The girls at Excelsior Youth Center might not have chosen to come to this residential treatment program, but they certainly want to be in Miss Trisha’s culinary class.
They have to try out for the class, and buy their own equipment and uniforms. Some of these young cooks never knew what it was like to bake holiday cookies, or even eat dinner with a family.
“A lot of times, they don’t know how to eat with a knife and fork,” says Trisha Wilson, culinary instructor and mother figure to many of the girls.
Others yearn to return home. Tabrina, 17, was happy about a visit home for Thanksgiving and planned to bake the center’s famous pumpkin bread and bread pudding. “I always liked to cook with my mom,” she said. “I’m gonna make some homemade desserts.”
Yummy aromas and tasty bread are part of the means to an end at Excelsior, where most of the residents have come from an average of six other “placements” — foster care, rehab, jail. More than 80 percent of them successfully complete the therapeutic program here.
“It’s a small kitchen and there are a lot of girls,” said Wilson. “They have to learn to work as a team and cooperate.”
Today, the girls scrubbed the kitchen and ironed their chef coats for a first: a visit from pastry chef Yasmin Lozada-Hissom, who taught them how to make an apple crostata, a rustic pie.
Her demonstration was part of a program meant to expose the girls to strong female role models. Eyebrows and credibility points went up when Lozada-Hissom, a native of Venezuela, switched to Spanish as she explained a step.
Mix your “drys” together so the salt doesn’t stay in a clump.
Cut butter into small chunks to that pieces don’t stick together.
Use cold flour.
The less we mix the flour, the better.
Flour the spatula before lifting the crostata onto the baking sheet.
As the girls peeled apples and mixed dough, Lozada-Hissom marveled at “the life in their eyes, regardless of all their experiences in the past. For me it’s a joy to be here, but as well, I feel honored to be in front of these girls.”
For their part, the girls shared their feelings about the program:
Natasha, 15: “This keeps me going every day. It puts me in a space where I’m happy and I don’t have to worry about anything except food.”
Nikki, 17: “It helps with skills that we don’t know — I know how to sharpen a knife now.”
Heather, 16: “I always liked to cook at home. I used to make spaghetti on Sundays with my grandfather.”
Tabrina, 17: “This place here helped me focus on my dreams. I know I will make better choices.”
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com.
Excelsior Youth Center’s Holiday Bread Pudding Fundraiser
All proceeds will benefit the culinary arts program at the residential treatment center, including helping the girls purchase a new stove, mixers, pans, an icemaker, a candy thermometer, oven mitts and wall-mounted timers.
Order: trisha@excelsioryc or 303-693-1550, ext. 289 before Friday
Pick up: Dec. 7 or 14 between 1 and 5 p.m.
Where: Excelsior Youth Center, 15001 E. Oxford Ave., Aurora
Cost: $10 per 9-by-11-inch pan, suitable for freezing, serves 8.
Recipes
Pumpkin Bread
The Excelsior Youth Center Culinary Arts program is famous for this moist, altitude-tested bread. Makes 4 medium loaves.
Ingredients
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups pumpkin (1 No. 303 can)
4 eggs
1/2 cup grated apple
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream sugar, oil and pumpkin. Add eggs and apple. Combine flour and other dry ingredients, and stir into pumpkin mixture. Add water and vanilla, then nuts and fruit. Grease and flour four 1-pound coffee cans (or 4 medium loaf pans), divide batter among them.
Bake at 1 hour, 15 minutes. (Can be frozen — cool completely first, then wrap in plastic and foil.)
Bread Pudding
The girls at Excelsior Youth Center Culinary Arts are selling these super-moist bread puddings as a fundraiser. Serves 12-14.
Ingredients
10 croissants
3 cups heavy cream (divide in half)
2 cups white chocolate morsels
8 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 cup applesauce
4 Granny Smith apples peeled, cored, and sliced very thin
Pinch of salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, rip croissants into small pieces and set aside.
In a medium saucepan heat 1 1/2 cups heavy cream to a boil. Remove from heat and pour in white chocolate chips. Shake pan to cover chips with cream. Let stand for 1 minute and whisk until smooth. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon. Add whole eggs, yolks, applesauce, salt, and remaining 1 1/2 cups heavy cream and whisk until smooth. Stir in white chocolate mixture and pour over croissants. Stir until all croissant pieces are soaked and let sit while you prepare apples. Add apples.
Spray ovenproof ramekins or a 9-by-13-inch or 3-quart baking dish. Place pudding muxture into dish and bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and firm. You can bake this ahead and reheat, or serve immediately after baking.
Apple Crostatas
In bowl of food processor, pulse dry ingredients: flour, sugar and salt to combine. Add butter; pulse until mixture is still crumbly. Remove the lid of the food processor and distribute water over the surface.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter, diced
4 tablespoons cold water
Zest of 1 lemon
4 medium Jonagold or Golden Delicious apples
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
Juice of half a lemon
Egg wash (1 egg mixed with 2 tablespoons water)
Yasmin Lozada-Hissom, pastry chef at Duo and Udi’s, taught the Excelsior Center students how to make these simple tarts. Makes 5 medium tarts.
Doughapple Filling
Directions
In bowl of food processor, pulse dry ingredients: flour, sugar and salt to combine. Add butter; pulse until mixture is still crumbly. Remove the lid of the food processor and distribute water over the surface. Pulse again just until it starts to gather into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator while the apple filling is prepared.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Peel, core and cut apples in 1/4-inch-thick slices and toss with flour, sugars, cinnamon and lemon juice.
When ready to bake, divide the dough into 5 even balls and then round and flatten them. Roll them into circles and shape one per person. The remaining dough can be frozen for two weeks as long as the dough is properly wrapped.
Place a mound of the apple filling in each circle of dough and gently bring the edges of the dough towards the center leaving the center open to expose some of the apples. Brush the crust with the egg wash, sprinkle with sugar or sliced almonds and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Serve warm (with vanilla ice cream is very yummy) or room temperature.
