I’ll spare you all the long and fabled history of the French-Canadian fur traders, because it’s widely available elsewhere. I had to learn about it in school, and even then, my strong pull toward an indoorsy life prevented me from fully embracing the spirit of the voyageur.
Recently, the newspaper published a recipe for tarte au sucre, a.k.a sugar pie. I hadn’t thought about it since I made one back in Grade 5 as part of the aforementioned school experience, but thought it sounded simple enough to try again. My baking buddy was enthusiastic when I showed him the recipe, and was even kind enough to pick up any missing ingredients from the store.
What you’ll need:
- one (1) unbaked pie shell, deep-dish preferred (we used a frozen one)
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (35%)
The recipe doesn’t call for it, but we added a generous splash of vanilla.
Turn the oven to 350°F, and while it comes to temperature, mix the brown sugar and flour together until well-combined. If your sugar is lumpy, break those puppies down. We used a fork to crumble them and incorporate them.
Next, add your whipping cream and mix well.
Pour the whole shebang into your pie shell, and bake for an hour.
The recipe warned about the potential for bubbling over, so we set our pie tin on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. It only cooked over a tiny bit, but it was nice not to have to scrape that off the bottom of the oven.
Cool completely before cutting.
I think ours might have been not-quite-100% cooled when we cut a trial piece, and our first reaction was: “Holy cow, is this sweet!” My ten-year old self hadn’t had a problem with it, but that was a lot of years ago.
For the next slice, it was definitely, positively cooled, and when it was topped with a bit of whipped cream, it wasn’t half-bad. With my 21st century, indoorsy ways, I wouldn’t want much more than a small piece in a single sitting – but I can appreciate why this would be a treat if one didn’t normally eat ultra-processed foods already crammed with hidden sugar.
And because there’s always pop-culture inspiration behind my makes, here’s what was going through my head as we baked:
Quite the fusion bake, no?
Thanks for looking! 🙂
The Witty Child 