70+ Unexpected Ways to Use Maple Syrup

Maple-Butternut Puree Recipe

Instead of sweet potatoes, try equally starchy, carotene-rich butternut squash for your next mash. A food processor will get the mixture silky smooth. You can also change the profile by swapping maple syrup and fresh ginger for a little ground cinnamon and curry powder or minced fresh sage and grated Parmesan cheese.

Baked Brie with Pumpkin Maple Sauce  Recipe

Your friends will be astonished at the ease and delight that baked brie brings to the table before dinner is served. It’s the perfect mix of sweet and salty with benefit of a warm, gooey inside and a crispy, flaky crust on the outside. Store-bought puff pastry wraps around the entire wheel of brie, and it’s finished with a drizzle of the pumpkin-spiced maple sauce that’s decadent and sweetened with maple syrup. With a sprinkle of a few sliced almonds for a crunchy texture and a rich, nutty flavor, this starter is ideal menu item to any fall themed meal.

Orange Maple Balsamic Salmon Recipe

The balance of sweet and tangy flavors coat salmon fillets, infusing them with a delicate brightness. This simple recipe features a mixture of fresh orange juice and zest, deliciously complimented by balsamic vinegar and maple syrup. Half of this orange-balsamic blend acts as a marinade, while the other half simmers into a thick sauce to drizzle over the fish fillets as they come out of the oven. This easy salmon entree is best served with hearty side dishes such as roasted vegetables, sweet potatoes, brown rice, or quinoa.

Fried Lobster Tails with Sweet Corn Waffles and Spicy Maple Syrup Recipe

Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Maple Gastrique Recipe

From the Kitchen of…Hugh Acheson, Longtime Cooking Light Friend

"This dish is an example of the synergy of my Northern and Southern roots. My Canadian veins are partially full of maple syrup, and I adore the Southern staple crop of the sweet potato."

The gastrique, a tangy-sweet glaze, is Thanksgiving worthy but also simple enough to pull off on a weekday.

Waffle-Crusted Buffalo Chicken Tenders with the Best Sauce Ever Recipe

Chicken and waffles are a ridiculously effective combination. A shattering-skinned piece of tender meat meets the crisp edge and pleasing pillow of baked batter, and it all gets slathered in syrup. Glory. Buffalo chicken is also a brilliant thing, with the happy sting of hot sauce (this may feel like a paid ad for Frank’s RedHot, but it’s just pure love) mellowed out by melted butter. Chicken tenders, too—they’re just perfect in their finger-borne, dippable format. In these head-spinning, heart-racing times of large, televised sports events, political apocalypse, and The Bachelor, it just makes sense to consolidate as many good things as possible and stuff them into our mouths to maximize pleasure. That’s why I made Waffle-Crusted Buffalo Chicken Tenders with Spicy Maple Syrup for you.

Gonna fess up here that they’re not technically chicken tenders because they’re not actually made from the tenderloin cut. I opted instead for dark thigh meat, which is infinitely more delicious, so perhaps you will pardon the imprecision. Toss them in a marinade of buttermilk and Frank’s (seriously, not sponsored—just accurate if you’re Buffalo-ing things), turn some frozen waffles into coating crumbs and fry away to a happier place. 

Oh, and the dipping sauce of Frank’s, maple syrup, and butter is so dementedly good that I licked the little testing bowl after I nailed the ratio I liked, and I am not ashamed to admit that.

Waffle-Crusted Buffalo Chicken Tenders with Spicy Maple Syrup

Pumpkin Butter Recipe

The maple syrup in this pumpkin butter recipe really darkens up the spread and adds some good depth of flavor. This easy recipe makes a lot, but you can easily cut the recipe in half for a small yield.

Brown Butter-Maple-Pecan Blondies Recipe

Know someone who doesn’t love chocolate? Make them these Blondies instead of brownies. Choose use high-quality 100% pure maple syrup for these bar cookies; the fake stuff doesn’t have the same richness and aroma. The darker the syrup, the stronger the flavor.

Honeycrisp-Maple Sipper Recipe

Autumn's apple abundance is well worth raising a glass to. Honeycrisp apples are sweet with a touch of tartness that lends an invigorating crisp flavor, giving this boozy beverage plenty to buzz about. Maple syrup bolsters the warmth of the bourbon.

Quick Barbecue Sauce Recipe

The ingredient list for this sauce is short and practical—you likely have most of the ingredients on hand. Smoked paprika and maple syrup round out the tang from the ketchup and add depth. Use as a glaze for pan-seared pork tenderloin or toss with shredded chicken for sandwiches.

Japanese Turnips with Maple-Miso Butter Recipe

Mona Johnson, co-owner of Tournant catering in Portland, Oregon, created this dish for a Thanksgiving dinner. She cooked mild white Japanese turnips (Tokyo or Hakurei varieties) in white miso and butter for savory richness, and added a touch of maple syrup for sweetness. If you can't find Japanese turnips, use a combination of small radishes and mustard greens--regular turnips are too strong for this delicate dish.

Sour Cherry Breakfast Parfait Recipe

If you’re a loyal local shopper and you spot sour cherries at the farmers’ market, grab as many as you can. Sour cherry season is so short, you need to make the most of it while it’s in full swing. Spend an afternoon pitting them and making the most beautiful magenta cherry sauce, which you can use for pies, dessert sauces, or my favorite, a breakfast parfait. Pitting sour cherries, also known as pie cherries, is messy work, so grab your kids, pull a stool up to the counter, and make it a family affair. All that effort and time spent in the kitchen will pay off in the perfect grab-and-go breakfast to savor all week long.

Sour Cherry Breakfast Parfait

Ingredients

Variations

Build a banana-maple parfait.

Layer 1 sliced banana over the yogurt, sprinkle with 3 tablespoons chopped walnuts, and drizzle with 2 tablespoons maple syrup. 

Build an almost-apple pie parfait.

Spoon ⅓ cup applesauce over the yogurt, sprinkle with 3 tablespoons chopped walnuts, and drizzle with 2 tablespoons maple syrup.

Excerpted from Scratch: Home Cooking For Everyone Made Simple, Fun, and Totally Delicious. Copyright © 2016 by Maria Rodale. The book is available October 11, 2016. Pre-order now.

Maple Mustard-Glazed Ham Recipe

For a classic flavor profile, you absolutely can't miss with this sweet glazed ham. The combination of Dijon mustard and real maple syrup beats anything you'll get from a flavor packet. Plus, this crowd-pleasing ham is made in the slow cooker, saving you effort and oven space.

Maple Syrup Snow Candy Recipe

Channel your inner Laura Ingalls Wilder with this snow-day treat. While most candy-making is a pain in the ass, maple syrup snow candy couldn’t be easier. Safety note: Unless there are many inches of freshly fallen snow in your yard, find your ice somewhere else. Making faux snow in the blender will work just as well—simply crush ice until it’s finely chopped. You can also make snow granita-style, by filling a cake pan with an inch or two of water and placing it in the freezer, crushing the ice with a fork every half hour until the mixture is slushy, but mostly solid.

Boil maple syrup with ginger until it bubbles like a cauldron. Pour the syrup mixture over a tray packed with fresh snow and watch it begins to firm up. Working quickly, roll the strands of solidified syrup around Popsicle sticks, then sprinkle each candy with a bit of flakey sea salt to offset the sugar.

Maple Syrup Snow Candy

Baked Oatmeal Apples Recipe

If you’re looking for fall breakfast ideas, we’ve got you covered. Set aside a few extra minutes in the morning to make these baked apples and oatmeal, especially if you’re searching for ways to use up extra apples or find some new apple recipes to shake up your breakfast routine. The creamy oatmeal pairs perfectly with the crisp apple, and the cinnamon and nutmeg flavors are the epitome of autumn. Scoop out insides of crisp and sweet Honeycrisp apples, then chop and work them into the oatmeal before it’s cooked. Don’t throw away the cored apples; they serve as your personal, environmentally friendly bowls—and one less dish that needs to be cleaned. Load them up with oatmeal and drizzle them with butter and maple syrup to melt into the apples as they bake. This recipe is super versatile, so make it your own. Substitute walnuts with almonds in the oatmeal, pour caramel on top, or stir in chocolate. If you’re feeling extra sweet, add a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. (We’re always on #teamicecream for breakfast, but if you’re struggling to get behind that idea, try frozen yogurt.) Serve warm, right out of the oven, with a final drizzle of butter.

Baked Oatmeal Apples

Instant Pot Pumpkin Spice Candied Walnuts Recipe

Yet another way to enjoy pumpkin spice this season. Gift these to friends as a festive treat, or enjoy them yourself with an autumnal beer. Make sure to use pure maple syrup, as pancake syrup will taste artificial and will likely overwhelm the spiced flavor. 

Sticky Toffee Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Cinnamon rolls were in regular rotation when I was growing up. There was no clearer sign of Sunday morning than the hollow clink of the cake tin hitting the stove and the assertive pop of a vacuum-packed canister of cinnamon rolls being split open. Arranged casually in a baking dish, they would swell and snuggle in the oven, their giraffe-like pattern of flaky cinnamon topping melting to cover the rolls in a layer of perfectly-engineered sweet spice. They were really more like biscuits than “rolls”—with a questionable ingredient list and wartime-appropriate expiration date—but these were the cinnamon rolls of my youth. And I loved them. 

I’ll admit I dabbled with the ‘Bons, their irresistible scent luring my tween posse toward a random alcove of the mall next to the Mrs. Fields. While most of my pals preferred the cinnamon-soaked interior, I liked the drier outer layers drizzled with gooey frosting. But as I grew older I started to find these industrialized rolls unappealing, the icing too sweet, the size intimidating. But that aroma, even after all these years, is still wholly intoxicating. 

I wanted to create a more sophisticated cinnamon roll, something more reasonable, appropriately-sized, dare I say, adult. A sweet treat that would still make the house smell like a food court without sending me into an extended sugar coma. 

But where’s the fun in that? 

So I split the difference. Yes, I came up with cinnamon rolls of a more manageable size and I swapped some of the sugar for maple syrup and sticky sweet dates which offer a complexity that none of the big-box brands can offer. I lost the icing but went instead with a layer of nutty upside-down-cake-inspired brown sugar and butter topping. Make no mistake, these cinnamon rolls are indulgent, but they’re homemade so it’s cool, right? These aren’t necessarily good for you, but they’re good for you. 

Note: For extra credit you can make your own dough for these, but a couple of balls of prepared pizza dough work just fine.

Sticky Toffee Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Szechuan-Style Breakfast Biscuits Recipe

This is a riff on the classic sausage biscuit, China style. Or as I call it in the restaurant, “This Little Piggy Went to China.” I slather a cheddar-scallion biscuit with hoisin mayo (because it makes everything better), top it with a nice big Szechuan sausage patty, add a fried egg, and drown the whole thing in Szechuan Chile Sauce that’s been sweetened with a little maple syrup (you know, for breakfast). Then I finish it off with some blackberries to bring that bright acidity. Don’t be shy about picking this guy up to eat it, but a knife and fork can be useful. Reprinted from Gather & Graze: 120 Favorite Recipes for Tasty Good Times. Copyright © 2018 by Stephanie Izard, Inc. Photographs copyright © 2018 by Galdones Photography. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.    

Sweet Corn Oatmeal with Peaches Recipe

We simmer fresh, sweet corn kernels with toasted rolled oats until thick and creamy for a happy cross between oatmeal and creamed corn, made even sweeter with maple syrup. To get the most from each corn ear, run the flat edge of your knife blade down the stripped cobs and add any corn liquid to the pan. Top each serving with vanilla-spiked Greek yogurt and sliced fresh peaches. You could also omit the maple syrup, yogurt, and fruit and go savory, topping with shredded Cheddar cheese, green onions, and crumbled bacon.

Sweet Corn Oatmeal with Peaches

This recipe originally appeared on Cookinglight.com.

Smoky Chipotle Baked Beans Recipe

You might be surprised to learn that baked beans often contain a good bit of sugar--usually from brown sugar, molasses, and/or ketchup. A classic recipe might have 15g total sugars per 1/2-cup serving; ours contains just 5g (only 2g added from a little maple syrup), allowing the smoky flavors of bacon, chipotle, and smoked paprika to pop.

Sweet Potato Casserole with Crunchy Oat Topping Recipe

This classic casserole often straddles the line between side and dessert (indeed, we've enjoyed the leftovers both ways). We dial down the sugar to steer the dish back to savory territory, and add a crunchy oat and nut topper for texture. A final drizzle of maple syrup just before serving gives the casserole a lovely sheen. While we call for a ricer in our master mashed potatoes, a potato masher is perfectly acceptable here since the spuds will be bound with an egg, topped, and baked.

Hot Toddy Recipe

The hot toddy truly is the perfect cold weather cocktail. We opted for maple syrup to sweeten the drink, but feel free to use honey if you prefer. Same goes for the type of tea you use; we love the subtle orange spice flavors matched with the bourbon for a toasty holiday vibe, but lemon-ginger tea would work great too. 

Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup Recipe

Madras curry powder adds warmth and earthiness to the otherwise sweet butternut squash, apple, and maple syrup in the soup. It has a bit more heat than regular curry powder, though either can be used here. Frozen, precooked squash will save time; you can also roast 1 (1 1/2-lb.) peeled, diced butternut squash ahead and refrigerate for later in the week. We opt for a sweet, Golden Delicious apple to contrast the tangy Greek yogurt; you can also use a Fuji or Braeburn apple.

Autumn Maple Cutout Cookies Recipe

These adorable cutout cookies are flavored with maple syrup and classic fall spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.  Walnuts provide a delicious crunch.

Maple Pecan Latte Rolls Recipe

We love Maple Pecan Lattes so much that we actually decided to make cinnamon rolls with them. Here's how to do it: Grab a Maple Pecan Latte from Starbucks (or make your own by adding pecan syrup and maple syrup to a regular latte) and mix it with yeast, then beat the coffee mixture into cinnamon roll dough. Fill the rolled out dough with a smooth butter pecan mixture to boost the flavor of the latte. Bake the rolls in a muffin tin until golden and puffy, then top them with gobs of maple-sweetened cream cheese frosting. Extra points if you grabbed an extra latte to sip as you eat the rolls.

Maple Pecan Latte Rolls

Spanish Chorizo Corn Cakes Recipe

Is there any time of day when a pancake isn't welcome at the table? These sweet and savory cakes are a scrumptious choice for breakfast, dinner, or a quick snack on the go. Keep warm and toasty by placing them in a single layer on a baking sheet in a 200°F oven for up to 30 minutes. Reheating is as easy as popping frozen cakes in the toaster, making them ideal for quick weekday meals.

Bourbon and Bacon Jam Recipe

Kick off the morning with a sweet and salty spread that really brings home the bacon. Sugary maple syrup, warm bourbon notes, and the smokiness of pork unite in this boozy bacon jam. After your bacon renders, strain and save the leftover bacon fat for ridiculously flavorful dishes. Once the contents in your pan begin to get glossy, throw it all into a food processor and blend it quickly, or else you’ll end up with something far too similar to candy and caramel (but honestly worse things have happened). And if you’re staying off the hard stuff, leave bourbon out of the mix; it’ll still be crazy delicious. Jam on, friends. Jam on.

Bourbon and Bacon Jam Recipe

Buckwheat Crepes Recipe

In France, buckwheat crepes are traditionally thought of as savory, but in this recipe, they skew very slightly sweet. Buckwheat crepes are one of those warm, comforting desserts that just feel right in the fall and winter, especially when paired with brown sugar, cinnamon-laced apples, and ice cream. Best part? These sweet crepes from our latest cookbook Taste & Technique are versatile, so if you don’t have time to make the apples, toffee sauce, and ice cream, you can still enjoy the crepes with maple syrup or jam.

The apples alone are a quick and fancy no-bake dessert, perfect for when you’re craving something satisfying but not too complicated. You can use any kind of apple, but we particularly like crisp varieties that hold their shape when cooked, like Jonathan, Jonagold, Braeburn, Winesap, Melrose, or Granny Smith. 

The trick to making perfect crepes is learning to pour and swirl the batter simultaneously. As soon as you pour the batter with one hand, start tilting the pan with the other so the batter coats the entire surface. Your first few crepes may turn out thicker or more wrinkled than is ideal, but with practice, the motion will become natural. Use a lightweight pan, which will be easier to pick up and swirl the batter one-handed. There are also special crepe pans that make the motion easier.

Buckwheat Crepes with Sautéed Apples and Toffee Sauce

Ingredients

Note: You will have some leftover spice blend, which can be used in a hot toddy or sprinkled over pies and other pastries.

Reprinted with permission from Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking by Naomi Pomeroy with Jamie Feldmar, copyright © 2016. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Roasted Pumpkin Grits Recipe

An icon of Southern cuisine, grits are a special thing. Thanks to the work of artisanal millers such as Anson Mills and Geechie Boy, grits have grown from their casual roots into something more refined. Take pumpkin grits, for example. This grits breakfast bowl from Ashley Christensen’s latest cookbook, Poole’s, continues down that road, injecting the grains with the earthy flavor of roasted pumpkin and adding the rich sweetness of barrel-aged maple syrup. Christensen says she’s usually sensitive to sweetness in savory dishes, but her pumpkin grits recipe amplifies the natural sugars of the corn, so she can’t resist. You should absolutely use the best grits you can get your hands on for this recipe.

Grits with Roasted Pumpkin, Aged Maple Syrup, and Crispy Pepitas

Excerpted with permission from Poole's by Ashley Christensen, copyright © 2016. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

No-Bake Granola Bars Recipe

Granola bars are probably a pantry staple in your kitchen for quick snacks and filling lunchboxes, but you’ve probably never made a batch from scratch. Start with this easy no-bake recipe made with rice cereal, oats, almond butter, maple syrup, and a touch of cinnamon.

Cranberry-Apple Granola Muffins Recipe

These caramel- and granola-topped muffins may look and taste like a fancy coffeehouse treat, but they're easy to whip up any fall morning. Serve with our Sticky Maple-Caramel Sauce for the ultimate wake up call. It is like grabbing an apple pie to go with baked in dried cranberries, cinnamon granola and Pink Lady apples. You can sub any apples you prefer; Granny Smith for added tartness or Honeycrisp for more sweetness. 

Maple-Peach Milk Shake Recipe

Blend maple syrup, peaches, low-fat frozen yogurt, and low-fat milk to make this flavorfull milkshake. 

Maple-Walnut-Banana Bread Recipe

This gluten-free quick bread features a harmonious blend of bananas and walnuts wrapped in the sweetness of pure maple syrup. It makes an easy breakfast treat or an after-school snack.