Like most women in the South, Suzi Romero has always cooked for her family, but her baking was limited to cinnamon rolls and a few special occasion cakes, until 2020. “My husband passed away and baking was a way of filling my time,” she says.
She began to experiment first with sweet dough pies and got so good at it that friends would ask her to bake for them. Her chili (a recipe she acquired from working at a drive-in many years ago) was another of her specialties that finally prompted her son to, one day, suggest, “Mom you could sell this stuff.”
When it came to naming the business, Suzi received a sign – literally. She was inspired when her daughter gifted her a door sign that read: “Welcome to Granny’s House,” bearing the names of each of her grandchildren, who call her granny. “My grandkids are my heart and soul,” she exclaims.
A long-time resident of New Iberia, Suzi started at the farmers market there, with her sweet dough pies – apple, fresh strawberry and blackberry. Eventually she added lemon, pineapple, coconut, raspberry, sweet potato and fig. She prefers using seasonal fresh fruit – and customers know it. Soon the blackberries will be ripe and she says, “People have been asking for the blackberry sweet dough pies.”
Her dough, the staple of any pie, is her own creation. “It’s a combination of a shortbread and a sugar cookie with a few little tweaks. It’s not dry or cakey,” she describes, going on to explain the three-day process of making the pies. “I make the dough on Tuesday and refrigerate it overnight. On Wednesday, I let the dough warm slightly, roll it out, then cut it into rounds and chill them overnight. Then on Thursday and Friday, I take them out of the frig and let them warm a little again, then stuff the rounds, fold them over and bake them. I want everything as fresh as possible before a market.” A whopping 108 sweet dough pies are made for the Delcambre Seafood & Farmers Market, where customers like all of her flavors.
It’s a labor of love that’s done from her home kitchen. Since recently leaving her part-time job as a telemarketer for a hearing center, Suzi says she’s able to bake at more reasonable hours. “When I worked, I was baking until 2 and 3 a.m. to get things ready for a market.”
In two years she has added, to her product line, mini pecan pies (her mom’s recipe), cookies, various sweet breads and a variety of delicious bread puddings. And there have been some “out-of-the-ballpark” savory additions, like her crawfish queso, spinach shrimp dip, cheesy shrimp dip, jalapeño cheddar bread and gumbo. So that customers always know what they’re buying, samples of the sweet treats and good eats are provided at every market she attends.
A vendor (and fan) of the Delcambre Seafood & Farmers market since last May, Suzi says, “I love farmers markets and collaborative events with businesses. In Delcambre, I like the ambiance of the whole thing. You meet so many people; there is such a variety of things to see, buy and enjoy.”
With summer a month away, Suzi plans to keep things on the lighter side with primarily baked goods, including a new item: mini-Bundt cakes. “I spend the nights researching unique ideas, always wanting to do something different,” she says.
The granny of six – soon to be seven – says, “I never let anyone leave my home who didn’t enjoy my food. When someone says, ‘That’s the best thing I’ve tasted,’ that fills my heart as much as my pocket book.”
Recent Comments