In case the title wasn’t a literal dead giveaway, this week we enter the realm of “la Belle Province”. There were so, so many options of what I could have made to represent Québec (sugar pie, bûche de Noël – ok, that one would’ve been a weird choice given it’s summer, but still an option 🙂 – maple taffy (although a) it’s summer, so no pouring on snow, which feels like the traditional way to create this one, and b) is it really a recipe when there’s only one ingredient and one instruction? Step one – pour maple syrup on snow. Done…Ummm…step two, consume? 😉 ), Sucre à la crème – which is basically sugar fudge (which feels a bit redundant to me. ’cause normally fudge is so sugar-free apparently? 😉 ) Some of the recipes for this one had brown sugar, cane sugar and icing sugar. Amazing.)). Most of the options though were things I’d at least heard of before, so when my eye feel on a recipe for “Pouding chômeur” (aka “unemployed” or “poor man’s” pudding), I was instantly intrigued. Then when I realized how absolutely dead simple it was to make, I was totally sold.
Typically this seems to be made in a regular baking dish, but I wanted to make little individual serving sizes, so I chose to make them in mini ramekins (really to hopefully avoid a self control fail situation 🙂 . If your willpower is stronger than mine, or you don’t care/ feel the need to exert any then you may feel free to do whatever floats your boat).
After I’d made these and they were all completely consumed, it occurred to me that another great idea would have been to reserve some of the sauce to poor on top after they were baked. Oh, and maybe serve with a generous blob (look at me and my highfalutin culinary terminology 😉 ) of vegan whipped cream and/or ice cream. So if you make these, then I strongly recommend doing that, even though I didn’t try doing that at all. I just can’t imagine a world where that wouldn’t be even more delicious. If you’re crazy, feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong (that way I’ll know who to de-friend on Facebook 😉 ).
The taste of this was basically like the softest, fluffiest pancakes you’ve ever had, pre-infused with maple syrup, and then covered in (or “sitting in” is probably more accurate) a maple syrup sauce. It’s definitely sweet, I’m not going to lie to you, so the small ramekin portion size felt just right to me, but if you even have a vague sweet tooth, I guarantee (lawyers note: not an official guarantee) that you will love this.
Eating this also totally transported me back to a grade 5 trip that my class did to Québec City. Not because we had this or anything, but the flavour is just so deliciously maple-y, I could totally close my eyes and imagine being in a maple sugar shack. That’s what the love shack song is really about don’t you think? The love (maple syrup) shack.
“Pouding” aside your healthier eating plan is definitely worth it here 😉 .
Yield: 9 generous pieces, or a dozen smaller ramekins
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup vegan butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg replacer
- 1 cup non-dairy milk
Maple Sauce:
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/4 cup butter
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325F
- Sift together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer. Gradually add the sugar until it is fully incorporated. Add the egg replacer and mix well.
- Alternate adding the flour and non-dairy milk, beating between each addition.
- Grease an 8×8 dish and pour in the batter (alternatively, grease 6-8 ramekins, depending on size, and divide batter evenly. You want the ramekins to be about 2/3 full). Set aside.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, combine all the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for a couple of minutes before removing from heat. Allow to cool slightly (5-10 minutes), before pouring over cake. Do not mix it in, just let the liquid sit on top. Trust me on this one, it’ll sink down as it bakes creating a delicious puddle of maply-goodness once it’s done.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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