"What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil" ... Friedrich Nietzsche

Les Tartes & Grands-Pères

So today we are continuing with more recipes, I am not sure if these are more appropriate for maple syrup season or Christmas, but hey they are good any time.



Today we are doing tarte au sirop d‘érable, tarte au sucre and grands-pères. First a little bit about maple syrup production and why Québec seems to have so many recipes using maple syrup. This is from Wkipedia; Canada produces more than 80% of the world’s maple syrup. The province of Québec is by far the world’s largest producer (about 75% of the worldwide production). The provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick produce smaller amounts.



Tarte au sirop d'érable

So without further ado, lets begin.



First I will start with my mother-in-law’s tarte au sucre recipe. This is not like the traditional creamy ones, but it was my first introduction to tarte au sucre and continues to be my favourite.



The tarte au sucre ingredients are;

  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 egg

simple eh?

  1. Prepare your crust. We are not going in to this again, but go find a good recipe. This doesn’t use a top crust.
  2. Mix the ingredients lightly, the egg doesn’t have to be well mixed in and according to Allixe it is better if it is not.
  3. Pour mixture into the crust and cook at 375°F for 15-20 minutes, until it is golden.


This is still a work in progress, the recipe I am giving is not the one I use. I use it as a base to make one made by Serge Boivin, the proprietor of ‘Sucreries de l‘érable’ in Frelighsburg, QC.. He sells 30-40 thousand of his ‘Maple Syrup Pies’ a year. “L’ingrédient majeur est le sirop d‘érable. On y met aussi du beurre, de la cassonade, pour la texture, des œufs et une petite touche de vanille, à la fin‘, he says in the program from L‘épicerie. Translated; he uses maple syrup, butter, brown sugar (for texture), eggs and a little vanilla at the end.



The tarte au sirop d‘érable ingredients are;

  • 1 pie crust
  • 50g flour (not in Serge’s ingredients)
  • 150g brown sugar
  • 300ml maple syrup (about 1¼ cups)
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tbsp cream 35% (not in Serge’s ingredients)
  • 80g butter
  • ½ cup walnuts – chopped


  1. Heat ove to 350°F.
  2. Mix the brown sugar, eggs and flour.
  3. Melt the butter and add to the sugar-mixture, along with the cream, maple syrup and walnuts.
  4. Pour into crust and cook for about 30 minutes.
  5. Serve cold with Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream, or any good ice cream that doesn’t have more than 5 ingredients that you can pronounce and know what they are. Don’t want to make this then ruin it by adding frozen shortening.


So how does one describe Grands-Pères? Well how about dumplings/biscuits in maple syrup. A lot better than some of those ‘sticky-buns’ I have tasted out there. I think most of these are made with what Québécois often refer to as ‘Sirop de poteau’ (“Pole Syrup”), implying the syrup has been made by tapping telephone poles.



The Grands-Père ingredients are;

  • 2 cups water
  • 1¼ cup maple syrup
  • 1½ cups pastry flour or 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ cup butter – cold
  • ½ cup milk


  1. Put the water & maple syrup in a large pot, mix and cover until the dough is done.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, sugar & salt.
  3. Cut the butter into the flour mixture.
  4. Slowly add the milk and mix lightly, just until incorporated.
  5. Heat the syrup mixture and put large spoonfuls of the dough into the hot syrup.
  6. Cover and cook over low heat for about 15 minutes. Do not lift the cover. Serve very hot, these are ment to be eaten right out of the pot.


Enjoy & Merry Christmas!!!


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