Brazo Gitano With Burge Road Cherry Cream Filling Recipe

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Makes 6 to 12 servings

I have some of the most beautiful produce in the world readily accessible in my backyard, but when I got a hankering to make my own Brazo Gitano, I didn’t have easy access to local guava.

Remembering that the Brazo Gitano Franco bakery in Mayagüez has a cherry-filled cake, I figured the next best thing to guava was local cherries. That’s how I stumbled on a cherry orchard in

Stockton, California.

Jontue and Oscar Grado are the two young farmers who own Burge Road Farm. On the day that Mami and I visited, we drove down a narrow strip of asphalt that cut a makeshift road through old

walnut, almond and cherry trees. Once in the orchard, we zigzagged from tree to tree, searching through the bright green leaves for the cherries; some were fire-engine red and others the

color of cabernet sauvignon.

Although it had rained furiously just two weeks before, giving some of the fruit fatal cracks at their seams, it was one of those typical sweltering summer days in the Central Valley. Our

hard work paid off. Those were some of the best cherries that we’d had in a very long time. I found it magical; so much so that I had tricked myself into picking 5 pounds of cherries in no

time. Being able to consume only so many fresh cherries, I decided that making jam would be a good way to preserve their beautiful flavor — a jam that would be perfect for my own Brazo

Gitano filling later in the year when there would be no fresh cherries. Puerto Rico meets Northern California.

Tip: There’s no easy way to pit cherries. Either you have one of those little gadgets that pits them for you, or you just smash the sh- - out of them on a cutting board in the same way you’d

smash garlic. And if you can’t access fresh cherries, use the same amount of great-quality cherry preserves!

tablespoons milk10 tablespoons cake flour, sifted1 teaspoon baking powder2 cups cream cheese, at room temperature2 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting