Retro Recipe Challenge #9: Québec’s traditional sugar pie recipe
October 19, 2007 at 4:07 pm | In Cooking, comfort food, cuisine, sweet, traditional | 23 Comments
This challenge called for a recipe with sugar. What better representative for this
than my home province’s famed Tarte au sucre. I dug into my oldest cook book (publ. 1955) for this one. Jehane Benoît was Québec’s Julia Child of the mid-1900 to mid 1980’s. She was the dean of Québec cuisine. I inherited this book from my mom and have been carting around since the 80’s. I had never actually done any recipes from it until now. To keep the whole challenge as retro as possible, I also did Mme Benoît’s dough recipe for the crust. This will be a keeper as it turned out to be quite flaky and quick to do. Who knew?!… Here is the translation of both recipes, in the same format as they appear in the book:
Hot Water Pie Dough
1 – Put in a bowl 1/2 cup of fat or vegetable shortening. Add 1/4 cup of boiling water. Beat until creamy
2 – Sift together 1-1/2 cup of pastry flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 – Add liquid ingredients to sifted ingredients. Mix until all form a soft ball. Cover and store in refrigerator 1 hour. Use for any type of dough.
4 – For a richer dough, beat 1 egg with the water and shortening.
Sugar Pie
1 – Cover an 8-inch pie plate with dough. Spread with 1/2 inch of brown sugar or maple sugar. Wet with 3 tablespoons of cream or milk; dot with a few small dices of butter.
2 – Cover, to taste, with a few strips of dough and bake in a 400F oven for 35 to 40 minutes.
The results (picture below) were quite good, despite my fear that it would taste way too sweet. I have another quick recipe I usually use when making this dessert. It’s more on the caramel-creamy side, compared to this one. It’s one of my stand-bys when invited to dinner, and goes really well “à la mode”.
Quick Sugar Pie
(Recipe: courtesy of Mme Paquin, Trois-Rivières)
1 cup of brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon flour
Mix ingredients in bowl. Throw in a frozen pie crust and bake at 400F for 30 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream. It tastes even better cold, the day after. 
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Ça, c’est en plein la recette de ma mère. Elle aussi avait ce fameux livre ! C’est ma conception d’une tarte au sucre. Ciao
Comment by Sue — October 21, 2007 #
Aye, c’est de l’histoire, hein?… C’est incroyable l’influence que cette femme a eu sur notre cuisine.
Merci pour ton commentaire, Sue!
Comment by pixeltheatre — October 21, 2007 #
I’ve never cooked sugar pie – it scares me a little but I’d love to try a piece. I have a recipe booklet of Jehane Benoit for cooking lamb and it is fantastic.
Comment by BC — October 23, 2007 #
It’s actually really easy to do. The quick recipe I have here is very straightforward. Then again, living in Ottawa, you should cross into Gatineau and visit a St.Hubert BBQ restaurant. They serve a wicked sugar pie!
Cheers and thanks for posting, BC!
Comment by pixeltheatre — October 23, 2007 #
Thanks for this contribution to RRC9 — and for introducing me to Jehane Benoit. I’ve done a bit of research… she’s clearly a fascinating woman with a wealth of culinary knowledge I’m going to tap into.
Comment by Dolores — November 1, 2007 #
It does sound sweet, but that’s what the challenge asked for! It sounds very appealing!
Comment by Julie — November 2, 2007 #
Sugar pie is a term of endearment in our house–who knew that it was also a famous speciality of Quebec? I’m going to have to try it, so everyone has a point of reference for the pet name from now on!
Comment by melyndahuskey — November 3, 2007 #
I love that you reminded us that simple recipes can turn out fantastic desserts! (Definately need to be reminded of that after the last Daring Bakers challenge…)
Great job & thank you for participating in the RRC!
Comment by Laura Rebecca — November 3, 2007 #
@Dolores: Thanks for hosting the RR #9. It was great fun to do.
@Julie: It certainly fulfilled the sweetness requirement
@melyndahuskey: Let me know how it turns out…
@Laura Rebecca: It’s nice to have a quick recipe to whip up in emergencies…Thanks for the post!
Comment by pixeltheatre — November 11, 2007 #
Salut je viens de découvrir ton blog, il est super! J’ai googlé pour des vieilles recettes de Jehane Benoit et il n’y en a pas tant que ça sur le web.
Comment by gourmandemodeste — November 21, 2007 #
Merci Gourmandemodeste! J’aime également vraiment ton site. Il est important, je crois, de revisiter ns souches culinaires de temps en temps…Il y a là des bonnes leçcons à revoir…
Comment by pixeltheatre — November 27, 2007 #
Although I don’t miss the Quebec winters, there is no Tarte au Sucre or Poutine in Arizona. Thanks for the reciepe.
Comment by Mike — December 9, 2007 #
You’re welcome, Mike! Thanks for dropping by…
Comment by pixeltheatre — December 11, 2007 #
Mmmmm Sugar Pie. My favourite as a child. My co-worker’s husband is of French Canadian heritage and we are going to be sharing this old fav on the weekend!
Q: Anyone have a source in USA for the great Fromage en grains that is used in poutine? I miss it so and engorge myself during every return visit to the Gaspe. Merci!
Comment by Canusa Foodie — December 11, 2007 #
Here is a website of a creamery in Wisconsin who delivers throughout the USA and they have cheese curds as well. http://www.westbycreamery.com
Comment by Marty — February 12, 2008 #
Thanks for the tip, Marty. Now, I’m envious. I wish I could find it here in Vancouver…
Comment by pixeltheatre — February 12, 2008 #
[...] and pass it down generation to generation. I blogged on this last year. The full post can be found here.This entry is the most popular on my site, thanks to an incoming link from Wipedia. I never [...]
Pingback by Mmm…Canada - The Sweet Edition « Bits ‘n Bites — June 26, 2008 #
Sugar pie is great. my family recipe calls for eggs and maple but i will have to try this one too.
Comment by Kaja — December 24, 2008 #
Salut de Chicago! It is Christmas and I just made sugar pie for dessert. My alltime favourite is from Cochon Dingue in Quebec. I have tried to replicate it different times – not quite there, but I think I’m getting close! . I shall have to try your version of this wonderful dessert too. As for poutine, I sometimes do the fast food version by 1. picking up cheese curds from a local store and 2. go through the McDonald’s drive-thru and get some really hot fries, then 3. drive home quickly where my wife has hot gravy waiting…and then put it all together. It’s a wonderful taste of Fast Food Quebec at it’s finest!
Comment by Paul — December 25, 2008 #
we went to Le Cochan Dingue a couple of years ago, and I LOVED the sugar pie there…..is this recipe the similar? I’ve tried to make a few different recipes and they are not close to their sugar pie!
Comment by Kristy — September 15, 2009 #
Hi Kristy,
There are so many variations of this dessert. Some are sugary, some more on the creamy side, and some even on the gelatinous side. It’s very versatile.
Comment by pixeltheatre — October 11, 2009 #
Growing up French Canadian there was never a special occassion with out sugar pie. I still make it and when I have guests that are not French they all want to try it. Most love it, who dosn’t like a sweet pie like that. In fact I am going to go make one for Thanks Giving dinner.
Comment by Louise — October 10, 2009 #
Thanks for stopping by, Louise. For all its simplicity, sugar pie remains one of my favourite dessert.
Comment by pixeltheatre — October 11, 2009 #