Sucre a la Creme: Denver

Full disclosure: I am dating a French Canadian man.  This provides for a fair amount of joke fodder (think: mooses and Mounties) and he is, overall, a good sport about my Canada teasing. Not that he doesn’t bring it on himself sometimes: this last weekend, I had to wait with my pancake batter for him to go out and get some maple syrup, because we were out of it and powdered sugar simply would not do.  ANYWAY, my personal life is beside the point. The point is: when Nora and I lived together, I always had backup on my Canada jokes, and I miss her sassy style.

Actually, I realized as I was cooking it that Sucre A La Creme is actually the filling of a Québécois dessert that the Boy has made me before: Sugar Pie.  The first time I had sugar pie, I realized that it was basically pecan pie without the pecans – so, basically, the best food ever.  However, based on the Québécois cuisines I’ve eaten so far, it is a mystery to me how French Canadians don’t have the world’s highest rate of heart disease.

My fudge was gooey, and that’s also a mystery, because I was sure to let it boil long and hot enough. I wonder if I added too much evaporated milk – it comes in 12 oz. cans here, and the recipe called for 5 oz, so I eyeballed it.  No matter what it was that went wrong, my Sucre A La Creme was a little goopy. This is not to say that  I am above eating it with a spoon…ha.  It would make a good ice cream topping.  It just didn’t cut into nice, clean, squares the way I wanted it to.

I melted some glorious butter:

And then I added the rest and let it all boil together. This went smoothly but I forgot to take pictures because I was busy thinking about my brand-spanking-new golden pan that I had just purchased:

Then, presto! It was ready to go in the pan.

While it was taking the first fifteen-minute chill, I enjoyed the scalding hot spoils of my whisk, and then decided to start on a pomander, because it just isn’t autumn without these lovlies hanging around the house.

It’s too bad it didn’t turn out perfectly, but it was still delicious.  Mmm!

Sucre a la Creme: Portland

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to one and all!

And what easier way to celebrate than brown sugar, butter and cream melted into a delicious maple concoction, then mixed with more sugar and left to set.

The most difficult part, and I mean only part where I needed to pay attention, was the stage at which you bring the brown sugar, butter and evaporated milk to a boil — and then boil for almost 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

I’ve never really worked with sugar-butter syrups before, so this was a new consistency of sauce for me. Things got a bit messy, as I sloshed and spilled, inevitably, all over the st

ove, but smelling that syrup come together was worth the time and the cleanup.

And after it’s done boiling, all it needs is to chill out for 15 minutes in the fridge (you can tell it’s fall because everything in my house is pumpkin something or other).

Once again, the French (Canadians) know how to make me happy (hint: it’s with butter).

Challenge #3: Sucre a la Creme

It sounds super fancy, but really, it’s just French Canadian fudge. I’ve always wanted to make fudge, and now I have an occasion: Canadian Thanksgiving.

Instead of celebrating Columbus Day on Monday, we’re having a Canadian Thanksgiving game night, featuring poutine (something Hannah’s already tackled and converted me on) and a Quebecois maple fudge. And I’m assuming LaBoris, in all his French Canadian glory, will enjoy the homage.

With only five ingredients, this fudge seems like a pretty simple sweet tooth satisfier.