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Canada, Americas

Pouding Chômeur (Quebec Maple Pudding Cake)

Quebec's famous "poor man's pudding": a simple vanilla sponge baked over hot maple syrup and cream, which sinks to form a thick, buttery caramel sauce underneath.

ServingsServes 2
Total cooking time48 min
Resting+ 10 min
DifficultyEasy
About servingsThe maple and cream sauce is extremely hot straight from the oven and sticks to skin like caramel; let it rest before serving, especially to children.

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C for . Grease a Ø 15 cm baking dish at least 6 cm deep with a little of the butter, and set it on a baking tray to catch any bubbling sauce. Take the rest of the butter out to soften. For less than a whole egg, beat 1 egg in a cup and measure what you need.

    Add in this stepButter, softened 2.5 g

    oven

  2. Put the maple syrup and cream in a saucepan at least three times their volume, bring to the boil over medium heat (about ) and let it bubble for 1 minute, watching closely because it foams up fast. Turn off the heat and keep it hot.

    Add in this stepPure maple syrup 110 mlWhipping cream (35% fat) 110 ml

    medium heat

  3. In a bowl, beat the rest of the butter with the sugar for with a whisk or electric mixer, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth.

    Add in this stepButter, softened 23 gSugar 40 gBeaten egg (1 large egg is about 3 tbsp) 1½ tbspVanilla extract ½ tsp

  4. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add half to the butter mixture, then the milk, then the rest of the flour, stirring with a spatula only until no dry flour shows. Overmixing makes the cake tough.

    Add in this stepPlain flour 60 gBaking powder ¾ tspSalt 1 pinchMilk 50 ml

  5. Spread the batter evenly in the dish. Slowly pour the hot maple sauce over the back of a spoon so it spreads across the top without making holes. It looks wrong, but the batter will rise up through the sauce as it bakes and the sauce will sink to the bottom.

  6. Bake in the oven for , until the top is golden, springs back when pressed and a skewer pushed into the cake part (not the sauce) comes out clean. The sauce should be bubbling at the edges.

    oven

  7. Let it rest for ; the sauce thickens as it cools slightly. Spoon into bowls, making sure everyone gets plenty of the sauce from the bottom. It is wonderful warm, with vanilla ice cream or a splash of cold cream.

Cook's tip

Use real maple syrup: pancake syrup made with corn syrup tastes flat and can burn. If the sauce boils over in the oven, your dish was too shallow; the tray underneath saves your oven. Leftovers reheat well in the microwave for 30 to 40 seconds.

Cooking it at camp

Bake it at home and carry it covered in the dish; reheat over the fire or burner in a covered pan for 10 minutes. Or make individual portions in a heavy lidded pot on a low camp stove: batter in the pot, sauce poured over, lid on, about 25 minutes on the lowest heat, checking that the bottom doesn't scorch.