Maple-sweet desserts from cabins, fairs, and homes

Sugar runs in Quebec’s culinary veins. At the cabin you’ll taste pouding chômeur (hot syrup-soaked cake), grand-pères dans le sirop (dumplings simmered in maple), and pets de sœurs (cinnamon-roll cousins). Year-round, diners serve tarte au sucre (maple or brown-sugar pie) and blueberry pies from the Saguenay in late summer. Festivals bring maple taffy on snow and deep-fried fairground sweets; bakeries showcase custard-filled millefeuille and old-world custards adapted to local maple. The through-line is indulgence: dairy richness, golden syrup, and a heritage of making do—with sweetness as the reward after long winters.