Cooking With Maple Syrup

Get creative with maple syrup

Maple syrup is a type of lovely sticky syrup made from the sap of the maple tree. Best known for its lavish drizzling over pancakes, maple syrup is often overlooked as a creative cooking ingredient too. Not just a sweetener for plain dishes, this type of syrup is great in many dishes.

Maple syrup has such a distinctive flavor that it is really popular all over the world, however maple syrup made of genuine maple sap is quite hard to come by, and can be quite expensive to produce and buy. Fortunately, there are a lot of alternatives readily available in supermarkets that are imitation syrups but taste just as good!

What Can We Do with Maple Syrup?

Maple syrup goes well in a variety of recipes, especially deserts or sweet snacks as it has such a sweet flavour. With maple syrup you can make:

• Maple popcorn
• Maple granola
• Maple, ginger and soy salad dressing
• Vinaigrette
• Cream Sauce
• Pies
• Nut Squares
• Sorbet
• Cakes
• French Toast
• …and much more!

If you have never baked or cooked with maple syrup before then now is the perfect time to try out new recipes and ingredients.

Some recipes with maple syrup

Maple Syrup Spice Cake

You will need:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon each salt, ground cloves and nutmeg
• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter or shortening, softened
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup whipped cream
• Ground nutmeg, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 13 × 9-inch cake pan.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ground cloves and nutmeg.
3. Combine brown sugar and butter in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Add egg yolks and beat until blended. Add flour mixture alternately with half-and-half and maple syrup, beating well after each addition.
4. Place egg whites in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer set at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter.
5. Spoon batter into prepared cake pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack.
6. Cut into squares. Top each serving with whipped cream. Sprinkle with nutmeg, if desired.

Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe

You will need:

½ cup maple syrup
½ cup balsamic vinegar
1¼ cups canola oil
1 garlic clove
Salt and pepper

Crush the garlic clove and then thoroughly mix all the ingredients. Good additions to the basic recipe are: 1 to 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard or ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil and about a tablespoon of soy sauce.

Be creative with your recipes and try cooking with maple syrup this new year!