Quebec Cooking: Authentic Sucre a La Creme Recipe

Sucre à la crème is a traditional Quebec treat. Made from two main ingredients, sugar and heavy cream, this homemade candy is a little like fudge, caramel or toffee. It has a slightly more granular texture than fudge, and is not at all chewy like caramel or toffee. It is very rich and sweet, and melts in your mouth. Some people say the closest thing you can find to this candy is Scottish tablet, or the Mexican tableta de leche. Sucre à la crème is served around the Christmas holidays, but it is also commonly seen at family gatherings any time of the year. Cooks with a sweet tooth will whip up a batch for just about any occasion, from a birthday to a rainy day.

Sucre à la Crème Recipe
1 cup (250 mL) brown sugar
1 cup (250 mL) granulated white sugar
1 cup (250 mL) 35% whipping cream
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
1 tbsp (15 mL) butter, plus extra to grease the casserole
1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Directions:
Thoroughly butter a rectangular baking tin or casserole dish. Combine sugars and cream in a large saucepan. Heat on medium-high, stirring with a damp wooden spoon, until the mixture comes to a boil. It should take about 10 minutes. Simmer over low heat for about another 20 minutes, still stirring. The mixture will darken to a light golden brown, and will roughly double in volume. Be careful not to let it boil over.

Using a metal teaspoon, drop a small amount of the raw candy into a half glass of cold water. If the cooking is done the candy should form a soft, sticky ball. It's a nice cook's treat, but be careful! The outside cools quickly, but the inside is still hot!

Remove the pan from the heat and add in the vanilla and butter. Now it's time to beat the candy. Stir vigorously, taking time now and again to scrape the crystallized sugar back into the rest of the mixture. The candy will take on a darker, more glossy appearance. You may be tempted to skip this step, but it is what helps the sucre à la crème to set properly. If you are adding nuts, do so right before pouring into the buttered baking dish. Refrigerate about ten minutes, and then score the top of the candy into small pieces using a sharp knife. This will make cutting a lot later once the candy is fully set. Some recipes call for a cooling time as little as 30 minutes, but I prefer to let it set over several hours, if not overnight.

This recipe can be doubled, and you will definitely want to do so once you are used to making it. Cut small, dainty pieces for parties or to give as gifts. Sucre à la crème in a decorative jar makes a lovely hostess gift or stocking stuffer. When my Dad was little, he used to be given a whole pan of it on his birthday, lucky boy!

You may be tempted to substitute margarine for the butter. Don't! This is not a diet dessert, and your results will not be as good if you make substitutions. Some recipes call for unsalted butter. Then again, some recipes add salt. It's a matter of taste. If you normally use a salted butter in your kitchen, try this first. You can always try with unsalted butter later. After all, it's a great excuse to make a second batch.

Both granulated white sugar and brown sugar have been used to make sucre à la crème. I often use just the brown sugar, as this is closer to the "fudge" (closer to tablet) my Mom made when I was growing up. It makes a darker candy, whereas using all white sugar would give a pale candy like the one pictured here. Similarly, some recipes use evaporated or sweetened condensed milk instead of cream. I believe the authentic Québécois recipe would have been made with maple sugar and heavy cream. These ingredients were plentiful on the farms of les Habitants in seigneurial New France, whereas products based on cane sugar would have been harder to come by. Canned milk products came along in time for our grandmothers to try them in the traditional recipes, but would not have existed when sucre à la crème was first made.

Most folks I know make their candy by feel, and they use a water test to know when the sugar has reached the right temperature. If you are used to working with a thermometer, you want the candy to cook until it reaches the soft ball stage, at about 235ºF or 455ºC. As always when working with boiling sugar mixtures, exercise caution. Boiling sugar is very hot, and if it splatters it will stick to the skin. It's best to wear long, tightly fitted sleeves. Never leave the mixture unattended, and be sure small children and animals won't get underfoot. When the sucre à la crème has been poured out into the casserole, be sure to thoroughly scrape the saucepan. (This usually involves eating little crumbs of the candy.) Immediately soak the pan and all other implements in hot water, and wash promptly. You will regret it if you don't!

Sources:
"The cold water candy test." Exploratorium

"Evaporated milk and Tablet confectionery. Wikipedia

Stewart C. Russell, "How to make Tablet, a traditional Scottish sweet."

"Traditional French-Canadian recipes." Providence Health & Services