LCBO Food & Drink Autumn 2017

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BY ELIZABETH BAIRD PHOTOGRAPHY BY VINCE NOGUCHI

In appreciation of the sweet life in Canada, we’ve rounded up five iconic regional desserts—each offers a delectable way to end your Thanksgiving dinner.

IN HER 1854 BOOK The Canadian Settler’s Guide , British writer and settler in the Peterborough area, Catherine Parr Traill, stated quite emphatically that “Canada is the land of cakes.” Then she offered a must- make selection including four recipes for gingerbread, Lemon Cake, Dough Nuts, Cookies, Plain PlumCake, sil- ver and gold cakes (the first made with only egg whites, the second, made thriftily with remaining yolks). On the rustic side, she gave us Common Bush Tea-Cakes made with scrapings of maple sugar, drippings and “any spice you have” and baked over the fire in a frying-pan.     But satisfying our Canadian sweet tooth required more than cakes. Consider all the pies whose fillings mark the seasons: in spring, maple syrup, rhubarb and strawberries, followed by raspberries, blueberries, Sas- katoons, peaches and plums, and in fall, pumpkin and apples. Pies offer that combo of flaky golden pastry and

luscious just-runny-enough fillings—bliss on a fork. Even then, satisfaction required that puddings, cookies and squares be made to tuck into lunch pails or to be cut small, arranged on footed plates, and named “Dainties.”     Luckily, Canadians have always had the mak- ings of fine home baking—butter, cream, eggs, prize- winning flour, garden, orchard and market fruit, and increasing access to nuts, lemons, spices, raisins and much more. We’ve built on the gift of maple by First Nations, on honey especially in the West, on molasses that stars in Atlantic Canada baking, pastry traditions from many nations, and the presence of more than 190 years of serious cookbooks, a treasure trove of “what to make for dessert.”     From this rich tradition, here are five recipes, each with a distinctive Canadian pedigree and a guarantee to satisfy a Canadian sweet tooth.

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