Transform Store-Bought Pizza Dough into Deliciously Sweet and Chewy Churros with Our Recipe

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

There’s nothing quite like a golden, crispy churro, pillowy soft on the inside and coated with crispy cinnamon sugar on the outside. Churros might not seem like something you can easily pull off making at home, but in reality, they are simple to recreate with our time saving hack: using store bought pizza dough. These store-bought pizza dough churros, from recipe developer Miriam Hahn, are perfect to serve for movie nights, game days, birthday parties, or just for a fun family snack at home. No need for any complicated batters or fancy tools for shaping the dough into churro shape. In under 40 minutes, you’ll be smelling that familiar scent or crispy sugar and cinnamon dough.

This recipe also proves that store-bought pizza dough is useful for much, much more than just plain pizza. “Using premade pizza dough is a great time saving hack for sweet or savory shortcuts,” Hahn says. “I often use it for garlic knots, pretzel bites, or breadsticks, and sweet churros are my new favorite. The best part is the element of surprise because no one expects to enjoy a homemade churro, and it’s fun to set up a churro bar with all sorts of fun dipping sauces like chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, or strawberry sauce.”

First and foremost, you’ll need pre-made pizza dough as the base of the churros, and your favorite store-bought kind will get the job done. The rest of the ingredients might just be stocked in your pantry. Check for granulated sugar, cinnamon, all-purpose flour, and some type of neutral, high-heat for frying. Good choices for this are avocado oil, vegetable oil, or canola oil.

Remove pizza dough from the fridge and bring to room temperature for about 10 minutes.

In a shallow bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

Sprinkle the flour onto a large cutting board or work surface and roll dough into a 10×10-inch square.

Using a ruler and a paring knife, trim off the uneven edges around the dough.

Cut the square in half so you have two 5×10-inch pieces of dough.

Cut each piece of dough into 1-inch strips.

Stack two strips on top of each other and place a chopstick down the center and press. Flip over and press the other side. Repeat with the remaining strips.

Add about 1 inch of oil to a heavy frying pan and bring the heat to medium-high.

Once the oil is hot, add half of the churros at time and fry for 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Remove churros, then immediately roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat. Repeat with the remaining churros.

Serve the churros with optional chocolate and caramel sauce.

• Honey Whipped Cream Recipe
• Salted Caramel Sauce Recipe
• Caramel Pecan Cheesecake Fruit Dip Recipe
• Super Simple Cannoli Dip Recipe

Before you being cutting and shaping the pizza dough, make sure you’re working with room temperature dough. It will make rolling out easier and help you shape the perfect rectangles for your churros. Rolling out the dough square to a 10×10-inch will result in the proper thickness for the strips, and using a ruler and a sharp paring knife to cut even strips will keep everything uniform. If you don’t have a chopstick on hand to press down in the center of the double stacked rectangle, try using a wooden skewer, a reusable straw, or the handle of wooden spoon. Or you can go for a different look by twisting two dough strips for a spiral effect. 

When you’re ready to fry the churros, wait until the oil is hot (about 375 F) before immersing them. If the oil is still too cool, the batter will absorb excess oil and the churros will get soggy. Also, make sure not to overcrowd the pan by leaving some space in between the churros. You’ll want to have your sugar and cinnamon mixture ready to go so that you can dip the hot churros immediately into it, making it stick well to the churros. For serving, the churros are best enjoyed within 1 hour of frying them.

For the cinnamon sugar coating, you can add in different flavorings like pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, cardamom, or cocoa powder. You can also use a different type of sugar like coconut sugar, date sugar, or brown sugar. Another fresh option is to add freshly grated citrus zest like orange, lemon, or lime peel to the coating mix.

Stuffing the store-bought pizza dough is a fun option too. To do this, roll the pizza dough the same way, then add a spoonful of strawberry jam, cream cheese, or chocolate fudge sauce in the center, and seal the edges of the two pieces together before frying. For this technique you won’t need to use the chopstick in the center so the filling will stay intact.

After the churros have been coated in the sugar cinnamon mixture, you can take it a step further and drizzle on some melted chocolate, and add colorful rainbow sprinkles, finely chopped nuts, or crushed freeze-dried strawberries for beautiful, decorated churros.

• Easy No-Yeast Pizza Dough Recipe
• Simple Churros Recipe
• Air-Fried Chocolate Lovers’ Churros Recipe
• Disney-Inspired Churro Toffee Recipe