SUGAR PIE or TARTE AU SUCRE FRANCAISE>

Sub Title: Cooking With Marcus

In the grade seven classroom that my grandson Marcus attends, the students are ask to do a special project of their choosing. Marcus has decided to make a cookbook featuring recipes from all the different countries he has visited. For some of these recipes he has asked someone to be his assistant chef.

 

For the Canadian portion he ask me to help. We discussed various things we might tackle and finally settled on the Tarte Au Sucre Francaise or Quebec’s Sugar Pie. Although in the past I have lived in Quebec and knew about Sugar Pie I had never made it. So using Google we searched for an appropriate recipe. Although many of the recipes used brown sugar we decided to make one that had Maple Syrup as the main ingredient.

 

Getting Started

 

As the first step we gathered the utensils and ingredients that we would need. It is so much easier to have everything at fingertips rather than having to hunt things down at a crucial point in a recipe.

 

The utensils were a pot, a whisk, measuring cups and spoons.

 

The ingredients are a pie shell, maple syrup, whipping cream, eggs, butter, flour, and salt.

 

Marcus decided that we could use a premade pie shell rather than making our own pastry. So we bought a frozen pie shell.

 

Putting It All Together

I showed Marcus how to set my oven to preheat for 325°F.
 

He then took the saucepan and measured 1½ Cups of Maple Syrup into it. Placing it on the stove and using a whisk he heated it and brought it to a boil. We discussed the importance of keeping the heat rather low so the syrup won’t burn.

 

The next step was to measure ½ Cup of Butter. We talked about the easiest method to do this was to follow the marks on the butter package and cut the butter. Here in Canada butter comes in 1lb or ½lb bricks. I like the sticks of 1/4cup sticks that are available in the U.S. He added the butter and whisked it in until melted.

 

He then measured the whipping cream and slowly added it to the Maple Syrup and butter. We talked about the need to add it slowly to keep the cream from curdling.

 

Once these ingredients were all together Marcus poured ½ the mixture into a small bowl, added the flour and salt. After mixing well and again using the whisk he slowly added this back to mixture in the saucepan. He whisked it well and let the mixture cool a bit.

 

Next step was to beat the eggs. Because this was the first time that Marcus had cooked in my kitchen I had to introduce him to my beaters. The eggs were added to the mixture in the saucepan. Once again we talked about the need to do this slowly so the eggs would not curdle.

Time For Cooking

 

Once the eggs were safely added it was time to put the mixture into the pie shell. It is a wise idea to put the pie on a cookie sheet in case it bubbles over. Marcus popped it into the oven for 45 minutes.

 

We had a good look at it then and decided in my oven maybe it needed another 5 minutes. We did not touch it lightly as I was afraid we might burn our fingers. However after the extra minutes passed the pie looked perfect!

 

From my perspective this was a fun project. Although in the past I have cooked with my children and with my grandchildren this was the first time I was led by one of them.

 

Selecting the Recipe

  After looking through quite a few recipes for a traditional maple sugar pie we chose one that only used maple syrup and not brown sugar. It seemed it would be closer the tradition of harvesting the syrup from the maple trees in Quebec. We chose the following recipe:   Traditional Canadian Maple Sugar Pie  

• Course Dessert
• Cuisine French Canadian
• Prep Time 15 minutes
• Cook Time 45 minutes
• Total Time 1 hour
• Servings 8
• Author Valerie Lugonja is... A Canadian Foodie

Ingredients

•
• 1 batch of your favourite pie crust pastry
! •
• 1 1/2 cups pure maple syrup
•
• 1/2 cup butter
•
• 1/2 cup whipping (35%) cream
•
• 2 tsp all-purpose flour
•
• 1/4 tsp salt
•
• 2 large eggs
•

Instructions

1. Roll out the dough and place it in a 9-inch pie plate; chill until the filling is ready
2. Preheat oven to 325ºF
3. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring maple syrup to a gentle boil and cook, reducing the heat if necessary, for 5 minutes
4. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in the butter until melted
5. Stir in cream
6. Transfer 1/2 cup of mixture to small bowl; whisk flour and salt into it; add mixture back into saucepan
7. Continue whisking; allowing to cool slightly
8. Beat eggs; whisk into saucepan mixture
9. Pour filling into pie shell and bake until centre is golden brown, bubbly, and firm when lightly touched (about 45 minutes)