If you read my Maple Syrup in Pop Culture post, you would have noted a trend. The popular imagination has only two uses for maple syrup. Either it drenches your pancakes or it provides a gateway into an organized crime syndicate. Believe it or not, that golden sweet stuff has other uses too.
First, here are some things it doesn’t do. Despite rumours to the contrary, maple syrup doesn’t serve as an aphrodisiac. The maple syrup mafia started that rumour to promote their product. In addition, maple syrup is not addictive. It may seem addictive but that’s only because—okay, it is addictive, but in a good way. Finally, maple syrup doesn’t cure baldness. As I can personally attest, if a maple syrup producer tells you that working their product into your scalp each morning will promote a full head of hair, then they’re a liar and you should demand a refund.
I have more modest uses for maple syrup. As maple butter, it makes a good spread on breakfast toast. As maple sugar, it makes a healthy substitute for your usual coffee sweetener. For breakfast, I like to eat unsweetened coconut yoghurt with cut fruit and a healthy dose of syrup. For dinner, I sometimes like to marinate chicken thighs or wings in a 50/50 mixture of maple syrup and soy sauce. Add some garlic and let it soak all day in a ziplock bag before heating in the oven at 400º for 40 minutes. (Take the chicken out of the ziplock bag before you put it in the oven.)
Finally, the pièce de résistance: my sister-in-law’s maple butter tarts. I had assumed this was a secret recipe passed down through the generations, but when I asked if she’d share, I learned to my shock that it’s not a family secret at all. For the filling, she uses the Canadian Living recipe. To accommodate celiacs like me, she substitutes a gluten free pastry, but I don’t suppose it matters what you use as long as your pastry makes a good container for the syrup/butter filling. It just has to hold together long enough to make it from the tray to your mouth. Enjoy!
