Sucre à la crème – Sugar Fudge

This one goes out to my fellow Canadians — Sucre à la crème! Yum! This Quebecois treat is not exactly fudge, it’s kind of more grainy and fragile than fudge, but it’s definitely all kinds of delicious. If any of you have been to Cora’s before, the complimentary fudge they give you at the cash is sucre à la crème. I had this for the first time when I was in first year. Chris’ roommate, Vince is francophone and he taught me a bunch of different types of Quebecois food. Among delicious confections like brown sugar croissants and pancakes, one confection was sucre à la crème and boy oh boy, let’s just say sugar and creme are the culprits of my freshman 15.

Yesterday I went to the Ottawa Comic Con and it was all types of fun! When we got off the bus, we could see from a distance at least 200 people waiting in line to get into the Convention and Events Centre. As we got closer, we realized that this massive line looped across the parking lot and behind the centre, looping back and forth behind the building. It was a steadily moving line, we were outside for about an hour. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. I kind of felt bad for all the Wookies and Klingons in line, their costumes were awesome but probably really hot in the sun.

Once inside, we got to see all the different booths and exhibitions from different artists  and vendors. There were so many nifty nerd gadgets, had I the money I’d honestly buy everything. >< But alas, I was content with seeing William Shatner’s panel and seeing all the cool cosplays. I was pretty impressed, but I think I’ve seen my fair share of buttcheeks and cameltoes for a while now.

I wanted to go back today to get an autograph from Brent Spiner, but I think all the pollen in the air made my asthma super terrible so I opted for an extra five hours of sleep. Who needs a puffer when you’ve got sleep?

But back to sucre à la crème. I was actually surprised about how easy this was. Maybe my batch was a tad overmixed because it was pretty flaky when I cut it, but it was still delicious. If anything, it had the same consistency as the fudge you get from Cora’s.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from La cuisine d’Hélène and Eva’s Food World.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (35%)
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• a pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Over medium heat, boil the cream and sugars together, constantly stirring until soft ball stage. (When you drip some into a bowl of cold water and it forms a soft, malleable ball)
2. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and salt. Stir for about 3 minutes to cool it down a bit, then add the butter.
3. Stir vigorously until you get a thickened, gravy-like consistency. See Eva’s Food World for pictures.
4. Pour into a parchment-paper-lined 9×9 pan and let cool for about two hours. Cut and enjoy =)

OMNOMNOMMMM.

It’ll keep for a week or so in the fridge stored in an airtight container, but with my friends, I don’t think it’ll last that long =P