Vermonters know all too well that in the Northeast, spring can be sluggish. But as the days lengthen, one of the most encouraging signs of the change of seasons is the smoke rising from maple sugar shacks. Ah, maple season! In Vermont, we are fortunate to share a border with Québec, where the maple syrup harvest is joyfully celebrated in cabane á sucre (sugar shack) parties featuring traditional hearty Quebec dishes, accompanied by a generous quantity of maple syrup.
One of my favorite French-Canadian maple desserts is pouding chômeur, often translated as “poor man’s pudding”; chômeur means “unemployed.” It is believed that the recipe originated in neighborhoods of Montreal during the Depression. It was a thrifty way to make a tasty dessert with ingredients that one might have on hand.
This homey dessert is a hybrid pudding-cake. You start with simple vanilla cake batter. Then you carefully pour a hot syrup of maple syrup and brown sugar over the batter. During baking, the syrup sinks to the bottom and forms a delicious maple-flavored sauce.
While I was testing recipes for a recent cooking class on maple syrup, I tried a number of pouding chômeur recipes from various sources. My friend Marie Weiss, who grew up in Québec City, generously shared her family’s recipe with me, and it was by far the best. Merci, Marie!
Maple syrup is no longer a budget ingredient, but its flavor is incomparable. This recipe uses a mixture of brown sugar and maple syrup for the syrup, and to me, the flavor is just right. While nuts are an expensive ingredient and thus not in the spirit of a poor man’s pudding, I find the delicious caramelized nut topping is worth the splurge.
Although you can use granulated sugar in the cake batter, another indulgence is to use maple sugar. It is frightfully expensive, but it imparts a delicate caramel-like sweetness to the cake. It often contains some lumps, so I recommend that you sieve it before you use it in baking.
Another tweak is to incorporate whole wheat flour. Not only does it have health benefits, but its nutty flavor provides a welcome balance to the sweetness of the sauce.
As winter draws to a close, welcome spring with this taste from a cabane à sucre!
Ingredients
Cake:
1 large egg
1 cup white whole-wheat flour, whole-wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter (½ stick), softened
½ cup maple sugar (see Tip), sieved to remove lumps, if necessary, or granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup whole or low-fat milk
1/3 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts, optional
Sauce:
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup water
¼ cup dark color, robust taste maple syrup
1 tablespoon butter
Whipped cream (see Stabilized Whipped Cream recipe below) or vanilla ice cream for serving
Preparation
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with cooking spray or brush lightly with vegetable oil.
2. Place the uncracked egg in a bowl of warm water to warm up. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Beat the butter and maple sugar (or granulated sugar) in a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment (or in a mixing bowl with hand-held mixer) until light and fluffy, scraping sides as necessary. Crack the egg into a small bowl and blend with a fork. Add the egg to the batter and beat until well blended, scraping down the sides as necessary. Beat in the vanilla.
4. Beginning and ending with the flour mixture, alternately fold the flour mixture and milk into the batter with a flexible spatula, making 3 additions of the flour mixture and 2 additions of the milk. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking dish; spread it evenly. Sprinkle with the nuts, if you are using them.
Sauce:
5. Combine the brown sugar, water, maple syrup, and butter in a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Heat in the microwave at High until the butter has melted, about 3 minutes. Alternatively, heat the syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Holding a spoon over the batter, slowly pour the sauce over the spoon into the batter.
Putting them together:
6. Immediately transfer the baking dish to the oven, and bake until the pudding is golden brown, the top springs back when touched lightly, and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan, 30 to 35 minutes. Let it cool in the pan on a rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream, if desired.
Pudding chômeur is best served the day it is made, although leftovers are still tasty.
Serves 9
Per serving: Calories: 270. Total fat: 10 grams. Saturated fat: 4.5 grams. Cholesterol: 40 milligrams. Sodium: 170 milligrams. Carbohydrate: 43grams: Fiber: 2 grams. Sugars: 31 grams (added: 30 grams). Protein: 3 grams.
Tip: With a subtle maple flavor, maple sugar is a seamless substitute for granulated sugar. However, it is very expensive. I have successfully swapped maple syrup for maple sugar in this recipe. In the cake batter, I replaced 1/2 cup maple sugar with 6 tablespoons maple syrup, reduced the milk to 6 tablespoons, and added 1/8 teaspoon baking soda (to the flour mixture in Step 2). I reduced the oven temperature to 325°F. In Step 3, the batter may not be smooth, but it works out fine.
Stabilized Whipped Cream: Chill a deep medium mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for at least 5 minutes. Place 1/2 cup heavy (or whipping) cream in the chilled bowl. Beat with a hand-held mixer until the cream starts to thicken. Add 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 teaspoon Clear Jel,* and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Beat just until soft peaks form. Makes about 1 cup.
*Clear Jel is a modified food starch that works as an instant thickener. It is used in canning and to thicken pie fillings. You can find it where you find canning supplies, at King Arthur Flour, and at other online sources.
—Patsy Jamieson