- [Beryl] Baking is not always easy.

- Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

- [Beryl] But when done right, delicious things can happen.

- Oh, this is so cool!

- I dunno anything about anything.

My name is Beryl.

As somebody who knows.

And this show explores how our foods can bring our different cultures together.

- And that's good as it's gonna get!

- [Beryl] And this is our baking episode.

- [Amy] This is the satisfying part where you get to punch it down.

- She's clearly not a pie crust girl.

We're working it out.

- [Beryl] Today, I've paired up Amy and Phaedra to swap their favorite baked goods.

Amy will make Phaedra's grandfather's famous Bermudian hot cross buns, and Phaedra will try Amy's butterscotch pie, a well-known dessert in the Mennonite community.

Fingers crossed for everyone.

Let's get started.

- [Amy] Hello Phaedra.

My name is Amy and you will be baking my butterscotch pie.

This is a dish that I inherited from my mother, and my mother's side of the family are Mennonites.

- I have made my own pie crust once and I was under the supervision of my mother.

I feel confident about it.

Okay.

- [Amy] I was not brought up Mennonite and even though my exposure to Mennonites were through my peace politics, I do have a great appreciation for living one's life with integrity and leading a principled life through your actions rather than through your words.

It is simple recipes like this that remind me of some of those values.

- Is it supposed?

Like, I feel like it's too thick.

I'm just gonna keep staring it so that it doesn't burn.

It's fine.

Oh no.

Oh no!

Shoot.

Hi Amy, how's it going?

- [Amy] When it has hardened for me, you just need to gradually heat up the custard mixture flavored with the brown sugar and butter until it begins to thicken like a pudding.

- Okay, I'm gonna just go ahead and take the little blob out and then I'll mix the the mixture, and then I'll add it back in.

All right, thanks Amy.

- [Amy] Goodbye.

I think something's happening.

It's dissolving.

(upbeat music) All right.

Second check on crust.

- [Amy] With some basic ingredients, You can create a dish which has three very different textures, the crispiness of the crust, the creaminess of the butterscotch custard, and the foamy sweetness of the maret.

- Are we ready to torch?

- Phaedra, I am very honored to be able to share this recipe with you and I look forward to learning your tips and tricks for making the best hot cross buns, as well as learning about its importance to you and your culture.

(upbeat music) - Whew.

An experience.

I'm really concerned about the bottom of this.

Pie!

(Phaedra laughing) Now for the taste test.

It's pie!

And it's a tasty pie.

I'm impressed.

I think we've manifested this presentation into existence.

I started off very confident and then I was like, "Oh wait, I haven't made a pie in a long time."

This probably looks okay.

I don't know what's happening over there.

I think left to my own devices, I would've got very stressed at pie crust level because it wasn't holding together the way I thought it should.

Once I press it together, it sticks, but yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to lift it.

Okay.

And then when we got into custard, I would've abandoned ship a hundred percent.

I'm a little nervous about this brown sugar butter combination 'cause it said really specifically in the recipe not to burn it, so I'm like paranoid.

But I think just knowing that it's somebody else's recipe from somebody else's culture and she's given it to me and then also being able to call her during the process and get like a calm reassurance that everything was gonna be okay, it helped me power through to the end.

- [Amy] Half saved.

- All right, no problem.

I'll get it done.

I'll do you proud.

I didn't have any clue what Mennonite culture was.

I've heard of it.

Learning through this recipe like it does take patience, it does take a kind of resolve, and I learned through listening to Amy's story that that is ingrained into the culture of the Mennonite, so I felt that throughout the entire thing.

It was very involved, I'll say that, so I had to be intentional.

Thank you so much, Amy, for sharing this recipe with me.

Although it was a trial and tribulation to get through, I'm happy we were able to make it through.

It's delicious.

I'm so happy we did it.

- No, this is good.

Oh my gosh.

(upbeat music) - [Phaedra] Hi Amy, my name is Phaedra, and today you're gonna be making Bermudian hot cross buns.

I was born and raised in Bermuda, a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Our closest landmark is actually North Carolina, contrary to popular belief of us being in the Caribbean.

- I've always been a little intimidated by blooming yeast, because I'm never really quite sure when they say foamy how much foam are we expecting?

- [Phaedra] Bermuda is a British overseas territory, and some of our cuisine is influenced by that, but we often put our own spin on things.

Just like with the hot cross buns, we put crawfish cakes in the middle.

(upbeat music) When you're mixing the ingredients, you use one part hot water and two parts cold water to make a room temperature mixture.

This will help you achieve this soft, fluffy texture that we love in our hot cross buns.

- Oh, wow.

Look how much that is foamed up.

I have never had yeast that has proofed like that before.

(upbeat music) - [Phaedra] We were lucky enough in our family to have a grandfather that ran a bakery for the majority of his life, so his recipe is actually very coveted.

It's very special that I'm sharing it with you today.

Hot cross buns help me stay connected to my culture.

It's actually one of the first meals I made for my husband on our first Good Friday together, so I could show him what a traditional Bermudian Good Friday looked like.

(upbeat music) - [Amy] Okay, at this point we pray a little bit, I think.

This recipe has involved a bit more guesswork than what I would've expected, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Oh, those turned out so pretty.

- [Phaedra] When you bite into your hot cross buns, you'll be greeted by plump raisins, the warm taste of cinnamon and the sweetness from the icing cross.

We take it up a notch when we add our crawfish cake and we add a little bit of ketchup and mayo to get that sweet and savory flavor that Bermudians love.

Amy, I hope you love making these hot cross buns, and I hope you feel the years and years of Bermudian traditions, of families coming together to celebrate Easter and share time with each other, and I can't wait to try your recipe.

Love Phaedra.

- This next part is really going to make this recipe.

Adding fish as a sandwich to this roll I think is gonna be something that is gonna be so brilliant.

I have no idea what to expect.

Thank goodness for kewpie mayonnaise.

Raisins and savory fish and fluffy bread.

This is just such an interesting and really exciting thing to eat, and I can totally see the cultural inventiveness in coming up with this combination.

I think there's definitely some nerves around trying out a recipe for the first time, especially on camera.

Once the dough came together, then that was the point where I could kind of like breathe a sigh of relief and feel more confident that it was going to work.

Look at this, oh, it is.

It's actually gathering around the hook much more just by adding like less than a tablespoon more flour.

One of the most amazing things about this recipe was how the yeast bloomed.

In the past, it's just sort of like gone milky or it's just been like a few little bubbles, but this was like.

That's, I just think it's monster yeast.

(upbeat music) This has been a fabulous experience.

I've had the most fun.

Oh, wow.

I was so impressed with the pride and love that came through as she was talking about her grandfather.

I think I felt a certain responsibility to Phaedra's grandfather to try to use his process.

Certainly if I came across this recipe where we were said, okay, you're gonna eat this with a crab cake, I might be more inclined to say, swipe, like, I don't know this is gonna be something that's gonna be for me, but I think definitely having Phaedra's recommendation and having a sense that this is something that makes this quintessentially Bermudian would be something that definitely would make me more inclined to give this combination a try.

(upbeat music) - I hope you enjoyed this episode of Pan Pals.

Let me know in the comments how you really feel about baking.

I, for one, am not the biggest fan, and if you liked this show, then you should check out the new season of the Great American recipe on PBS.

The show features 10 talented home cooks in a competition that celebrates the diversity and flavors of foods across the United States.

You can watch the first episode here on the PBS Food YouTube channel and the rest of the season on the PBS app or on your local PBS station.

(upbeat music)