Pouding chômeur
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Pouding chômeur (unemployed man's ''pudding'') is a dessert that was created during the early years of the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
in
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. 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 ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
dessert. In
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, a similar dessert known as "self saucing pudding" (or often just called pudding) exists, although it is now more commonly sold in baking mix packages alongside other cakes, rather than be prepared at home.


Description

The ''pouding chômeur'' is a basic
cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...
batter onto which a hot
syrup In cooking, a syrup (less commonly sirup; from ar, شراب; , beverage, wine and la, sirupus) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars ...
or
caramel Caramel ( or ) is an orange-brown confectionery product made by heating a range of sugars. It can be used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for ice cream and custard. The process of caramelizatio ...
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. During the worst of the Depression, stale bread was used in lieu of cake batter.


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''.


See also

*
Cuisine of Quebec The cuisine of Québec (also called "French Canadian cuisine" or "cuisine québécoise") is a national cuisine in the Canadian province of Québec. It is also cooked by Franco-Ontarians. Québec's cuisine is descended from 16th-century French cu ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pouding chomeur Cuisine of Quebec Canadian desserts Cakes Puddings Working-class culture in Canada