Apple & Maple Pouding Chômeur

Taste

Pouding chômeur — “unemployed person’s pudding” — comes out of Depression-era Quebec, when it was made from little more than flour, brown sugar, and water. The version most Quebecers bake now is richer: a plain butter cake batter goes into the dish, hot maple syrup and cream are poured over the top, and in the oven the cake rises up through the syrup while the syrup sinks underneath and thickens into a sauce. A layer of new-harvest apples on the bottom soaks up that sauce and softens without collapsing, which cuts the sweetness and makes it feel like an autumn dessert rather than a winter one. Lufa’s Honeycrisp “for cooking” bags are ideal — cosmetically imperfect fruit that holds its shape in the oven.

Instructions

1. Heat the oven and prepare the dish. Heat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F). Butter a 23 cm (9 inch) square baking dish at least 6 cm (2½ inches) deep — the sauce bubbles up the sides as it bakes — and set it on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any drips.

2. Lay in the apples. Toss the apple slices with the cinnamon and spread them evenly over the bottom of the dish.

3. Make the batter. Beat the softened butter and sugar for 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix on low, then the milk, then the rest of the dry ingredients, stopping as soon as the batter is smooth. It will be thick. ⏱︎ 3 min

4. Spread the batter over the apples. Drop spoonfuls of batter over the apples and spread them gently with the back of the spoon to cover most of the fruit. Small gaps are fine — the batter spreads as it bakes.

5. Heat the maple sauce. Combine the maple syrup and cream in a saucepan that holds at least three times their volume and bring to a boil over medium heat, then simmer for 2 minutes. Watch it closely: maple and cream boil over fast. ⏱︎ 2 min

6. Pour and bake. Pour the hot sauce slowly over the batter, over the back of a spoon so it doesn’t tear holes. It will look like a mistake, with the batter half-sunk in syrup — that’s how it’s meant to look. Bake for 40 minutes, until the top is deep golden and a skewer pushed into the cake (not the sauce below it) comes out clean. ⏱︎ 40 min

7. Rest and serve. Let it stand for 15 minutes; the sauce thickens as it cools slightly. Serve warm in deep bowls, spooning the sauce and apples from the bottom of the dish over each portion, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a splash of cold cream. ⏱︎ 15 min

Tips

• Apple choice: Any firm apple that holds its shape works — Honeycrisp, Spartan, or Cortland. McIntosh is in season too, but it collapses into applesauce; good if you like that texture.
• Maple syrup: Amber is the balanced choice. Dark syrup gives a stronger, more caramel-like sauce.
• The original version: For a thinner, more traditional sauce, replace the cream with water and swap 125 ml of the maple syrup for 100 g of brown sugar.
• Pears instead: Firm Bartlett pears, peeled and sliced the same way, are a good swap now that they’re in season.
• Make ahead: It’s best warm on the day it’s made. Leftovers keep for 3 days, covered, in the fridge; warm individual portions in the microwave for about 30 seconds.