Maple syrup is good for more than just a sweet addition atop waffles, pancakes and French toast.
Sure, it’s quite tasty on its own, either on the aforementioned breakfast foods or drizzled over hard packed snow, making a sticky treat affectionately known in these parts as sugar on snow. But it can be used in a variety of ways to create a delectable dessert, enhance your favorite foods or as a substitute in recipes.
Ronnie Roberts, whose family has owned Parker’s Maple Barn in Mason for more than three decades, knows a thing or two about mixing syrup and foods. Not only does Parker’s produce its own syrup in the sugar house on the property, but they have incorporated it into many dishes on the menu.
They brush syrup, always the dark variety, on their slow cooked ribs and then pop them in the convection oven for a few minutes, with the end result being maple-infused, gooey topped cut-with-your-fork ribs that will be ordered every time you go back.
“Maple would be a great ingredient in a dry rub too,” Roberts said.
For their maple baked beans, instead of the traditional amount of molasses, Roberts said they only use a small amount of molasses and the rest is maple syrup to give the beans the best of both ingredients.
On the breakfast-food front, there’s a newer item, maple walnut pancakes, in which they use maple syrup as a substitute for some of the water in the batter. It all comes down to consistency in terms of how much to add.
“You just need to play with the recipe a little to get it right,” Roberts said.
Parker’s also has a stuffed French toast that uses maple granulated sugar mixed with bacon and cream cheese. That same maple sugar is the main ingredient in their maple frosted donuts.
When it comes to cooking, the darker, later season syrup is best. The lighter syrup, which is the first to get produced each season, requires more to get that maple flavor.
But that lighter syrup is great when it comes to making maple candies and cream. At Morning Star Maple, owner Karen Keurulainen has expanded the products that the Dublin maple syrup producers offer during the maple syrup season and all year round.
With a production kitchen at the Route 101 sugar house/gift shop, Keurulainen has been gearing up for what has and will be a busy month highlighted by the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association’s Maple Weekend coming up this Saturday and Sunday – while also doing all the sap collecting and boiling to make syrup.
Keurulainen said all kinds of tasty items can be made with maple syrup, including maple candy and maple cream. And then there’s dry granulated maple sugar, which only has one ingredient, but don’t mistake that for being easy to make – at least when it comes to the candy.
“There is a fine line,” Keurulainen said. “Baking with maple is a lot easier than making candy.”
For the maple sugar, it’s basically the process of removing the water. The sugar can then be used as a substitute for brown sugar – just remember it’s not an even swap – and it will last in a kitchen cabinet for a very long time.
Keurulainen makes maple granola and fudge (see recipe), along with cookies, jelly beans and popcorn. Each one takes a little different approach, and she’s spent years perfecting her techniques.
“I’ve wrecked a lot of batches,” Keurulainen said. “But I think people are getting used to doing things with maple.”
Roberts also likes to drizzle syrup over ice cream and mix in with yogurt.
“I say just find something you like and add it,” Roberts said. “Everything tastes better with maple.”
He’s even been known to put a little at the bottom of a pint glass and pour in a brown ale or an amber beer.
“It tastes great – if it’s the right beer,” Roberts said.
The fun thing, Keurulainen said, is that maple syrup can be used for so many things that it opens up the possibilities for experimentation. That’s something everyone should try after they grab a jug of fresh syrup this month. Because really, how many pancakes and waffles can you eat?