Pâté or Pouding Chômeur

Pâté or pouding chômeur - poorman's pie/pudding - is a deceptively simple French Canadian dessert invented nearly 100 years ago. Why deceptive?

Well...

I've been enjoying it for years and have watched it prepared many times. When my mother and I came to bake it, the short ingredients list and minimal directions lured us into believing that the process would be easy. Yet the slightest alteration in the recipe (we happened to have white sugar not brown) and a rather heavy hand with the flour, resulted in a leaden texture quite unlike the traditional light and fluffy pâté.

Despite this mishap, the flavour did not suffer. We encourage you to try making your own. A decadent maple flavoured dessert that goes well with coffee or tea, ice cream or fruit.

Pâté chômeur
Ingredients for syrup
1 cup (250 ml) maple syrup
1 cup (250 ml) brown sugar
1 cup (250 ml) boiling water
1/4 cup (65 ml) butter
Ingredients for batter
1 1/2 cup (375 ml) flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking powder
1/4 cup (65 ml) butter
3/4 cup (185 ml) sugar
3/4 cup (185 ml) milk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
In a bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar.

Alternately add the flour mixture and milk.
Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish and pour in the dough.
In a saucepan, stir in the syrup ingredients. Bring to a boil and let boil for half a minute.

Pour the syrup over the dough; do not mix.
Bake at 325°F (162.7° C) for 45 minutes.

April-May 2012

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