Give me some ways to use maple sugar.
January 27, 2014 6:40 AM Subscribe
I have a fairly good-size bag of very finely-granulated maple sugar. When I bought it at a farmer's market they told me I can use it "just like regular sugar!" but some googling implies that it works a little differently in baked goods. So given that I have very limited free time to experiment, I'm looking for some guidance on how to use it and recommended baked goods recipes that make use of the maple flavor. Extra bonus points for anything I can easily adapt to be nut-, egg-, and dairy-free.
Personally I would use a spoon. as in put spoon into sugar to get some in the spoon. Then put spoon into mouth to eat said sugar. Repeat as desired.
posted by koolkat at 7:00 AM on January 27, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by koolkat at 7:00 AM on January 27, 2014 [7 favorites]
Response by poster: Um, I've got 11 oz of it.
posted by olinerd at 7:04 AM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by olinerd at 7:04 AM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I rub salmon fillets with maple sugar, pepper, and salt before I put them under the broiler.
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:06 AM on January 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:06 AM on January 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
Best answer: My first go-to would be the folks at King Arthur Flour, because they test their recipes really well and maple sugar is one of their products. Their site has some good starting points, like Maple Crisp Cookies, Maple Snickerdoodles, and a whole wheat oatmeal bread. Their blog's category search for "maple sugar" will lead you to some more, although I did notice that it returns some recipes that actually use maple syrup, despite the quotation marks in my search term. (p.s. you can switch their recipes to use grams instead of US measurements and I definitely recommend doing so.)
posted by bcwinters at 7:06 AM on January 27, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by bcwinters at 7:06 AM on January 27, 2014 [7 favorites]
It would make a fantastic rub for meats, with spices and garlic.
posted by xingcat at 7:07 AM on January 27, 2014
posted by xingcat at 7:07 AM on January 27, 2014
Um, I've got 11 oz of it.
I still don't see the problem. Then again I can drink (and have been known to drink) maple syrup like they do in Supertroopers. I am from Vermont though, how did you get 11oz of it in England?
posted by koolkat at 7:17 AM on January 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
I still don't see the problem. Then again I can drink (and have been known to drink) maple syrup like they do in Supertroopers. I am from Vermont though, how did you get 11oz of it in England?
posted by koolkat at 7:17 AM on January 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
Not sure about baking, but sweet ice tea lends itself to maple flavour quite well. I find that black teas go especially well. But herbal teas work well too. I do a blueberry ice tea with maple syrup. I use a stainless steel jug, and use 3 teabags to 1L (about 1/4 gallon). I also do a plain black tea with maple, but I will sometimes use flavoured black teas. Some flavors work better than others-- strawberry black tea is one that works with maple. Peach too. Mandarin, not so much.
I think you could use it in banana bread -- I use maple syrup in mine, too.
Personally, I'd look for recipes that look for brown and raw sugar and just substitute the maple -- and go for it and just experiment.
posted by Dimes at 7:21 AM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
I think you could use it in banana bread -- I use maple syrup in mine, too.
Personally, I'd look for recipes that look for brown and raw sugar and just substitute the maple -- and go for it and just experiment.
posted by Dimes at 7:21 AM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Pie. Pie. Eat it in pie. I love this apple pie with walnut streusel topping (I usually double the streusel) and I bet it would be delicious to replace some of the sugar in the streusel with maple sugar. Oh yeah, and toast the walnuts a little before you make the streusel (though you can leave them out to be nut-free and it will still be good). Did I mention you should double the streusel? Because you should.
Oh, and remember the cinnamon toast you'd eat as a little kid? I would probably take some slices of really good white bread (brioche?), toast them, spread a little butter on them, and sprinkle them with maple sugar. Ahhhh. It's comforting just thinking about it.
posted by ostro at 7:22 AM on January 27, 2014
Oh, and remember the cinnamon toast you'd eat as a little kid? I would probably take some slices of really good white bread (brioche?), toast them, spread a little butter on them, and sprinkle them with maple sugar. Ahhhh. It's comforting just thinking about it.
posted by ostro at 7:22 AM on January 27, 2014
DEFINITELY put it on grapefruit halves and then broil it. Making a rub for salmon is also incredible. Maple and salmon go together bizarrely well. I also would sprinkle some on vanilla ice cream. Also, maple sugar cookies? Um, yes. Yes you should do that. Or make a crumble with it (and some flour/butter/oats/normal crumble stuff) and then make a delicious maple apple crumble.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 7:23 AM on January 27, 2014
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 7:23 AM on January 27, 2014
Boil sweet potatoes (skin on). Cool. Remove skin. Mash. Add cinnamon and maple sugar. Press into a casserole dish. Sprinkle more sugar on top. Marshmallows too if you want to be retro. Bake for 10 minutes at 375.
posted by BlueJae at 7:26 AM on January 27, 2014
posted by BlueJae at 7:26 AM on January 27, 2014
Best answer: Yummly has a nice page of recipes that incorporate granulated maple sugar..
Using the filters on the left, we can eliminate all that contain eggs, dairy and nuts and voila! 57 recipes.
posted by zarq at 8:00 AM on January 27, 2014
Using the filters on the left, we can eliminate all that contain eggs, dairy and nuts and voila! 57 recipes.
posted by zarq at 8:00 AM on January 27, 2014
Hot grain bowls - millet, quinoa, oats, whatever. Add berries if available. Sprinkle on top for breakfast.
Roast some pears or apples in a hot oven, sprinkle on top. Add to grain bowls above.
Greek yogurt or other tart yogurt - sprinkle on top. Add berries if available, or grapefruit, or other chopped fruits. Yogurt and maple go together very nicely.
In coffee or ginger tea.
Popcorn! Kind of like kettle corn -- sweet and salty at the same time.
posted by barnone at 8:03 AM on January 27, 2014
Roast some pears or apples in a hot oven, sprinkle on top. Add to grain bowls above.
Greek yogurt or other tart yogurt - sprinkle on top. Add berries if available, or grapefruit, or other chopped fruits. Yogurt and maple go together very nicely.
In coffee or ginger tea.
Popcorn! Kind of like kettle corn -- sweet and salty at the same time.
posted by barnone at 8:03 AM on January 27, 2014
Maple Chili Popcorn. I'd use the maple sugar instead of the maple syrup, and increase the butter to compensate for a bit of the lost moisture.
Maple glazed roasted carrots and parsnips.
Maple sugar on acorn squash.
posted by barnone at 8:17 AM on January 27, 2014
Maple glazed roasted carrots and parsnips.
Maple sugar on acorn squash.
posted by barnone at 8:17 AM on January 27, 2014
Use it in place of sugar in cocktails -- maple syrup is great in bourbon drinks.
posted by oceanjesse at 8:18 AM on January 27, 2014
posted by oceanjesse at 8:18 AM on January 27, 2014
I have used it as a flavoring for pudding in place of regular sugar. I have also used it to top glazes and frostings - it's especially good on glazed donuts, although that's probably more effort than you want to make.
posted by Frowner at 8:24 AM on January 27, 2014
posted by Frowner at 8:24 AM on January 27, 2014
I like it in coffee.
posted by WeekendJen at 10:19 AM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by WeekendJen at 10:19 AM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Crumbles! Oh, I bet a blueberry crumble with maple sugar would be heavenly.
posted by domo at 2:28 PM on January 27, 2014
posted by domo at 2:28 PM on January 27, 2014
You know those people who think that everything should involve bacon, and bacon is the answer to all questions? I'm one of them.
Candied bacon is typically bacon with sugar caramelized on top; brown sugar, usually. I think maple sugar would be outstanding in this application, but I'm not sure if you want to go pure maple, or cut it with brown sugar (probably 50:50). (it also checks the boxes for the food allergens or dietary restrictions, whichever they are).
You could also mix it in to sugar on any similar application: creme brulée would work fine. Sprinkle it on snickerdoodles or sugar cookies, or even peanut-butter cookies, or virtually any cookie that takes a roll in some sugar before baking.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:43 PM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Candied bacon is typically bacon with sugar caramelized on top; brown sugar, usually. I think maple sugar would be outstanding in this application, but I'm not sure if you want to go pure maple, or cut it with brown sugar (probably 50:50). (it also checks the boxes for the food allergens or dietary restrictions, whichever they are).
You could also mix it in to sugar on any similar application: creme brulée would work fine. Sprinkle it on snickerdoodles or sugar cookies, or even peanut-butter cookies, or virtually any cookie that takes a roll in some sugar before baking.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:43 PM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
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I bet that maple sugar would be fantastic on a grapefruit half. I also know that some people broil their grapefruit halves for a few minutes, after they sprinkle the sugar on them, before eating them, so the sugar kind of carmelizes kind of like with creme brulee - I bet that would be amazing with maple sugar.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:46 AM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]