watched the video about the classic Mexican crunchy pastry with a "surprise" center — and over 73 million TikTok views (and counting).
Meet TikTok user Morgan — the high schooler who just wanted to ace her school project by making homemade churros.
As the video's caption stated, it was her first time making the fried dough treat. She sat her father down to try her chocolate-dipped project, stating in American-accented Spanish: "a tiempo probar los churros."
Everything was going great… until her dad took the first bite on camera. Cue: the explosion. Morgan let out a startled laugh after her dad's first bite made a sound like a gunshot and bits of churro flew out of his mouth.
People's hilarious reactions to the video were probably a small consolation as Morgan and her dad cleaned up the dough shrapnel. One TikTok user commented: "girl, they said assignment, not assassinate." Another commented: "Spanish project or science project?"
The comments were FLOODED with more than just reactions — people were trying to figure out what happened:
And a few food science-savvy chimed in with their opinions. One user argued: "The churro exploded because steam got trapped inside the dough, and the pressure blew it up when it couldn't escape. Basically, [she] made a mini pastry bomb."
And yep — they're right!
Churro dough contains egg, which produces steam when fried. Another comment furthered the point: "That's why churros are a star shape with lines on them and not round."
If you looked closely, you can see this Spanish project is missing a key feature of most churros: the ridged edges:
Turns out those little ridges on the fritters aren't just for show. They increase the dough's surface area, allowing steam to escape, which is critical to preventing what happened to Morgan's dad.
Trapped hot steam doesn't just ruin the churro, it can also be dangerous. People in the comments were seriously worried about her dad — if the steam had actually burned him — so they made sure to give us an update video.
In an update video, the dad said, "I took a bite and thought my head was going to blow off.... I won't be able to taste anything for at least a year... my lips are burned, but I'm not dead."
Morgan laughed in reaction to the exploding churro, which could make you think it was some sort of prank. One commenter suggested foul play, saying, "I'm convinced there's a reason you didn't go first lmao." But the father was just an unfortunate snafu.
In the follow-up video, the dad said, "It was a total accident. 100%. We were both in shock... She's a good daughter." People were both wildly entertained by the update on the whole debacle and incredibly relieved.
No word yet on whether Morgan's exploding churros earned her a passing grade — but if viral views count, she's got an A+ in the bag!
If you're suddenly craving the cinnamon-sugary street food, but don't want to suffer the same fate as Morgan, check out our churro recipes by downloading the free Tasty app and searching "churro." Our "How To Make Perfect Churros Every Time" recipe tutorial is foolproof!
Ironically, we even have a "molten churro bomb recipe" — But, if it's Morgan reading this, mayyyybe wait a few weeks before trying out this recipe with your dad.
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