Churros and Spanish Pastry Workshop, Seville

Seville's pastry tradition draws on centuries of convent baking, Moorish sugar work, and Andalusian agricultural abundance to produce one of Spain's richest sweet repertoires. This two-hour workshop, led by a pastry chef who supplies some of Seville's finest pastelerías, teaches three pillars of the Andalusian sweet canon: churros, pestiños, and polvorones.

Churros — the fried dough sticks traditionally eaten with thick hot chocolate — are prepared by the participants themselves, learning the correct dough consistency, piping technique, and oil temperature management that separates a crisp exterior from a doughy interior. Pestiños, the anise-and-sesame honey-glazed fritters traditionally made at Easter and Christmas, are prepared from a short dough enriched with olive oil and white wine, fried in small batches, and finished with a warm honey glaze. Polvorones — the crumbly almond-lard shortbreads that have been a Seville specialty since the sixteenth century — are mixed, shaped, and baked during the session, emerging just before the class concludes.

The instructor explains the historical context of each preparation, including the role of Seville's convents in preserving and transmitting pastry techniques across generations, and the seasonal and religious calendar that governs when each sweet is traditionally eaten in Andalusian households. Instruction is given in Spanish with English translation available.

Participants take home a recipe booklet covering all three preparations plus a box of the pastries produced during the session. The workshop is suitable for all skill levels; no prior baking experience is required. Groups are typically small — fewer than ten participants — allowing the instructor to assist each person during the frying and baking stages.