Inspired by the French Canadian traditional “Pouding Chômeur”, made with frozen berries.
“Pouding” means pudding, and “chômeur” means unemployed worker. “Pouding chômeur” is a Québec traditional dessert created during the Great Depression and was initially made with affordable ingredients like flour, butter, milk and brown sugar. This pudding cake is a sweet syrupy sauce topped with moist cake dough. This dessert is one of the best dishes served in sugar shacks (made with freshly produced maple syrup). This recipe has many variants, such as substituting brown sugar with maple syrup, honey or even chocolate. I did not invent the fruit version but developed my “berry picker” version as a poor freelancer with many berries! I use a mix of frozen wild blackberries and raspberries grown at my husband’s family farm. We get plenty of them every season, but as they are highly perishable, we freeze some to enjoy them all year long in smoothies and desserts like this one. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth but I’ve got to admit, since developing the recipe, this has become my favourite dessert. I think I tested it very thoroughly during the pandemic year… Not only is this so delicious, but it is also straightforward to make. The pudding cake is commonly served with ice cream but as it is already sweet enough for me, a scoop of some good plain Greek yogurt to balance it is just perfect!
RECIPE
This recipe is published in ABC Organic Gardener Magazine issue #142 Winter 2023.
