Pouding chômeur
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Pouding chômeur (literally unemployed man pudding) is a dessert that was created by female factory workers early during the Great Depression[citation needed] in Quebec, Canada.
Today, it is casually served as a regional dessert, perhaps being a bit more popular during the saison des sucres, when maple sap is collected and processed and is usually part of the offerings during a meal at a sugar shack, but it is not specifically a maple dessert.
Description
The pouding chômeur is a basic cake batter onto which a hot syrup or caramel is poured before baking. The cake then rises through the liquid which settles at the bottom of the pan, mixing with the batter and creating a distinct layer at the bottom of the dish. The syrup or caramel can be made from brown sugar, white sugar, maple syrup or a combination of these.
At the depth of the Depression, stale bread was also used in lieu of cake batter.[citation needed]
Linguistic variations
The dessert is also sometimes called pouding du chômeur or pouding au chômeur and is sometimes written using the formal English word pudding.