Recipe: Grandpa’s Maple Dumplings (Grandpères)

Serves 4

Hot, sweet, syrupy Grandpères served with two scoops of cold vanilla ice cream. Genius. And we have generations of Canadians to thank for keeping this age-old recipe alive. You can eat this for breakfast or dessert. Or a midnight snack.

Ingredients:

For the dumplings:

2 – 2 1/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
3 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup whole milk

For the cooking liquid:

2 cups maple syrup
1 1/2 cups water

Method:

In a large bowl, mix together flour…

… start with two cups and add more if you need to.

Stir in the baking powder…

A scoop of cinnamon (or Sin as my mom likes to call it)

Whisk together with a pinch of salt. Can you see Keith?

Now add some buttery goodness. Cut it into the flour with a pastry cutter. Stop when the butter is pea-sized.

Next comes the milk.

Mix it together until it forms a loose mass, like wet bread dough.

Add water to a pot… make it a wide one. You’ll see why in a few pictures.

Don’t forget the maple syrup. Use the best quality you can afford. No imitation syrup, please… at least for our Canadian Global Table.

Bring to a simmer. I wish this was a hot tub. Yum.

Drop in the dough..

one at a time…

Whoops. Getting crowded in here.

This definitely isn’t going to work. Time to pour molten syrup and dough into a wider pot.

Presto… chango! Ahhh… much better.

Simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

You can eat these plain, swimming in the cooking liquid.

Yum!

Or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Or two!

You better eat quickly though… before it melts away!