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By Rosalie Chan
I never really knew my great grandmother, which the Quebecois side of my family affectionately calls Mémère. By the time I was old enough to form memories, she had already passed away. All I have left are foggy flashbacks of times we visited her and stories from my family. Mémère was very popular among the children due to her good humour and legendary cooking. Whenever she made her maple syrup pie at Christmas gatherings, children would rush to grab a piece. It was chaos. Everyone wanted to be there first in order to pick the marginally largest piece. Fortunately, there was always enough to go around, even if some of the slices were a little smaller. My mother would tell me of the times where she and her cousin Frederic would race to the dessert table when it opened. When Mémère died, my mom’s aunts (Mémère’s daughters) tried to have a contest to see who could make it most similar to her. Matantes Denise, Gisèle, Lili and Diane all competed, and Diane won. From then on, she had to make it every year at the Christmas gatherings we call “Le Parté des Brulottes.” This gathering is always held in Authier, where the Brulotte clan first originated; our family was one of the original founding families of this small, rural Quebec town. Even though Diane’s pie was voted the most similar, there was still something missing. I’ve never had the chance to have Mémère’s pie, but my grandmother insists that Mémère had a secret ingredient, one that no one could find. To this day, no one knows what made her pie so special. Maybe it was an unknown spice, or maybe it was the love she baked into it every year. RECIPE: There is a secret ingredient, but no one knows what it is, except for Mémère. Yields: filling for 3 pies Ingredients:
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