Maple Caramel Sauce

Maple Caramel Sauce

This recipe was served at President Obama’s 2013 Inaugural Luncheon. Recipe courtesy of www.inaugural.senate.gov/luncheon/recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 4 oz butter
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • pinch salt
  • ½ cup pure maple syrup

Instructions
 

  • In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add sugar and salt.
  • Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar is completely dissolved, then adjust heat to medium and boil 2 minutes longer.
  • Add maple syrup and boil, stirring frequently, until sauce is thick, smooth, and coats a spoon, 2 to 4 minutes longer.
  • Remove from heat and hold warm for serving. Pour over ice cream, pound cake, oatmeal, or fruit crisps or use as dipping sauce for fresh fruit.

Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Sweet and a little bit salty, this glaze is perfect for any occasion and also goes well with chicken or added to BBQ sauce for yummy ribs.

Ingredients
  

  • 2 lbs pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat
  • ¼ cup pure maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp pure maple syrup (for glazing)
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 2 tbsp grapeseed or extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • freshly ground pepper

Instructions
 

  • Combine marinade ingredients (keep back the extra 2 TB of syrup) and whisk together in small bowl.
  • Cover pork tenderloin with marinade and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
  • Preheat oven to 400°F or heat grill to medium high heat.
  • Remove tenderloin from marinade (discard marinade.) Place in roasting pan or directly on grill, brush with remaining maple syrup, and cook uncovered for approximately 8 to 10 minutes.
  • Flip tenderloin over and cook for another 10 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 150 ˚F at the thickest portion of the loin.
  • Remove from oven, wrap loosely in tinfoil, and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Slice into medallions.

Maple Syrup Recipes

pancakes and strawberries with maple syrup pouring over them
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 here for 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.