Spring Dessert {Old Fashioned Cajun Tarte à la Bouille}

Tarte à la Bouille, or custard pie, is an old time Cajun dessert.

It's a simple thing, made with simple ingredients...like most old fashioned Cajun dishes.
And like most classic Cajun dishes, it's the simplicity and honesty in the food that makes it something special.

This pie is made with what we call "sweet dough."  The sweet dough crust is more like a sugar cookie or a sweet shortbread than typical pie crust.  Sweet dough is often used to make fruit filled turnovers we call "sweet dough pies."

Sweet dough pies are popular treats at local festivals.  Actually, they even have their own festival in the fall in Grand Coteau, LA.

But back to the Tarte à la Bouille.

The filling is a simple vanilla custard that can easily be modified with other flavors.

The dough...well...the dough.  

Let's just be real for a second.  I'm no baker.  Truth: I hate baking.  It's fussy with measurements and sifting.  Softening and chilling.  Cutting and rolling.  Oh, and lots of dirty dishes.

So why I thought making my own pie dough was a good idea, I'll never know.

I struggled.  And it pissed me off.  Words were said.  Not so nice words.
But the pie did turn out well.  

Note: this recipe calls for a lattice top.  A bottom crust is pretty much all I could manage.  The remaining dough is in my freezer waiting for another day's adventure.

Featured at:

  Print It

Tarte à la Bouille
slightly adapted from Nun Better: Tastes and Tales from Around a Cajun Table

For the Sweet Dough:
3/4 cups shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda

Cream the shortening and sugar together.  Add milk, egg, and vanilla and mix well.  Sift the flour, salt, nutmeg, and baking soda.  Add to the milk mixture and mix to form dough.  Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours.  
Roll out onto a floured surface to fit a 9" pie plate.  Use the remaining dough for a lattice top.

For the Custard:
2/3 cup sugar
6 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar, flour, salt, and eggs well in a heatproof bowl.  In a medium saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.  Slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture, about 1/4 cup at a time, mixing well until the egg mixture is warm.  Add all of the egg mixture to the saucepan with the milk.  Cook over medium heat until thickened.  Cool slightly and add the vanilla.  Spoon the custard into the pie shell and add the lattice top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. 


 More Spring/Easter Desserts...

Linking with:

Mardi Gras 2015 {King Cake Bread Pudding and Children's Mardi Gras}

This year’s King Cake was going to be a jelly roll style cake in purple, green, and gold.

Only I still haven't gotten past my fear of making a jelly roll cake.
So that doesn't really work out too well.

Alternate plan: King Cake Bread Pudding.

Bread pudding has long been a way to use leftover/stale bread.

Only there’s no such thing as leftover King Cake.

If there is, you're doing something wrong.
So that’s not really going to work out too well either.

No King Cake leftovers to turn into bread pudding.
But I wanted my bread pudding to taste like a King Cake.

So...King Cake Vodka.
Making my King Cake Bread Pudding a reality.

I had plenty of stale French bread, hamburger, and hot dog buns.  The custard was infused with King Cake Vodka, cinnamon, and hints of lemon to give that traditional King Cake taste.

A powdered sugar glaze went on top, along with the colored sugars found on a King Cake.

It tasted like a real King Cake, but was much easier and quicker to make.
(Recipe Below)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I run Cajun Mardi Gras with the Basile Mardi Gras Association.  The Sunday before Mardi Gras, they host a Children's Run for kids up to 16 years old.

Here's my Mardi Gras

Performing  La Chanson de Mardi Gras (the Mardi Gras Song) before starting the run

All the boys ready to head out

Colorful costumes on a foggy day

Begging like a Mardi Gras should

And catching a chicken--every Mardi Gras' wish for the day

While the adults who run Mardi Gras are fueled by liquid courage, these kids are hopped up on doughnuts.



Print It!

King Cake Bread Pudding

For bread pudding:
8-9 cups cubed stale bread
3 cups milk
1/2 cup King Cake Vodka
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1 heaping tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Whisk together milk, vodka, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and lemon zest in a large bowl.  Fold in the bread cubes.  Pour into an 8 x 8 oven safe dish.  Bake for about 45 minutes.  The bread pudding is ready when a butter knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow pudding to cool before decorating or the colored sugar will melt.

For glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1-2 Tbsp King Cake Vodka

Add the powdered sugar to a bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of King Cake Vodka.  Add more vodka, a little at a time, until the glaze is a thick but pourable consistency.

For colored sugar:
(can be made ahead)
¾ cup granulated sugar, divided in thirds
purple food coloring, or red and blue
green food coloring
yellow food coloring

Divide the sugar into three plastic bags.  Add 3-4 drops of yellow food coloring to one bag.  Knead the color into the sugar. Repeat with green food coloring. For purple, I like to use purple food paste to get a rich purple color. Red and blue food coloring can also be used.


Once the bread pudding has cooled, drizzle the powdered sugar glaze over the top.  Decorate with the purple, green, and gold sugars.

Linking with:

Mini Pecan Pies with Cane Syrup Whipped Cream

Two years.  That's how long I've thought about it.

It came to me after pecan season.  As in way, way after.  After all the pecans had been eaten.

The next year was an off harvest.  Our tree produces every other year.

So this year was THE year, baby.
I would have Pecan Pie Turnovers w/ Cane Syrup Whipped Cream.

Uhhh...nope.

I had convinced myself that my usual pecan pie filling would be fine for turnovers.  Juuuuuust fine.

After stirring the filling together, it was beyond obvious.  Too runny to fold pie crust around it.

So I grabbed some muffin tins (after pitching a big ole hissy fit, of course) and started digging through cabinets to find a glass that would cut the right size circles.

I'm certain another hissy fit was thrown at some point.
After 2 years, I was going to have cute little pies.
Believe you me.

Don't overfill like I did. 

Pecan pie is my favorite pie.  This filling, made with a mix of Karo and cane syrup, is good.  But everybody and their mama has a pecan pie recipe that they dig up for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

All that time spent fussing over the filling and the size of the pie.
When it's really the whipped cream that mattered.

The whipped cream is flavored with Steen's Pure Cane Syrup.
I thought it made sense to put it on top of pecan pie.
Sugarcane and pecans are both are harvested this time of year.

I had to pat myself on the back over the Cane Syrup Whipped Cream.  

It's also good on Gateau de Sirop (syrup cake).

Print It!

Mini Pecan Pies with Cane Syrup Whipped Cream
1/2 stick butter (4 TBSP)
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup Karo syrup
1/4 cup Steen's Pure Cane Syrup
2 cups pecan halves
2 refrigerated pie crusts

whipped cream:
3 TBSP Steen's Pure Cane Syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream the butter and sugar in a medium mixing bowl.  Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each.  Add the salt, vanilla, and both syrups.  Mix well.  Stir in the pecans.

Cut the pie crusts into 4-4 1/2" diameter circles.  If you roll out the scraps from the pie crust twice, you should be able to get 14 mini pies.

Place pie crust circles in muffin tins.  Fill with about 1/8 of a cup of filling.  Don't overfill or the pies will stick.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.

While the pies cool, mix together the cane syrup, vanilla, and whipping cream.  Start on low speed, gradually increasing to high as the mixture thickens.  Beat until soft peaks form.

Top each pie with a spoon of the whipped cream.  Drizzle extra cane syrup over the top (optional).


More Pecans...

Linking with: