Maya-Camille Broussard, star of the Netflix show "Bake Squad" and owner of Justice of the Pies, a Chicago-based bakery is the perfect person to help put a new spin on that traditional favorite for Thanksgiving dessert — pie. Broussard joined Al Roker on his new podcast, "Cooking Up a Storm with Al Roker" to share her tips and tricks for creating a sweet potato plantain pie that's out-of-this-world good — and to share stories of Thanksgivings past.
Broussard said that the origins of the sweet potato are deeply rooted in both American and Black culture.
"The sweet potato is a child of the South," she said. "And it is a child of the Black community. But I had dinner one night in Barbados. And the chef made mashed sweet potatoes, but it had plantains in it." Immediately, that got Broussard thinking of how to make the combination work in a pie.
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"From a technique standpoint, it is a lot of steps," she said. "You have to roast your sweet potato. You have to fry your plantains. It's not simply throwing ingredients together in a bowl. And I didn't know if it was going to work, because plantains are starchier than sweet potatoes."
And while making pie is usually well, as easy as pie, Broussard admits that her recipe is a little bit time-consuming and complicated — but with a great payoff.
"It's not hard to do," she assured Al. "It's just it takes time and requires patience."
To make the pie, Broussard recommends baking the sweet potatoes instead of boiling them so that they caramelize, which makes for an even sweeter pie. She also makes sure to choose a very ripe plantain — a cousin of the banana — for her other essential ingredient, and fries it for three to four minutes until it's golden brown.
She uses an immersion blender on the sweet potatoes and plantains to blend before creaming the butter and sugar for her filling. She adds eggs and evaporated milk before and giving Al the go-ahead to use a pre-made crust as a time-saver before baking the pie until the top is nice and crackly.
While they wait, Al asked Broussard what influences her as a baker.
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You talk about the fact that because you have a difficulty with one sense, your hearing, that it has heightened your sense of taste and your sense of smell. How has that influenced you as a baker?
I don't want say I have a perfect palate, because I definitely don't have a perfect pitch. I can't even sing a lick. But I can smell and taste things, and pick up on things that other people may not be able to, or at least do it sooner. So I was that person, I would say, "What's that smell? It smells like smoke."
And everyone around me was saying, "I don't smell anything." And then five minutes later, they would say, "What's that smell?" I'm, like, "I tried to tell you guys five minutes ago." I'm that way with taste. I'm, like, "What is that," you know? I taste this. I taste that. But did you know that women make better tasters — like, even as sommeliers, and men make better noses when it comes to perfumes. So I think that, also, being a woman helps in terms of taste.
How did your father (criminal attorney Stephen J. Broussard) influence you?
My dad was obsessed with pies. This man would wake up on Saturday morning and put on an apron and the apron said, "Skinny people make bad cooks." And he would actually wear a toque [chef's hat]. I'm lookin' at him, like, "Dude, you are not a professional chef. Like, why are you wearing a toque?" But he took it so seriously. And he was obsessed with pies and quiches, and anything made in a crust. Tarts.
I mean, the man was obsessed with food. Not going lie about it. But he really had a special place in his heart for pie ... because crust’s really kind of difficult to make, or to master. And so he saw himself making a quiche as being very cultured. Like, "Ooh, I'm fancy." So he would wake up, make a quiche or a pie, and then call somebody and brag about it.
It even influenced the name of your company, Justice of the Pies. Where did that come from?
I was trying to think of something that could be a nice play on the fact that he was a criminal defense attorney. My dad nicknamed himself "The Pie Master." So my aunt wanted me to call the company "The Pie Master's Daughter." And I was, like, "Nah. You know, let's be a little bit more creative. What about Justice of the Pies?"
And my cousin was, like, "You know, I like that. That's different." I knew that I wanted, as I do with most things in my life, I knew I wanted it to be purposeful. It just couldn't be a business that made money. But it had to be a business that made a difference. And, because my dad made a difference in terms of being a criminal defense attorney and representing people that looked like him, that grew up on the west side of Chicago like he did, that grew up in the projects like he did.
When you look back at Thanksgiving, what tradition stands out to you?
For me, it was always eating gumbo. That was my family's tradition. I went over to my cousin Robin's house, and I’m trying to learn, trying to get the roux right. And really, it's nothing that we write down, but it's passed on from family member to family member.
So I'm just trying to learn from my aunt and my cousin how to make it in the way that my great aunts did, and my great-great aunts did. Because it's a family recipe and it's a taste, but I've never seen it written down. I've only watched my cousins make it or my aunt make it. I've never seen it written down, ever.
It's cooking by intuition. It's adding seasonings until the ancestors whisper in your ear to tell you to stop, you know? And I support that, too. I didn't eat turkey. I don't recall eating turkey. It's, "I'm going get a bowl of gumbo. And I hope I get more than one crab leg."
When you get invited to a celebration like Thanksgiving, is it because people love you and want you there, or is it because they want your pie?
If they want my pie, then they have to buy it. I'm going tell you something that is kind of sad. Typically on Thanksgiving Day in the past six years, I'm in bed. I'm exhausted. I've stayed up for 48 hours the night before. My mom will make me a plate and tell me to come downstairs and get it. I get it. I eat. And then I eat myself to sleep. I put myself in a food coma.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity — for the full conversation, listen to "Cooking Up a Storm with Al Roker" wherever you find your podcasts.
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