Favorite Vehicles for Maple Syrup

So often, maple syrup gets added to recipes in the fall. I won’t deny that it goes extremely well with fall foods and flavors, but since maple syrup really is a spring product, I like to celebrate it at this time of year. Recently, I got a big boost in that desire to celebrate by a rather large gift of homemade syrup.

My uncle and cousin tap on the order of 90 sugar maple trees in Upper Michigan, collect the watery sap, and boil it down into delicious liquid gold. My cousin may have been unloading the end of last year’s batches when he gave me 4 pints of syrup in March, but if one were to add up the retail value of this pure Grade A goodness, I have no choice than to feel like an important and well-loved part of an extremely generous family.

2018’s spring syrup crop has been boiled and sealed away, ready for baking and drizzling all year long. Here, I have complied a list of my favorite uses for maple syrup from The Messy Apron Archives. I have all the good stuff here, from maple flavored baked goods to pancakes, waffles, and the homemade breads that make the best French Toast.

Maple syrup is a subtle flavor in baked goods, but I find it a lovely way to bring on the sweetness, and a little goes a long way.  It’s really great with dates, like in Maple Cake with Walnuts and Dates

 

Or Maple Date Oatmeal Bars.

I love it for sweetening homemade Granola, too.

                                           

And for more savory applications there’s Maple Walnut Vinaigrette, which is great on the spinach salad in the same post and the grain salad in this one.

And Maple Glazed Winter Squash and Potatoes, which is, admittedly, a more autumnal recipe. I think other vegetables, or even tempeh and tofu could benefit from this application. 

 

The majority of my maple syrup does end up playing a more traditional role, however: that of properly gilding pancakes, waffles, and French toast. The most popular pancake recipe on The Messy Apron is this one for Barley Pancakes with Orange Juice and Vanilla.

 

But all of the others, including, Butter Pecan Pancakes, Coconut Pineapple Pancakes, and Double Banana Walnut Pancakes are appropriate vehicles for maple syrup as well.

Waffles are great, too, and I can’t think of a reason not to drench them in maple syrup. For thin and crispy waffles, there’s Crispy Light Wheat and Cinnamon Waffles

 

And Orange Millet Waffles.

 

There’s also Overnight Yeasted Belgian Waffles.

Finally, let’s not forget French toast, which I think needs to be made with thick slices of bread, especially homemade bread like White Sandwich Bread.

For something with additional flavor, there’s Banana Walnut Yeast Bread, Finnish Cardamom Bread, Oatmeal Sandwich Bread, or Walnut Buttermilk Bread.

Whether it’s baked-in or poured-upon, maple syrup is a fabulous addition to all kinds of sweet breakfasts, desserts, snacks, even salads. For me, imitation just won’t do. I have a source, however, and I recommend studying up to find one for yourself. Even if you have to pay the premium on a well-made commercially available maple syrup, I recommend doing so. Like any other specialty product, if you appreciate it and use it well, your life can be a wonderful culinary adventure! But even if you’re just dousing your made-from-mix pancakes or frozen waffles in it, you’re indulging in one of North America’s greatest treats.

Walnut Blondies

 

Let me just start by saying that I love these Walnut and White Chocolate Blondies!!

I was just going to make some simple blondies. You know, the simplest of simple bars. Kind of a chocolate chip cookie-flavored brownie. I started with this recipe at Smitten Kitchen, and, intrigued by the browned butter recommendation in that recipe, started doing some fiddling and tweaking.

What I ended up with was a wonderfully nutty bar with an almost gooey (but not quite), moist chewiness, and a delightfully sweet, somehow caramel-y flavor. I made that browned butter, swapped some of it out for walnut oil, and exchanged half of the flour for whole wheat pastry flour. I also stirred in some walnuts, then thought, do these need some kind of chocolate? Yes, I answered. White chocolate chips. Why not?

The resulting bar cookies really made me happy. The flavor of the brown butter and walnut oil were fabulous together, and the extra nuttiness of the whole wheat flour was a great compliment to those unctuous fats. The crunchy walnuts were right at home, and the vanilla-sweet white chocolate got gently caramelized during baking, contributing to the complex flavor. The interplay of all these wonderful ingredients was even more delicious than I expected!

These chewy bars can certainly be varied to meet your personal tastes or even just satisfy your need to try as many versions of the classic blondie as possible. The method is, of course, super easy, so you can make blondies over and over as needed to satisfy all your blondie lust. That’s a thing, right? Or is it just me?

Walnut and White Chocolate Blondies

Based on a recipe at Smitten Kitchen

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter

¼ cup walnut oil

1 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup chopped walnuts, toasted if desired

1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray an 8-inch baking pan with cooking spray, or grease it as desired.

2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Continue to cook the butter until it stops bubbling and turns golden brown. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

3. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the walnut oil, brown sugar, and egg until smooth. Whisk in the browned butter until completely combined. Whisk in the vanilla extract.

4. In a small bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, salt, and baking soda. Whisk or sift together.

5. Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the walnuts and white chocolate chips.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, and smooth it out evenly. Bake at 350 F for 25-35 minutes, or until set and glossy on top and a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Makes about 16 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Peanut Butter Butterfinger Blondies,  Graham Cracker Almond Bars, Oatmeal Pecan Chocolate Chip Bars, Whole Wheat Butterscotch Pecan Bars,

Classic White Sandwich Bread

If I was writing a cookbook or a book on baking bread (and who says I’m not?), I would probably begin with something as basic as this classic white loaf of sandwich bread. I’m sure this bread, or something very much like it, was the first kind of bread I tried to make. I found it to be the easiest to master, and most other sandwich-style loves that I make are some variation on this recipe.

All that being said, I don’t make white bread very often, which is probably why I haven’t blabbed about it on these pages before. I tend to make breads with at least some whole grain flour in them, with this Wheat Sandwich Bread being my usual go-to. I tend to forget, however, just how beautiful a smooth and stretchy, almost glossy, and luxuriant a higher-gluten bread dough can be. It can be shaped into such a smooth ball with a lovely “gluten cloak” enfolding it all like a particularly cuddly and comforting blanket. And the resulting baked loaf is oh, so soft and fluffy.

 

I like to use King Arthur brand bread flour for my bread baking (the folks at that company do not know me or know anything about me using their products). I find that the bread flour has a very satisfying protein content that allows me to make bread the way I like to make it. By that I not only mean that the dough and the bread are the texture that I like, but also that it’s consistent and predictable enough for me to take the short-cut of using a stand mixer to mix and knead my dough, always with good results.

When I had more time, I used to knead my bread dough by hand. (Partly, I figured that I needed the exercise.) That experience was extremely valuable in terms of learning how flour, water, yeast, butter and salt can some together to form a great loaf of delicious bread. I learned how the dough should feel if it’s going to make a nice loaf, and that exact measurements in bread recipes are more like guidelines. The mixture will become a proper dough when it looks and feels like it will become a proper dough far more often than when the measured ingredients declare that their work is done.

Now, I’ve made enough dough to be able to let my Kitchen Aid do a lot of my work, while I merely supervise and quality check. I begin the dough with water, yeast and sugar in the bowl of the mixer, bloom the yeast, then add the butter and some of the flour. I let this sort of mini-starter rest for up to 30 minutes, which may not be a critical step, but I like the flavor and texture results when I do this. Finally, I add the rest of the flour and knead the dough with the hook attachment until it is smooth and stretchy, going by look and feel rather than exact measurements of ingredients or time.

The rest is shaping, resting and baking, and, if I was a skilled photographer, I could have a photo journal of the whole process. But let’s not let that distract us from the resulting delicious sandwich bread, classic in flavor, soft and fluffy in texture, but still sturdy enough to keep from collapsing or tearing when cutting. I don’t eat white bread very often, choosing at least slightly healthier recipes with some whole grains in them. That just makes a lovely slice of white bread an especially nice treat on occasion. Maybe it’s not quite cake, but, well, almost!

White Sandwich Bread

1 cup warm water (about 100 F)

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon soft unsalted butter

3 cups bread flour, divided

1 teaspoon fine salt

1. Combine the water, yeast and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. (If mixing by hand, use a large bowl.) Let stand about 5 minutes or until the yeast is foamy.

2. Add the butter and 2 cups flour. Stir together on low speed (or stir with a spoon) to form a loose batter. Cover the bowl with a towel and let the mixture stand 15-30 minutes.

3. After resting, the batter should have risen and appear puffy. Add about half the remaining flour. Using the dough hook for the sand mixer, mix and knead at medium-low speed, adding as much of the remaining flour as you can. (Or, stir in as much flour as you can with a spoon and turn out the dough on a floured surface to knead by hand.)

4. Continue kneading in as much of the remaining flour as you can. You want to to form a smooth, stretchy dough that is still a little sticky to the touch. This will take a total of about 10 minutes.

5. Remove the dough from the bowl of the stand mixer and shape it into a smooth ball. The dough should be able to be stretched and shaped such that a smooth outer “cloak” forms around the outside of the ball, giving it a smooth shape.

6. Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray or grease it using the method you desire. Place the dough ball in the bowl. Spray the top of the dough. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the dough. Cover the bowl with a towel. Let stand for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

7. When the dough has risen to double in size, gently deflate the dough and form it into a new ball. Let the dough rest about 5 minutes. Spray an 8 x 5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray, or grease it as desired. Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in the pan.

8. Cover the dough with a towel and let stand for about 1 hour or until roughly doubled in size. The dough should be puffed above the rim of the pan by 2 inches or so.

9. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 F. When the loaf has risen appropriately, bake at 375 F for 35 minutes, or until the bread tests done, either by sounding hollow when tapped on the bottom or by reaching a temperature of about 200 F in the interior of the loaf.

10. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Wrap well to store. The bread is best within a day or two, and can be frozen in a freezer-safe bag or container.

Makes 1 loaf.

Other recipes like this one: Wheat Sandwich Bread, Caraway Rye Sandwich Bread, Oatmeal Sandwich Bread