When we ran our sugarhouse once upon a time (when the child labor was free), we liked to put a bit of maple in tea (so much nicer than sugar). We even made tea out of maple sap. The sugar is delicious on grapefruit, too, and it makes a dandy shortbread. The maple sugar is a processed form of syrup; I am unsure how they get it into granulated form, since syrup that's heated to the sugar stage is quite hard and has to be shaved from the chunk to use it, like loaf cane sugar back in the (very) olden days. To my mind, the most delicious maple thing out there, other than syrup, is maple butter. which has no butter but is syrup heated to a high temperature, then allowed to cool, then beaten until it takes on a soft, spreadable quality. It is sublime on toast but it is also hard to find a first rate producer of same. If you find it, grab it.
When we ran our sugarhouse once upon a time (when the child labor was free), we liked to put a bit of maple in tea (so much nicer than sugar). We even made tea out of maple sap. The sugar is delicious on grapefruit, too, and it makes a dandy shortbread. The maple sugar is a processed form of syrup; I am unsure how they get it into granulated form, since syrup that's heated to the sugar stage is quite hard and has to be shaved from the chunk to use it, like loaf cane sugar back in the (very) olden days. To my mind, the most delicious maple thing out there, other than syrup, is maple butter. which has no butter but is syrup heated to a high temperature, then allowed to cool, then beaten until it takes on a soft, spreadable quality. It is sublime on toast but it is also hard to find a first rate producer of same. If you find it, grab it.
Ooo, or you can soften it with some butter and put it on your english muffins! Maple sugar and maple sugar butter were some of my staples growing up - product of family with sugaring camp! Blueberries, milk and maple syrup for breakfast! Maple syrup on waffles and ice cream (together), maple sugar in oatmeal cookies, maple sugar on roasted carrots!
It's a sugar with a distinctive taste, made by boiling down the spring-run sap from maple trees. It's sometime sold as molded candies that can be nibbled on their own, or it can be used in cooking. Maple syrup (maple sugar that's been cooked less) is an American favorite on pancakes.
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