Roasting root veggies brings out their natural sweetness and pure maple syrup gives them a delicious caramel flavor. Kids will love this dish! Served cold, it makes a quick and nutritious snack.
2lbsroot vegetables – cut into ½” pieces(try carrots, beets, parsnips, rutabaga, or turnips)
2tbspextra virgin olive oil
2tbsppure maple syrup
¼tspsea salt
½tspground turmeric
pinchfreshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300°F. Spray a jelly roll pan with non-stick spray. Stir together olive oil and maple syrup and toss with vegetables. Spread evenly on pan and sprinkle with remaining seasonings.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until cooked to desired tenderness. Leave in long enough for vegetables to caramelize a bit. Also delicious served cold.
Closeup of tasty appetizing fruit strawberry jam with chia seeds in jar. Selective focus.
A delicious and nutritious spring favorite with no refined white sugar. A great sweet-tart combo for your morning toast. Makes approximately 2 pints and can be frozen for up to 3 months.
3tbspchia seeds(may need more depending on juiciness of rhubarb)
Instructions
In sauce pan over medium heat, cook rhubarb, strawberries, orange juice, and maple syrup until it comes to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for about 15 minutes until fruit breaks down. Stir occasionally to keep from burning and use a potato masher to break up big chunks.
Reduce heat to low and stir in chia seeds and let simmer for another 15 minutes.
Turn heat off and let sit for 10 minutes. (Chia seeds will expand as it cools, thickening up the jam.)
Scoop jam out with a spoon — it should slide slowly down the spoon. If not, add another tablespoon of chia seeds and let sit for another 10 minutes.
Refrigerate for up to 4 weeks or freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Bring milk and cinnamon to simmer over medium-low heat. Whisk frequently while cooking, simmer for about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients (except garnishes) and whisk until incorporated and heated through. Pour into two mugs and garnish. Enjoy with a friend and a warm fire!
1/4tspbutter, cream, or oil (for dairy-free)<optional>
pinch of salt<optional>
2cupspure maple syrup (Grade A)
Instructions
Boil all ingredients. Cook without stirring to 235°F (or 23°F over the boiling point).
While boiling, fill a large bowl with ice and water and nestle another heavy duty saucepan in this ice (do not let water get in the pot!).
When the batch reaches the proper temperature, quickly pour into the pan sitting in ice – do not stir or let water lap over edge and let cool for about 15 minutes.
When it’s cooled to about 100°F, remove from the ice bath and start stirring with a wooden spoon. This will take some time!
When it turns opaque and starts to lose its shine, quickly pour into a jar. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator.
Notes
*The first two ingredients are optional but help to keep foam down during boiling.
While we all love the taste of pure maple syrup, it’s also fun to play around with blends and change it up a little bit. Infusions are so hot right now, we thought we’d try it with our syrup. We hit up our friends on maple tapping blogs and social media channels and this is the method most seemed to agree on. Definitely try this in small batches until you’re sure you like it. And don’t choose infusion ingredients that could spoil while in the syrup (i.e. fresh fruit or things that might break down and be difficult to strain out).A few fun ideas: vanilla beans, coffee beans, or cinnamon sticks (lightly scrape or crush them to release flavor); whole nutmeg, star anise, peppercorns, or cloves; even dried chili or chipotle peppers. We recommend putting your ingredients in a tea infuser or wrap in cheesecloth to make it easier to remove them.
Instructions
Make syrup as usual, getting it to 219°F and filtering as you always do, and reserve the amount you intend to infuse.
Into this set aside jar, add your extras. Let steep for about one hour – taste at the half-hour mark for flavor intensity.
Remove the ingredients, reheat syrup to at least 180°F, filter if desired to remove sugar sand, and seal as usual.
For a fun presentation, drop a vanilla bean (or cinnamon stick) in the jar before sealing.
Golden syrup drizzling down over hot buttered pancakes with a strawberry garnish.
Of course, your first meal of homemade maple syrup just has to be a big stack of pancakes! This is what you worked for all season and it tastes so good. After you’ve had your fill of flapjacks – and still have a pantry full of pure maple syrup – you’ll want to venture past the breakfast table.
Pure maple syrup can easily be used as a replacement for sugar but obviously it will impart a maple flavor to your dish. Generally, one cup of pure maple syrup equals one cup of sugar and can be swapped out in most recipes. For cookies and cakes that also use liquid ingredients, just reduce the liquids by three tablespoons for each cup of maple syrup used.
We’ll add a couple recipes each week during the season and send out a link in our newsletter. If you’d like to get these yummy recipes (and our really helpful newsletter!), click here.
Because sugar was scarce but sugar maple trees abundant in pioneer days, many of their sweet treats were made from maple syrup – and those recipes are still good today. Try some of these this year, you can use already-bottled syrup or make them during your initial boiling phase. Be sure, though, to calibrate your thermometer each time you boil syrup (click herefor how to do that).
Granulated Maple Sugar. On a non-humid day, heat syrup to 252°F to 257°F (or 40°F to 45°F above the boiling point) and transfer immediately to a flat pan. Stir within this pan until it becomes granulated and all the moisture is gone. Sieve through a coarse screen (1/8-inch hardware screen) to create uniform granules. Use as a one-to-one white sugar replacement.
Hard Molded Sugar. Follow the same steps for granulated sugar but do not put through a screen. Instead pack into candy molds – be sure to follow the manufacturer’s directions on prepping and cleaning the molds.
Molded Soft Sugar Candy. Heat syrup to 245°F (or 33°F above the boiling point,) pour into a flat pan, and allow to cool undisturbed to 200°F but no lower than 160°F. Once it drops to this temperature, stir until the syrup is soft and pliable and pour or pack into molds. When cool, poured candies will have a glazed surface.
Hard Maple Sugar Candy. Boil the syrup to 240°F to 242°F (or 28°F to 30°F above the boiling point.) Keep at least 1½-inches of liquid in the pan to avoid scorching. Allow to cool to 150°F and pour or pack into molds.
Jack Wax or Maple-on-Snow.Kids will love this one! Start out by filling a pan with clean snow or shaved ice and keep frozen. The boiling range is wide for this treat: at the low end of 230°F (or 18°F above the boiling point) you’ll get a taffy-like candy while at the high end of 252°F (or 40°F above the boiling point) you’ll have a glass-like candy. Consistency changes within this temperature range. Once your syrup has reached your preferred temperature, immediately pour it in ribbons on the snow or ice. It will be done instantly and is typically eaten right away, as it does not keep well.
