Inspired by the Condiment Awareness Monday Mission, I’d like to help you utilize a healthy, real-food condiment more frugally: Real Maple Syrup. (Not a super food like honey, but better than white sugar nonetheless…)
How to stretch your real maple syrup
1. Cut it with “homemade” maple syrup
The real foodies among you will gasp that I mix white sugar into my maple syrup…but we went through a quart so quickly this winter that I thought I had to do something or we’d go broke! I’d like from-scratch pancakes to be a less expensive option for breakfast, but when you’re using real maple syrup, sometimes there’s a fine line.
The directions on my box of maple flavoring (Mapleine) said to use 2 c. sugar, 1 c. boiling water and 1/2 tsp maple flavor. I believe I tried 1 c. sugar and had fine results. I mixed the maple-flavored sugar water with an equal amount of real maple syrup and it was very tasty.
If your family is just switching from store maple syrup (i.e. corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, water and preservatives), you may want to start with the full amount of sugar, or 1 1/2 cups, and see what your family can appreciate. Always pat yourself on the back for a baby step! Cutting out the HFCS and getting half real maple syrup and half sugar is a great move toward nutrition and away from toxic chemicals.
2. You can also cut maple syrup with honey (and a bit of water to thin it out). Raw honey has many wonderful health benefits (see this post for info), and it’s often about half the price of real maple syrup with all the sweetness.
3. Pour your real maple syrup in shot glasses for dipping, especially good for folks who would put on too much. (Nothing makes the family budgeteer cry more than plates full of leftover real maple syrup going into the sink after a big pancake breakfast!) Try the dipping method, and then figure out if this is better for your family or just using self control on the pouring and allowing a little bit to be “enough”. (Sometimes you end up with more on the dip than you might pour on in the first place.)
4. Try this recipe with fruit that our children’s librarian sent me, substituting other fruits depending on what you have on hand:
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
1 1/2 cups frozen unsweetened raspberries
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Heat over medium heat until berries are juicy. Blend (optional) if you want a thin syrup instead of fruity chunks. Serve warm over pancakes or waffles.
I would probably add a lot more cinnamon, because (a) I love it and (b) I know it helps keep me healthy. It lasts at least a few days in the fridge, enough for leftover pancakes and stirring into plain homemade yogurt.
5. Speaking of cinnamon, dusting your pancakes or french toast with cinnamon can add such flavor and a guise of sweetness (try Ceylon cinnamon for an even sweeter experience with more health benefits!) that you may find you don’t need as much syrup to have a pleasant breakfast experience. Food Renegade’s blender pancakes include cinnamon right in the mix – heavenly!
A new idea!
Check out my new “perfect maple syrup bottle” for the very best way I’ve found to use 100% real maple syrup and not waste a drop, for kids or adults!
Kitchen Tip Tuesday is sponsored by Tammy’s Recipes, and be sure to also check out Tightwad Tuesday at Being Frugal and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.
More tips and baby step ideas every week! Sign up for an email subscription or grab my reader feed.
If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.
Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money. If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.
You may also be interested in:
- Soul First, Body Second
- Jamaican Meat Marinade
- 10 Tips for Avoiding the Microwave
- Honey, We’re Having a Crudite Platter Tonight!
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These are great tips. I can’t use the honey/maple syrup combination yet because of the baby, but my older kids have loved the fruit syrups. They would also like dipping since they had fun dipping bread sticks into spaghetti sauce in a small bowl.
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For the fruit maple syrup from the librarian, could you use fresh, not frozen berries? And do you heat up the ingredients together or what? Thanks!
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Katie Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
I am so glad you asked this – I had missed the instructions for cooking the syrup because they were buried with the instructions for a waffle recipe, which I wasn’t making yet. Phew. I updated the post – YES, you do cook the berries! For some reason I was picturing just blending them together in a blender, but I didn’t even have that in the post. She’s never tried the recipe with fresh berries, but I’m sure you could do it. Might have to keep an eye on the pot and add a little water, since frozen berries tend to be so juicy/watery when thawed.
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~Michelle Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Sounds great! I found some chestnut flour at the farmers market and thought that chestnut crepes with a maple-berry sauce would be fabulous for a weekend brunch!
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Alva Reply:
October 6th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
I was wondering if I could stretch my maple syrup by simply mixing it with light corn syrup (corn syrup, salt, vanilla)? That would omit the HFCS and other misc ingredients in store bought syrup. When I checked the bottle of store bought pancake syrup, corn syrup was one of the main ingredients, plus water. What do you think? Could I mix it half and half? Or am I better cooking/mixing sugar and water, then mixing it in with the syrup? Thanks!
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Katie Reply:
October 6th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Alva,
Katie
I guess that depends on how healthy you want to be. Some would say any corn syrup is a bad thing b/c of GMO corn. I noticed my corn syrup had HFCS in the ingredients! Weird, eh? I have no idea if sugar is worse than corn syrup, though. Probably a wash. I don’t think I’d go 1/2 and 1/2 unless you add maple flavoring, though, as you’d probably lose a lot of depth of flavor.
Good luck!
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Alva Reply:
October 7th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
I thought perhaps corn syrup wasn’t as bad and HFCS. And we hear so much bad about white surgar, that I didn’t know which is worse, the corn syrup or the processed sugar. Only the light corn syrup has no HFCS.
Sorry, I don’t know what GMO means regarding corn. Could you explain?
I was hoping to refrain from adding an artificial flavoring since I paid for the real maple syrup. Hmmm. Maybe I should use it as is and just splurge? Thanks!
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Alva Reply:
October 7th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Excuse the missed typos. I’m tired.
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Katie Reply:
October 9th, 2010 at 3:01 am
Alva,
Whoops, sorry for the shortcut: GMO is genetically modified organism. Pretty much all non-organic corn is genetically modified, and it’s theorized that all corn is GM because of cross-contamination with Monsanto corn (Monsanto is the company that sells the GM corn, widely!).
I don’t know that maple flavoring has to be “artificial” if you can get actual “extract”. That said, I would recommend just using it sparingly – you quickly learn not to have a puddle of syrup left on your plate after breakfast!
Nothing is easy in the “real food” world, I’m sorry to say.
But…much of it is tasty!
Katie
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We almost always have fruit-syrup on our pancakes and waffles rather than maple — maple is the treat rather than the regular at our place.
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Great ideas! Thanks for sharing them. I have lots of berries in my garden, so I am going to try the last one first.
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thank you! i have been looking for something like this cuz i have 7 pancake happy kids!!!
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I often make a “syrup” with cornstarch and water and sugar, then mix it into the maple syrup. You use less sugar this way and it retains that thickness.
.-= Expat Mom´s last blog ..Excuse Me While I Freak Out a Little =-.
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I love that berry /maple syrup recipe!!! Great substitute for the all the syrups with HFCS.
Thanks
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My favorite pancake topping (or dip) is to mix a bit of yogurt with a bit of maple syrup. Makes the syrup go farther, and it’s a bit healthier. Oh, and it’s SO yummy.
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Katie Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Kitter,
Katie
I LOVE this idea! Thank you!
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How about using agave nectar? Its about the same consistency. I love using it in almost everything!
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Katie Reply:
December 23rd, 2010 at 2:02 am
L, Although many sources cite agave as a natural and healthy sweetener, there’s also evidence that it’s highly processed, high in fructose, and certainly not a “traditional” food. I wrote about agave and stevia before, and I guess I just stay away from it because it’s expensive and I’d rather use honey or maple syrup as a sweetener.
Katie
Thanks!
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lizi Reply:
July 14th, 2011 at 5:47 pm
i didn’t realize agave could be highly processed. my grocery store sells maple flavored agave (it is natural) and it is cheaper than maple syrup (unless you buy yours in bulk).
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Katie Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 10:42 pm
Lizi,
Katie
I’ll be looking into agave more, but even though it’s natural, many don’t think it’s a healthy sweetener. It’s very high in fructose, which shoots blood sugar up, for one thing. Keep watching the Sweet Summer series!
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Wendy Reply:
February 20th, 2012 at 9:44 am
It was my understanding that agave is a low glycemic index sweetener, therefore preventing blood sugar spikes. Then again, I could be wrong. I would love to heat if you found out more about it.
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We used to mix honey with maple syrup but no one liked it, even me; and I, being the checkbk bearer, realllly tried. Maybe no more than 1/4 honey and then some all fruit jam too? Not sure how much the jam is price-wise compared to maple syrup tho.
For us, what really works good is not allowing the kids to HAVE IT for most of the meal, while I’m cooking. I’m not eating it at that point and I heavily cinnamon it too, esp french toast. I give it to them and they eat it like toast, whether its a pancake, french toast, or waffle. I do put some honey and OIL or BUTTER in the batter of pancakes and waffles.
I make brkfst meat to go with them also with eggs usually. I give them cheese too, all to help fill them up and get their protein up.
Then when the adults eat, we use a very small bowl, and dip each pc in litely. The kids are allowed a few bites then with syrup. Hopefully, this will eliminate the drowning in the future.
I never allowed my older kids to drown and we used the dipping bowl in later yrs too; it DOES realy help.
Sometimes we used to powder sugar stuff too, esp when we used fruit as a topping. Applesauce or peachsauce is a great topping also.
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I used to use raw honey, butter and the mapleine but I have wondered about the mapleine and if it has msg in it. It says sulfiting agents- So I have just gone to the more expensive real maple syrup.
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Great ideas! I come from a large family and pancakes were a huge favorite! When it came time for syrup (homemade with sugar, water and Mapleine) we used a small-ish pitcher and invariably someone would end up pouring out tons of syrup. It was cheap stuff so it wasn’t a big deal. Using the real stuff IS a big deal when it comes out of the bottle or pitcher like Niagra Falls!
So, just wondering if it would help control the amount if we used a condiment bottle with a smaller tip – - preferably one that could be custom cut with a smaller opening. Storebought bottles actually use a larger opening so we’ll use more product!
Just a thought!
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I’ve been cutting our maple syrup with brown rice syrup. Not sure if this is a better option. The bottle says all natural and it is cheaper. Also it has a more traditional HFCS flavor without the HFCS…good for winning over those claiming they don’t like the taste of maple syrup.
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Katie Reply:
July 20th, 2011 at 6:26 am
Amanda,
Katie
Just realized I forgot to put that one on my master list – adding it now! I’ll look into it for you!
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Sherry Reply:
December 11th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Brown rice syrup has three main components and all three have Glycemic Index’s higher than table sugar, combined would make this very high. I would think table surgar would be a better choice in comparison to Brown rice syrup.
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I know this is an old post but I just found it so I thought I’d share too.
I love to spread some natural peanut butter on my pancakes and then just give the lightest drizzle of maple syrup. Yum!
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I absolutely love coconut syrup/sap and coconut sugar!
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I cut our maple sugar with a little water and put it in little bowls. The girls and I like to dip. My husband doesn’t dilute his, but for the girls and I, its still delicious! I will definitely try the soy sauce bottle trick, and I will be trying the berry and yogurt ideas but I think we will just blend the berries, not cook them.
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