Maple Sweetened Apple Butter: Cut 20 apples into eighths and place in stock pot with 1 C apple cider; cook down until mushy. Put though seive or food mill to remove seeds, stems and skin. Put in slow cooker and mix in 1 C maple syrup, juice of 1 lemon, 2 tsp each vanilla and cinnamon, 1 tsp each ginger and nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp cloves. Cook covered on low for 8 hours or overnight. Cook uncovered on high the next day, stirring often, until mixture holds its shape when stirred. (This may take all day.) Add maple (or brown) sugar to taste. Fill sterilized jars to 1/4″ inch from top and can in hot water bath for the appropriate amount of time given your jar size and altitude. Makes around 20 cups. Now that’s maple in fall!
Maple in fall! That means maple paired with seasonal fruits like apples and pears, late season berries, nuts, whole grains, and squashes. It means putting pumpkin in your maple and maple in your pumpkin. And it means lots and lots of sweets.
Breakfast
At breakfast, maple in fall gives us oats: Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal, Pumpkin Pecan Overnight Oats, Maple Almond Granola, and Oatmeal Banana Pancakes. Maple helps us get our apple- a-day first thing in the morning with Maple Glazed Apple Fritters, Apple Dutch Baby, Vegan Apple Blackberry Brioche French Toast, and Apple-Pecan Pancakes with Maple Apple Syrup. And maple keeps us trending with Ricotta Pear Toast (move over Avacado!) and Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew.
(Please also note that maple has a minor role in Sam the Cooking Guy’s Breakfast Burger.)
Lunch and Dinner
Maple in fall means maple all day!
Lunch in seasonal style with Maple Roasted Salmon Sandwiches and a side of Maple Potato Chips. A classic Cobb Salad with Spicy Maple Candied Nuts and Maple Chipotle Chicken. Or your choice of soups: Butternut Squash Soup with Maple, or Roasted Garlic Pumpkin Soup.
Eat your maple at dinner too with Sheet Pan Pork with Sweet Potatoes and sides of Bang Bang Cauliflower, Sweet Spiced Roasted Pumpkin, Roasted Acorn Squash with Maple Goat Cheese and Pecans, Maple Butternut Squash and Brussel Sprout Petals with Bacon and Onion.
Dessert
Maple in fall means ending on a sweet note. To maximize the maple-to-other-ingredients ratio, try Maple Syrup Pie. Add apples for Maple Apple Pie. Keep the crust and swap out the apples for a Maple Bacon Walnut Tart. Or switch it up all together with an Autumn Fruit Custard Pie.
If pie just isn’t your thing, there’s always Saffron Panna Cotta with Poached Pears, Vegan Caramel Apple Pecan Pie Cookies, Miso Maple Loaf Cake and Maple Chili Popcorn Clusters.
And now all the PSL enthusiasts out there can bookend the day with pumpkin spice. For maple in fall also means Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Frosting, Pumpkin Flan with Maple Caramel, Pumpkin Pie Buns with Maple Cream Cheese Glaze, and Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles.
That’s maple in fall, October 2021 edition. But more maple recipes are always around the corner!