Caramelised Maple Tart

Last week I read and reviewed Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. This Caramelised Maple Tart recipe ties into the novel and is a great treat to eat while reading it!

In many crime novels, food features as a major theme. Reading about food you love creates a connection between you and the author. There is nothing nicer than sitting down and reading about a cosy mystery and munching on some cosy food to go alongside it. Readers are fascinated with food from fiction – if your favourite characters eat it, then of course you’ll want to as well! This is my dilemma. I love the Truly Devious novels, but one thing they lack is - you guessed it - food.

As I discussed in the book review last week, Stevie is a very complicated person. She is a hard worker: someone who will ignore the rest of the world for weeks because she is trying to solve something. She can be completely oblivious to daily life while she focuses on a mystery, and this includes what she eats. Stevie will eat whatever is put in front of her. Give her anything, she’ll eat it, and get back to work. This is why choosing a recipe for Truly Devious was hard. I needed to make something that represented the whole book, but also something I thought Stevie would love.

Truly Devious is set in Vermont, and one thing that Vermont is famous for is maple syrup: sweet, sticky, and unforgettable. Maple syrup is made from the sap of maple trees. Drizzle it on your pancakes or put it in your coffee! I love maple syrup, and I was so excited when, upon reading Truly Devious, Ellingham Academy’s cafeteria staff seem to love it, too. Let me set the scene:

The BBQ beef was in maple syrup BBQ sauce. The mac and cheese was made with smoked maple cheese. There was maple tofu and maple-syrup dressing for the salads.

“Did you forget you were in Vermont for a second?” Stevie said to Janelle as they took their trays. “Look down. You are standing in maple syrup.”

So.

Maple syrup.

I was set.

All I had to do was to find and bake an amazing maple recipe, something Stevie would gobble up, something that would be at home in the mountains of Vermont, and something that the cafeteria staff at Ellingham Academy would love to serve, preferably alongside a creamy, maple-sweetened latte. I began my search. I knew I wanted to bake a sweet treat (maple tofu is a step too far in my opinion!).

I came across several recipes whilst researching. I found a delicious looking maple brown sugar cookie recipe off Sally’s Baking Addiction blog, which looked scrumptious, with a soft cookie and sugary maple icing. (Check them out on this link! Maple Brown Sugar Cookies - Sally's Baking Addiction (sallysbakingaddiction.com) Another one which felt incredibly cosy was a maple syrup scone recipe I found on the New York Times Cooking website. Decadent and crumbly, I could almost smell them as I scoured the recipe (here’s the link for Maple Scones: Maple Scones Recipe - NYT Cooking (nytimes.com)

It was a perfect coincidence that my search for maple treats happened in the lead up to American Thanksgiving, and I happened upon Alison Roman’s YouTube recipe for Caramelised Maple Tart.

Caramelised Maple Tart is a delicious sweet treat. It is described by Alison Roman as a pecan pie without the pecans, and a pumpkin pie without the pumpkin. It takes you straight to the picturesque Ellingham Academy with its not-to-sweet filling and buttery crust. Best served with more maple syrup, and topped with a thick layer of whipped cream, this is the perfect fall bake. The recipe was very simple for such a showstopping dessert. It’s all homemade – no frozen pastry needed for this one! It was fun to make and smells amazing.

‘Nate stared down the sneeze guard at the mapleized meats.

“I’ll drink the living blood of trees,” he said. “Hit me.”’

The tart was so good. The rich undertones of maple syrup ran through the baked custard filling which made me think of autumn as I ate it. The whipped cream to filling ratio was 50/50, deliciously creamy and full of love. I ate it topped with more maple syrup – yes, more maple syrup, and I don’t regret it! It was so easy to make, and the reward was incredible.

If you’re looking for a lovely autumn dessert to eat while reading Truly Devious, watch Alison Roman make her caramelised maple tart: Alison makes a dessert for Thanksgiving better than pumpkin pie | Home Movies with Alison Roman - YouTube