This was my first time working in the kitchen at the restaurant Yuca Bar with their pastry chef Jesus Herrera. He taught me how to make donuts (glazed and filled), churros, and a simple vanilla cake. He also taught me some tips and tricks on baking and how to make my baked goods more flavorful, have a certain texture, and just come out tasting better. I felt like a true baker in a sense, he gave me a white coat to wear and I put my hair back. We looked at a recipe online for the donuts, but the recipes were in his head for the rest. He told me to always strain all-purpose flour because it can be dirty, he told me to always weigh my ingredients out carefully, and how to beautifully decorate a cake. He showed me where everything was in the kitchen and how to properly use a stand-mixer, and some other tools. We did everything simultaneously. While the dough was rising for the donuts we prepared the dough for the churros. While the churro dough was being mixed in the stand-mixer we prepared the vanilla cake. Then while the cake was in the oven we laid the churros out nicely, and cut out the donut shapes. Then we fried a few churros and dipped them in cinnamon sugar, then ate our creation. He showed me some great ways to decorate a cake. We put orange slices in between the two layers and made whipped cream for the frosting. Then we mixed a strawberry liquid into the whipped cream and spread it on the cake. I wrote all the recipes down on my phone in my notes and wrote down all the tips he shared with me. I felt like his apprentice, and it was truly a great learning experience. He sent me home with the cake, a couple glazed donuts, and some un-glazed donuts.
When I came home I made my own glaze for the remaining naked donuts he sent me home with. I just used what I learned from the day to make the glaze, decorate them nicely, and present them to my family. All the tips and tricks Jesus taught me are stuck in my head forever now and I will never forget them. I understand now that some ingredients need to complement one another, and if a recipe is not executed exactly, you need to find the point of error. Baking is truly an art form and I look up to Jesus and am in awe of what he does. He made sure to stop and check with me if I was following along and doing okay. I am very grateful to have had this learning experience from Jesus and can’t wait to see him again at Yuca Bar in a couple weeks.
Here are the recipes that we used:
Recipe for churros:
Ingredients -
- 1250 mL of water
- 500 grams of butter
- 750 grams of flour-AP-strained
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Less than 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- Drop of vanilla extract or vanilla paste (the vanilla paste is better)
- 16 eggs
Note: Need pastry bag
Steps:
- Spray the cooking tray with cooking spray
- Boil butter and water and vanilla together until you see no butter
- Combine flour salt and cinnamon
- Put the flour mixture into butter and water mixture
- Stir consistently into a dough scraping down the sides in a circle motion
- Mix dough in a standing mixer for 10-15 minutes start on level 2 then go faster
- Then add eggs into the mixture little by little
- Start out with level one then increase
- Dough will be done when eggs are fully combined scrap down the sides as you go
- Put the dough into a pastry bag and make even churros
- Put flour on a tray with parchment paper
- Put flour on top of the churros again
- Cut the edges and cut into smaller pieces
- They put it in the freezer then put in the fryer when customers order it so they’re fresh
- Then put in cinnamon sugar and serve
Cake recipe: Genoa- cake with no butter
What you'll need-
-9-inch cake pan
- 8 eggs
- 200 grams of sugar
- 240 grams of AP flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- One pinch of salt
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 325℉
- Whisk eggs with standing mixer until light and fluffy then put in sugar slowly bit by bit and continue to mix
- Sift dry ingredients together
- Combine egg mixture and flour mixture slowly bit by but in circle motions until no flour is shown
- Spray pan then put parchment paper on the spray again
- Bake for 20 minutes or until you put a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean
- Let cool for 10-15 minutes then continue
- Cut the top off to make it look even then cut in half divide
- To make simple syrup: water and sugar, boil until no sugar is showing
- 3-4 sheets of gelatin in cold water wait 1-2 minutes then put into strawberry purée mixture after it boils - put in larger ice bowl for it to cool
- Strawberry purée for topping- 2 cups, and 1/2 cup of sugar- boil
- 3 cups heavy cream for whipped cream- put in standing mixer for 5-6 minutes
- Mix strawberry mixture into whipped cream then put on the cake
We used this donut recipe first but the dough was not thick enough so we had to start over:
So then we successfully used this recipe instead:
Here are some extra tips/tricks Jesus taught me:
- always read instructions first
- Separate egg yolks with hands
- If it says large eggs and u only have small, put one extra small egg in
- Strain flour before putting in because it could have clumps or be dirty
- When mixing always start on level one for a minute then increase the speed
- We put too much milk in the batter, it’s ok to make mistakes.
- Strain butter into a bowl
- Start with a beater tool than a hook tool because it’s faster, hook is for dough
- For donuts, the dough needs to become a ball and nothing on the sides to know that it’s done
- Spray an inside of a bowl to prep for dough
- If the dough sticks to ur fingers it’s not ready
- Or donuts dough wait till it rises and is double in size
- Gently roll out the dough
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