A Conversation with Andrea Pérez
Photos by Brooke Levesque and Bailey Captain
Deep within the heart of Orange County, there is place where community and the craft of artisan baking collide. It is in that juncture that Andrea Pérez has carved out a warm and fragrant corner – Andrea’s Bakehouse. In this conversation, with Edible Orange County, Pérez opens up about the journey that shaped her as a baker, the inspirations behind her signature recipes and how she keeps the spirit of true artisanal baking alive in this fast and furious world.
EOC: Your creations, whether handmade baking ingredients, bread or pastries, exude warmth and nostalgia. What childhood memory or moment first sparked your passion for baking?
Pérez: Because I come from a big, food family and I have many fond memories of being in the kitchen with my parents and grandparents. I grew up in a pretty typical Hispanic household. My dad emigrated from Cuba and my mom emigrated from Nicaragua. Eating good food with family and friends has always been an important part of my life. Every gathering involved a good meal, a cup of café con leche, or a sweet treat, or all the above. I have memories of making delicious, thin sugar cookies with my grandma, Mama Alicia. She would make the dough and a group of us would stand around her making dough balls, flattening them until they were paper thin, and coating them in cinnamon and sugar. I have memories of watching my mom make arroz con leche that we would spoon directly from the warm pot into a bowl. I remember my dad teaching me his grandma’s flan recipe, which I know by heart to this day.
Hospitality and generosity are huge for me because of these moments. One of the most valuable lessons my dad taught me was to give your guests the best of what you have. And so, for me, cooking and baking are synonymous with hospitality. To me, there is no other way to cook for others than to make it about generosity, connection, and quality time. My business naturally fell in line with this because it’s what I know. It’s important to me to create an environment where people feel welcome and served, especially when food is involved.
Sometime in middle school I started watching The Food Network and was completely taken by cooking. I learned from Ina Garten, Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, and others. Watching Food Network was one of my favorite after-school activities. Eventually I started baking for family parties. In high school, my friends would come over after school for baking days.
EOC: Can you walk us through the first item you ever baked that made you think, “This is it—this is what I want to do?”
Pérez: Making my great grandma’s flan recipe is probably what got me started. My extended family loved when I would make flan for family parties. It was special for me as a young kid to know that I was capable of making something that was really good. Flan can either be baked in the oven or cooked in a pressure cooker. My dad showed me how to make it in a pressure cooker. We didn’t have Instant Pots in the 90s, we just had the bulky, scary stove-top pressure cookers. There was a part of me that was nervous to use it every time.
Flan is made up of two components—the custard and the caramel sauce. The caramel sauce is made by cooking sugar in a metal flan pan until it is a deep amber color. We used a set of tongs to hold the metal pan over the stove’s flame and had to keep it constantly rotating so the sugar wouldn’t burn. It was a meticulous and a little stressful, but fun. Once the sugar was evenly caramelized, we would make the custard out of eggs, whole milk, evaporated milk, condensed milk, and a few other secret ingredients. Then we would cover the pan with foil and wrap a rubber band around it to seal it and carefully lower it into a pressure cooker that had an inch of water in it. Once it was done cooking, it had to cool in the fridge overnight. Once cooled, we would take a knife and slide it around the edge of the flan to loosen it and turn it out onto a platter. It was beautiful and delicious every time.
EOC: How do you balance tradition with innovation in your baking style?
Pérez: I lean a little more toward tradition than innovation. My most popular items are my chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodle cookies, and banana bread. Many of my customers appreciate the fact these baked goods bring memories back to them. I can appreciate unique and innovative flavors, but for me, the classics are always best. Simplicity is one of my company’s core values and I really believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I love a warm chocolate chip cookie with a cold glass of milk or a slice of banana bread with salted butter. I enjoy providing my customers with those classic treats. For my company, innovation comes through small tweaks. I coat my snickerdoodles in our handmade brown sugar instead of the traditional white sugar for more textural complexity. I use sourdough starter to leaven my quick breads, which gives them an extra fluffy and moist crumb. These are little tweaks that make a big difference.
EOC: You’ve built a community around your bakehouse. What does “community” mean to you, and how do you cultivate that connection beyond the counter?
Pérez: Andrea’s Bakehouse mission is to create exceptional, high-quality food that gathers people around the table for shared enjoyment. Connection is one of our core values, which helps us in the pursuit of that mission. To us, connection means that we seek to foster meaningful, helpful, and kind interactions with one another, customers, and the community. Food is better when shared with loved ones. I love cooking for myself, but I love cooking even more when I know I’ll have friends or family around my table enjoying it together. Hospitality is huge for me. Hospitality is not just about opening your home to people, it’s about creating an environment where people feel relaxed, comfortable, and served. I want people to feel like their burden is a little lighter when they’re at my house. My hope is that I can create that experience on a smaller scale at the farmers market. It’s important to me to take the time to chat with my customers, remember their names, and create some level of fun and enjoyment while they’re at my booth. My team and I enjoy talking and laughing with our customers. I think it’s a combination of the delicious baked goods and the hospitality continues to bring people back. Come by the Orange Home Grown Farmers Market sometime to try some samples!
EOC: I love sourdough bread, and I know you offer a Sourdough for Beginners course. What prompted you to offer this class?
Pérez: I was approached by my now business partner, Andrea Collins, at the farmers market about teaching a sourdough class. Yes, we have the same name (pronounced differently). She came up to my booth without having met me previously and asked if I would consider partnering with her business, Higher Ground Wellness, to teach a sourdough 101 class. I was hesitant and told her no several times because I did not think I had enough experience to teach a class. But she finally wore me down and I’m so glad she did. Teaching is one of my passions. It’s a skill that I think about a lot and constantly work to improve. My dream for many years was to become a college professor. I wanted to teach the Bible from a literary standpoint. As a Christian, I love the Bible. As an English major, I am fascinated by the Bible as literature. I went to grad school thinking I would go on to get my PhD and eventually become a college professor. But by the end of grad school, it became clear that I was going to take the baking gig full time. So, for Andrea Collins to approach me and insist that I try my hand at teaching sourdough was a gift. I teach 4 to 5 sourdough classes each month and get to scratch that teaching itch. I always tell my students that sourdough is more of a skill to learn than a recipe to follow. It takes some studying and lots of practice to get it right. I have a lot of fun thinking of different ways to explain the sourdough process. Since we launched Sourdough for Beginners last January, we have taught over 700 people in Orange County how to make sourdough bread.
EOC: Do you have a “desert island” item—the one you’d never stop baking or eating, no matter what?
Pérez: My desert island item is chocolate chip cookies. I love them!!!!!! My perfect dessert is a warm chocolate chip cookie with a sprinkle of flaky salt on top and a glass of ice-cold milk. I like my chocolate chip cookies fudgy in the center and crispy on the edges. In my cookies I use semi-sweet chocolate chips, handmade brown sugar, and handmade coffee extract (to enhance the chocolate), but the pièce de résistance is the chopped dark chocolate that creates pools of richness throughout the cookie. Try chopping up a chocolate bar for your next batch of cookies and I promise you’ll never go back.
EOC: Some people say baking is a science; others say it’s an art. Where do you stand—and how does that show up in your kitchen?
Pérez: I would say baking is 70% science and 30% art, which really works for my analytical mind. I need to know how things work in order to enjoy them. Building my menu came with a lot of trial and error and I learned a lot about food science in that process. My chocolate zucchini bread was coming out flat and dense for a while. After thinking about the ingredients, I realized there was not enough acid in my batter for the amount of baking soda I was using. I did a test batch and added more molasses, which is acidic, and ended up with a beautiful, lifted chocolate zucchini bread. It was exactly what I was hoping for. Knowing how ingredients work together is a valuable skill and it’s one that I developed over time. I developed an intuition about cooking through trial and error, lots of reading, and hours of YouTube videos. Once I had the science down, I was able to enjoy the art more. A lot of people say baking is too much of a science for them, but it’s not much more science-y than cooking is. There are general rules that apply to cooking and baking. For me, the art comes in when I experiment with flavors, textures, and presentation.
I am not really protective of my recipes and I am happy to share them with whoever wants them. In fact, anyone who buys an Andrea’s Bakehouse Espresso Brown Sugar will find my chocolate zucchini bread recipe on the back of the package. The quality of the ingredients and the technique significantly impact the end product. Two people can follow the same recipe but use different quality ingredients and get noticeably different results. Or they can use the same quality ingredients but use different techniques (whisk vs hand mixer, room-temperature eggs vs cold eggs, etc.) and again get different results. So, sharing the recipe is not a big deal to me because there are a few techniques and ingredients I am particular about that give my baked goods a special Andrea’s Bakehouse touch. I get to put on my artist hat when considering how long to cream the butter and sugar, how dark to make my brown sugar, what blend of chocolate to use, and what kind of flaky salt to use. Other people put their own flair on my recipes with their ingredients and techniques.
EOC: You have a devoted following. What do you think it is about your baked goods that keep people coming back?
Pérez: I think the quality of ingredients I use brings people back for more. I am committed to using as many organic ingredients as I can source. I also use butter instead of seed oils in and I don’t add any preservatives to my baked goods. I am actively working toward making my products soy-free by sourcing cleaner chocolate chips. Good ingredients make a better product. I really believe that because I have tasted the difference and have felt the benefits. I enjoy food more when it’s made with good ingredients and I feel better after.
I also think the community-focus brings people back for more. My customers enjoy chatting with my team and me at the farmers market because we genuinely enjoy being there and interacting with them.
EOC: Is there a pastry that took you forever to perfect—one that tested your patience but became a fan favorite?
Pérez: My chocolate zucchini bread is the one that took me the longest to perfect. That recipe is the one that got me back into baking. I was experimenting with unique quick bread recipes and tried a random chocolate zucchini bread recipe that I found online. That recipe gave me problems the first three times I made it. I’m not sure why I kept trying, but I did. I adjusted the leavening agents, the amount of zucchini, the type of cocoa powder, and eventually I ended up with the recipe that I have today. The chocolate zucchini bread has a loyal fanbase at the farmers’ market. It’s one of the more underground flavors and there’s a very “if you know, you know” vibe that surrounds it. Those who like it really like it. Those who are unsure about the combination of chocolate and zucchini usually come around after trying a sample. Speaking of, come by the farmers market on any given Saturday and I will have samples of all of my baked goods for you to try!
EOC: What’s next for Andrea’s Bakehouse? Any upcoming creations, collaborations or dreams you’re ready to share with the Edible OC community?
Pérez: We recently launched a new class called Sourdough Supper. This is a sourdough class combined with a dinner experience. Participants get dinner, a beverage, and a personal pan of focaccia dough that they get to garnish with a number of toppings. I do a 30-minute sourdough lesson and then we bring out the dough for our guests to top with tomatoes, olives, cheese, herbs, and salt and then we bake the loaves for them while they dine and enjoy each other’s company. After dinner, we bring out all the freshly baked focaccia and serve it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It’s such a fun event!
I also plan to start shipping nationwide soon! I am shipping to all of California right now, but plan to be shipping to all of the US by the end of 2025. You can find my handmade pantry staples like vanilla extract, espresso brown sugar, sourdough starter, and chocolate chip cookie mix on andreasbakehouse.com now. You can also order my baked goods for shipping! Everything ships for free.
