Saturday mornings in winter wouldn’t be the same with out maple syrup. Oh there was nothing like it when I was a kid! Sleeping in late and waking up to the smell of blueberry pancakes. Drizzling them with that dark delicious liquid from a bottle shaped like a sweet old grandma! Breakfast time was made complete with Saturday morning cartoons. What could top that?
A few years ago, my husband, Nathan, was lured to the call of the maple. He purchased some maple tubing supplies, tapped a few sugar maples in our backyard and just like that we became maple syrup producers!
For the very first time, we tasted pure maple syrup. We were hooked!
Commercial syrup doesn’t compare! It can’t compare. Why? Commercial syrup isn’t maple syrup. It’s just syrup. Shocking, I know! Check the labels and you’ll discover these syrups contain corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, water, cellulose gum, color, artificial flavor, and other things hard to pronounce, etc…
One ingredient you won’t find is pure maple syrup.
Pure maple syrup is produced by tapping the sap from maple trees, then boiling the sap until the majority of water is removed leaving a thick, golden syrup. Walnut, sycamore and birch sap also make a savory syrup.
There is only one ingredient in pure maple syrup…. maple sap. No additives, no flavors, no chemicals. It doesn’t need any. It is 100% natural!
This one ingredient is loaded with nutrients! Calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper, manganese. You won’t find these nutrients in sugar or high fructose corn syrup, only empty calories. Not only that but on the glycemic index maple syrup is a 54. White sugar a substantial 68!
Our first year of syrup production yielded 6 gallons. Every year we tap more trees, gradually expanding our sugar bush. In our house maple syrup isn’t just for pancakes. Maple syrup has totally replaced sugar for us (I still use honey in my tea of course).
Nathan and the older kids add maple syrup or maple crumbles to their coffee. Maple crumbles are coarse granules of maple sugar. Wherever a recipe calls for sugar I use maple syrup. I use this conversion chart from Michelle Visser at Souly Rested. Just don’t forget to take into account your liquids. Most of the time I don’t need to decrease the liquids in the recipe, but for pancakes I do. It’s a thinner batter.
Honey is another good option and for a few things I do use honey, like in my tea. Yet honey doesn’t give that rich maple flavor that takes a dish from sweet to delish! Maple syrup leaves your taste buds lingering with all the comforts of home. Also organic raw honey can be pricey, so maple syrup is a more economical choice for us. However, we do have plans for bee hives in the near future so keep posted!
