Spring tastes like sugar time or in French ‘le temps des sucres’. The sap of the maple tree is finally moving and we need the sweetness to go through the last push before the sun comes and shines. If there is a place where you can satisfy your sweet tooth it’s at the sugar shack. Who doesn’t love the Sugar Shack recipes? I have to admit that I love them all, but what I love the most about going to our local sugar shack is the moment, after the main course when we all go outside, the wood fires are burning, and the owner finally pours on the maply taffy on the fresh snow that we called “la tire” in delicious rows.
Maple Syrup Delightful Season
Yes, you read well, the boiled-down pure maple syrup condensed in a delightfully clear and sweet taffy is gently poured on a sheet of fresh white snow for a moment of pure delight. For me, and other ‘Québécois’, the spring season brings back memories of all the good Sugar Shack recipes. It’s our maple tradition, and a trace of pure maple syrup is probably written in our DNA! Here’s a little selection of recipes you can eat when you go to your local sugar shack and you can do it at home too.
What do you eat at a sugar shack for entrees?
Every cabane à sucre meal starts with a hearty bowl of soupe aux pois, or yellow pea soup flavored with a ham hock (and maple, of course). The soup is usually followed by a myriad of traditional savory dishes such as maple-baked ham, omelet or scrambled eggs, sausages, tourtière (Québec’s famous meat pie), fèves au lard or baked beans, creton (a pork-based pâté of sorts) and oreilles de crisse, which translates literally into “Christ’s ears” and is deep-fried pork rinds. All of these dishes are either cooked with maple syrup or dowsed in the golden syrup tableside. It’s actually an absolute must to drizzle syrup on everything, including your bread and butter. https://www.mtl.org/en/experience/sugar-shack-101
What do you eat at a sugar shack for dessert?
Sugar Shack desserts include pure maple products such as maple sugar pie, maple donuts, pancakes, and a variety of toothachingly sweet stuff. However, the best part of the whole extravaganza is definitely the tire d’érable or maple taffy. At the end of the meal, boiled and reduced maple syrup is poured on fresh snow in perfect little rows. The idea is to let the liquid syrup set and cool a bit in the snow before rolling it around a popsicle stick and enjoying it like a lollipop. Kids and adults of all ages enjoy this ritual the best and no sugar shack meal is complete without it. https://www.mtl.org/en/experience/sugar-shack-101
Sugar Shack Menu
PEA SOUP
(soupe aux pois)
Follow the link to get the pea soup recipe from Ricardo Cuisine
MAPLE BAKED-HAM
(JAMBON )
Here is a great recipe for slow cooker maple-baked ham from Ricardo Cuisine
OMELETTE
Clever quick recipe of an Omelette in a mug from 3 times a day
You can add a couple of tbsp maple syrup to it to make it more sugar shacky!
TOURTIÈRE
(MEAT PIE)
This link will give you my own family recipe of tourtière that we also use for Christmas
BAKED BEANS
(BINES)
Slow cooker recipe from a Canadian grocery store Sobeys
CRETONS
(PORK PATÉ)
Another family recipe that is also make for Christmas time
MAPLE BUTTER
(BEURRE D’ÉRABLE)
RIDICULOUSLY GOOD Maple Butter | 1-Ingredient Recipe! from Dani (the black cat kitchen blog)
TIRE D’ÉRABLE
(MAPLE TAFFY)
Recipe here
Grand-Pères dans le sirop (Maple Syrup Dumplings)
My friend Francine gave me this recipe a long time ago, I can tell you they know that she is an excellent cook. Try her decadent dumplings and tell me in the comment how you love them!
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (250 ml) milk
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 4 tsp unsalted butter, cold
- 1/4 tsp salt
SYRUP
- 2 cups pure maple syrup
- 1 cup (250 ml) water
Instructions
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers or a fork until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Add the milk, stirring with a wooden spoon until the dough is smooth.
In a large saucepan, pour the syrup and water and boil. With two spoons or a moistened ice cream scoop, shape the dough into golf size balls; use about 30 ml (2 tablespoons) for each ball. Drop the balls one by one into the boiling syrup mixture.
Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 12 minutes. Wait until they come to room temperature.
Serve with the hot syrup and a scoop of vanilla ice cream or heavy cream.
Maple syrup dumplings (grand-pères dans le sirop)
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (250 ml) milk
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1 can around 19 oz of pure maple syrup
- 1 cup (250 ml) water
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers or a fork until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Add the milk and vanilla, stirring with a wooden spoon until the dough is smooth.
- In a large saucepan, pour the syrup and water and bring to a boil. With two spoons or a moistened ice cream scoop, shape the dough into about 12 balls; use about 30 ml (2 tablespoons) for each ball. Drop the balls one by one into the boiling syrup mixture.
- Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 15 minutes. Wait until they come to room temperature.
- Serve with the hot syrup and a scoop of vanilla ice cream or heavy cream
Canadian maple butter recipe
- 2 cups of pure maple syrup
- Boil maple syrup until it reaches 235°F (that’s 112ºC), which is 22–24°F (12ºC) over the boiling point of water. By doing this, you are concentrating the sugar, making it easier to crystallize because all the tiny sugar molecules are now really close to each other in the syrup.
- Cooling the concentrated syrup in an ice bath quickly drops its temperature. This is an essential step favoring crystallization (and specifically smaller, finer crystals over bigger, chunky crystals).
- Stirring the cooled mixture for a very long time (crystallization is a process, so patience is key here): eventually, it will turn opaque/creamy-looking and become maple butter
Buy your maple products locally!
Supporting local businesses helps our community thrive. When you visit your favorite sugar shack you can usually buy some form of pure maple syrup product to replenish your pantry or to give gifts to your friends! You can find a maple tree gift box or the sweet maple sugar pieces gift box that I adore.
AFFILIATE LINKS
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