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Don’t forget to check out my two giveaways this week in honor of my birthday and the intro to Analyzing Aluminum in August (for a chance for 5 extra entries in the giveaways!).
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!
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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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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