Mmm Canada Part 1… The Sweet Edition

No worries, Jasmine, there is still a Savory Edition to come. This one, however is the sweet, made specifically for SHF:Mmm Canada, hosted by Jennifer, The Domestic Goddess herself.

What exactly do you consider to be a Canadian dessert? Beaver tails come to mind for me, but then, I live in Ottawa, home of the controversial Beaver tail.

For those of you not in the know, a Beaver tail is a piece of pastry that is pulled into a shape that resembles a beaver’s tail, deep fried and then given a topping, usually something sweet. I personally like the cinnamon sugar, my children like the hazelnut spread and my husband enjoys the Killaloe Sunrise, cinnamon sugar and lemon. (The picture is from the Beaver Tails website, btw.)

Not exactly a gourmet, Canadian dish, but very yummy.

Still, other than those, I couldn't really think of something that I considered to be a Canadian dessert, though I could think of Canadian ingredients. Blueberries, maple, cranberries, rhubarb. All sweet things that could be used in dessert.

In the end I decided to go with rhubarb, mostly because there is an abundance of it in my backyard, and also because I had made a rhubarb dessert for Jennifer before. But this time I planned to "kick it up a notch" with some homemade ice cream for the topping. Not just any ice cream, Canadian ice cream, rhubarb ice cream!

The ice cream took some advanced planning. The recipe, found on Allrecipes.com, called for baking cut up rhubarb with sugar, alot of sugar, until it was soft and well mixed, before pureeing it in a blender. There is chilling time involved, but no ice cream machine. Instead the cold rhubarb "compote" is folded into whipped cream and then frozen, making ice cream. Easy peasy, right?

And it works out fairly well (though I admit I increased the rhubarb, and the cream.) The compote smells wonderful, the combination of white sugar and the juices from the rhubarb. I had the ice cream, now I needed the cobbler.

I used the same recipe for the cobbler as I had used the last time, my standard recipe, where I increase the amount of rhubarb but keep the sugar levels the same. The color of this cobbler is darker, more caramelized, but for good reason - look what my hubby picked up for me from a garage sale when we were up at my grandparents! For a whole $10! How many women are excited when their husbands buy them a second oven, a convection oven? Mememememememe!

I have used this little baby numerous times since I brought it home - I preferred the cream puffs baked in it to the ones baked in my kitchen oven. And while it bakes wonderfully, it does not heat up my house! Of course it doesn't hurt that it is kept in the basement, where it is cool, and put onto my freezer when I need to use it.

Back to dessert.....

I had one major problem with dessert, and unfortunately, it was the ice cream. Ice cream should begin to melt when you bring it out on the freezer. This one didn't. Half an hour later and it still didn't melt. I like my ice cream slightly melty!

Flavorwise it was a nice match, the rhubarb with the rhubarb. And it did help thin out my patch slightly. Plus gave me a chance to use my new oven.

I'm curious to see what other people come up with for their Canadian desserts, and hope my dessert makes someone think of Canada.