Makes 30 churros

Put the butter and a pinch of salt into a saucepan, add 330ml of boiling water and bring to a rolling boil until all the butter has melted.

Lower the heat and add the vanilla bean paste or extract, flour and baking powder. Stir vigorously for about a minute until the batter pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball.

Remove from the heat and beat in the eggs, one after the other. It may look like it won’t come together at first, but just keep beating until smooth. Leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the cinnamon sugar by mixing the sugar and cinnamon on a plate.

Put the churros batter into a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped nozzle.

Heat the oil in a wok or large, deep saucepan to 180°C. Add a small amount of batter to the oil: if it sizzles, the oil is hot enough and you can start deep-frying the churros.

Pipe 12cm strips of dough into the oil, cutting them off with a pair of scissors. Don’t pipe in more than 5 churros at a time, otherwise the wok becomes too crowded and the churros will stick together.

Fry the churros until they’re golden brown, for about 5 minutes, turning them from time to time.

Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and briefly drain on absorbent kitchen paper, then lift onto the plate with the cinnamon sugar and roll in the sugar.

Repeat with the remaining batter.

Just before serving, slightly heat the chocolate hazelnut spread in the microwave or in a small saucepan to make it more runny.

Serve the churros hot with the warm chocolate hazelnut sauce for dipping.