Mini Maple Cakes

Simple and satisfying, these mini maple cakes are studded with walnuts and crowned with a gentle maple glaze. 

Maple Sugar Tour 2011

I thought you'd like to see some photos from this year's maple sugar season, in case you didn't make it up to Vermont. Sit back and enjoy, since I've done the legwork! 

Hoppin' St. Johnsbury - Warm Salad of Black-Eyed Peas

Happy New Year!

Here is a New Vermont twist on the Southern tradition of Black-Eyed Peas on News Years Day.   Just-tender peas are finished as a warm salad with bacon, onion, maple syrup and piquant spices.

Maple Walnut Bars with Maple Fudge Icing

Here's another Grange Favorite for Fall:  Maple Bars with oats and walnuts.  Topped with my Maple Fudge Icing, they are just what you need after stacking firewood.

Maple Cornbread

The last sweet corn of the summer gets a great sendoff: maple corn bread is a wonderful and warming September dish.

Maple Canelés

These little cakes combine the deep caramelized crunch of their shell with a light, custardy interior, flavored with Vermont maple liqueur.  Dusted with powdered sugar, they're heaven.

Blueberry-Ricotta Pancakes

These are the ultimate Blueberry-Ricotta pancakes:  lots of blueberries and fresh ricotta cheese for body and moisture, brown sugar and organic cornmeal for character, and buttermilk for lightness.  

 These are my favorite pancakes ever.

Moonlight Pies in Vermont

Chocolate graham crackers filled with maple marshmallow cream: moonlight pies in Vermont.

Ice Cream and Cookies: Maple Ginger Gelato and Maple Pecan Crisp Cookies

Here's a match made in Vermont:  creamy maple-ginger gelato with crispy maple-pecan cookies.  Comfort food for the wilderness.  

Two Sugarhouses

In case you didn't visit Vermont last weekend to tour the sugarhouses, I was your surrogate.  I visited three of them, sampling syrup out of plastic cups, and eating homemade doughnuts, maple sugar everything, syrup on snow (sort of a maple slurpie), five kinds of cheese, and I forget what else.

That might make you glad you didn't come, but you missed something great, basic and incredibly real, even at the touristy places.  I met people who have worked hard, rocky Vermont farms for eight generations, learning and changing their techniques to suit the times.  I had a glimpse at a way of life that is tied to a seasonal rhythm, and people who are proud of what they do.  It's a good life, and many of these farmers live into their nineties, still active and involved in the farm.

That's despite all the syrup and doughnuts.  Or maybe because of it.  Which has me wondering:  is there something especially beneficial in maple syrup?  Like those rare molds that live only in the rain forest...could it be?   

No.  That's the syrup talking.

Sugaring Time: Maple-Maple Beef Tenderloin with Confetti Eggplant

 

It's been a busy weekend, visiting sugar houses in Windsor and Rutland counties.  I tried countless samples of maple syrup of all grades, and I can honestly say I loved them all.  As well as the homemade doughnuts, maple sugar on snow, maple sugar candy, and a few other things I shouldn't have eaten, but did.

And, I am now the owner of two half-gallons and another quart of different syrups from different places.  No problem, I'll find something to do with it.  

Sugaring Time: Maple Sugar Applesauce Breakfast Cake

Today the sky is blue, the temperature is 28F,  and smoke is pouring from sugarhouses all over Vermont.  This is open house weekend for maple sugar makers across the state, so be there if you can. 

I've made a breakfast cake featuring pure Vermont maple sugar  and walnuts.  The basic approach is similar to a sponge cake, but brought back down to breakfast level by adding yogurt and thick, homemade cinnamon applesauce.

I'm glad to use the applesauce, because before long the apple trees will bloom again.

Sugaring Time: Maple Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pie

Here is a Vermont version of a classic Tarte Flambée, or Flammkuche, depending on where you're from.  This is a thin, crisp crust topped with creme fraiche, lardons, and onions.  I have changed it up by using caramelizing the onions, using smoky, intense Vermont bacon, fresh rosemary, a bit of my own cheese and......maple syrup.

Sugaring Time: Elk Medallions with Maple-Cassis reduction

It's that time again.

This weekend, sugar houses around Vermont welcome visitors to experience the wonder that is maple syrup.   It's on my mind.  Our gallon, purchased from the shuttle bus driver up in Lebanon last year, is getting low.  Low to me is less than half a bottle, as it turns out.  Ample excuse for driving from sugar house to sugar house this weekend, sampling. 

There are three kinds of Grade A syrup, but I like Grade B, which is dark, with a pronounced maple flavor.  Don't bother with the more expensive Grade A, which is very much lighter and milder.  Not the same thing at all.  Keep in mind that people in Vermont originally sweetened everything with syrup, so the mild kind was prized. 

This recipe is the first of several I've been considering for maple syrup.   I wanted to complement local farm-raised elk medallions with flavors that would balance and hold their own with maple.
I've used Vermont Cassis from Putney Mountain Winery, to provide a suprisingly appropriate and delicious counterpoint.  Enjoy!