Tag Archives: maple syrup

March 3, 2013 · 20:26

Dessert Always Before Your Veggies

You knew it was coming, right?   I couldn’t  make pure maple syrup and not share a scrumptuous syrup dessert, could I?

A sumptuous Maple  Walnut Cake.  And that it was.   If you can manage it, it is better to bake with pure maple syrup or honey than refined cane sugar.  Also UNrefined Coconut palm sugar is tons better for you than cane sugar.  Again, anything processed is going to be a foreign object entering your body.  Your body cannot use it’s nutrients as there are none.  I search the internet for desserts that are sweetened with better healthy options.  And I usually reduce the sweetener by sometimes half.

Maple Walnut Cake

Maple Walnut Cake

MAPLE WALNUT CAKE

Ingredients

  • 1 cup chopped pitted dates
  • 1/2 cup boiling water
  • 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour  (I used Gluten free flour mixture of 1/3 rice flour, 1/3 tapioca flour, and 1/3 Sweet sorghum flour and 1 3/4 of xanthum gum)
  • 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup maple syrup (I tried to knock it back by 1/4 cup. It was very good)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil  extra virgin
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the glaze

  • 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
  • 3/4 cup gently packed confectioners’ sugar
  • 1-2 teaspoons water, if needed (you be the judge based on how thick/thin you want the glaze)

Method

  1. First, preheat oven to 325°F. Then prepare your 10-inch springform pan by coating with cooking spray.
  2. Now place dates in a small bowl. Pour boiling water over them to soak. Let cool to room temperature. Set aside.
  3. Put whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, 2/3 cup walnuts, baking soda and salt in a food processor (or blender) until the walnuts are completely ground. Transfer to a medium bowl, making a well in the center.
  4. Now puree the dates and soaking water in the food processor or blender until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add egg, 3/4 cup syrup, oil, butter, 2 teaspoons vinegar and vanilla and blend/process until smooth. With a spatula, scrape the date mixture into the well in the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined. Pour into the prepared pan.
  5. Bake the cake until a toothpick comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool completely before removing from the pan. Then run a knife around the edges to loosen the cake and remove the sides of the pan.
  6. Now you are ready to glaze – BEST PART! Carefully lift the cake from the pan bottom and place on a cake stand or serving plate and set aside. Meanwhile, whisk maple syrup, vinegar and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Add water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if necessary to make a spreadable consistency. (Licking fingers is encouraged). Spread the glaze evenly over the top of the cake, then decorate with remaining 1/3 cup walnuts.

THIS CAKE WAS FABULOUS

While I am at it.  I put together some vegetables that I had on hand for roasting the other night and it turned out to be a super combination.

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH PESTO SAUCE

-Chopped little bite size potatoes about 8 new potatoes.  I used a mixture of lots of different ones.  Very colorful.  Dark purple included.

-broccolini 1 bunch

-cauliflower 1/2 head

-onions about 1/2 large

-10 sundried tomatoes

-about 1/2 cup of pesto sauce.

Sitr all together and drizzle olive oil over top.  Roast in oven 350 degrees for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

The sundried tomatoes and pesto sauce really throw this side into  the “excellent” category.

IMG_3477

Have yerself a super week.

God bless,

Karen

Leave a comment

Filed under Food/Recipes, Health/ Nutrition, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

February 27, 2013 · 19:40

Ignorance Confirmed

We don’t know what we are doing.

Gathering sap in the deep woods has proven to challenge our little pea brains. We have had two vehicles stuck so far and had to recruit help to save us.

Lesson 1 –  Tap trees that are close to roads or well established trails that are not on severe inclines.

We built a cute little “sugar shack” to boil down our sap.  You don’t want to boil it down in the house unless you want to attract every ant in the county. And strip all the wallpaper.  Well….maybe we do want to boil it in the house.

Typical sugar shack.

Typical sugar shack.

Our sugar shack

Our sugar shack

This construction works fabulous. All snuggled in the dirt as long as it doesn’t rain.   Pops boiled all day Sunday.  Sunny, lovely day.  We bottled 5 pints.  Takes 8 hours to make 5 – 8oz. bottles.  Jeez.

The trees are flowing.  That means boil more.  Stop flowing for a minute, why don’t ya.

The next day, it was my turn at the sugar shack.

RAIN

RAIN

It poured all day.  I began at 9:00 a.m.  and I finished it up inside at 10:30 p.m.   Got 7 – 8 oz. bottles.  This game is not for the impatient of mind.   Puppies hung in there and were NASTY.

IMG_4476

Lesson 2 –  Better constructed “sugar shack” to protect from elements.  And add gravel to avoid 6 inches of sloppy mud slides.

Lesson 3 – Make a better system with a smoke stack or flew so I am not inhaling smoke for 12 or more hours.  I feel like I have been at the Mousetrap bellied up at the bar with my best smokin’ buddy.

Lesson 4 – Cancel ALL plans for two weeks.  Do nothing AND think of nothing but sap.  It is impossible to do anything else while this is going on.  I tried taking my paints out there.  Painted for about 2 minutes.  Read about 3 paragraphs in my book.  Watched a little  tv on my Ipad.

Lesson 5 – Use the kind of filter that “they” say to use so you don’t have so much shmagma floating around in the bottle.  Farmer Bob had an extra one so today’s batch turned out very clean.

By the way, if you choose to try this venture yourself, get your neighbor to do it along side you.  Makes it more fun.  Talkin’ about all the mistakes we are makin’.

IMG_4459

Can you believe it?  I am still bowled over.

So, where does it all end?  At some point we have to pull the plug and say enough.  And it will probably be before the tree is done sapping.  We plan to  do two more days of boiling and will call it quits for the year.  Maybe.  But, hey,  it was worth it.

Red Gold.

IMG_4471

God bless,

Karen

Leave a comment

Filed under Farm

Tagged as , , , , , ,

February 23, 2013 · 09:16

Off On Another We-Dont-Know-What-We-Are-Doing Adventure

But these little fellers are ready and waiting.  They don’t care, they just want to participate.  IMG_4385

I wish I was childlike enough to want to participate not having any idea what the event was.  I could learn a lesson or two from my animals who trust in me to guide them without question.  I want to  do that with God, but for some reason I think I should be in the driver’s seat with the control panels.  EVERY time  I get in the back seat with my animals and let go and let God,  life is better.   And fruitful.   Not always easy.  But it sure lightens my burden a ton.

But we are off to the sugar bush.  What did I just say?  Never used those words until now, but like I said, new adventure using words I’ve never used.  We are tapping some of our maples to make Shieling Maple Syrup.  Found in a grocery near you.  Well, maybe someday.  Not in this lifetime.   Last year we went out to pick our Maples and realized it was a little difficult to do in the winter since there are no leaves on the trees for identification.  This past summer, I actually had a moment of forethought and skidaddled out there to mark the trees.

We are on track for something.

Sugaring season is about a 4-6 week period beginning in mid to late February.  From what I read and hear, we tap the trees when the temperatures reach  40’s-50 during the day and sink below freezing at night.  This is the ideal environment for the sap to run up and down the tree  getting ready for who knows what.  I will let you know when I know.   Probably getting ready to fruit and leaf out and all that wonderful stuff trees do in the Spring.  Tapping the trees is the easy part.  It took me all of an hour to tap 10 trees.

IMG_4390

I then hung two gallon plastic bags on to the spouts.

IMG_4392

IMG_4391

And then, we wait.   I tapped the trees two days ago.  Yesterday, each bag had about 1/2 cup of sap.  The temperatures were not high enough for much activity.  We are expecting some good solid 40’s in the coming days, so we should be in business.  But who knows.  I read that when temps reach high 40’s -50’s the sap can just pour.  That would be a sight.

The hard part is gathering the sap into 5 gallon buckets to place over a wood fire outside and watching it boil down into luscious syrup.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. It takes A LONG time to get there.  Days, my friend.  Days.  Someone has to be on hand to feed the fire.  My goal is to get 2 gallons of syrup.  Is that a reasonable goal with 10 trees and the time we have to stand by the fire?  I have no idea.  We’ve never done this before.  But I can tell you that little Virginia and Samdog are goin’ to be lovin’ it.   That means major time with Mom and Dad in the coming days.

The highlight of our tree tapping day was the game that the dogs (and Farmer Bob) played with an opossum.  It was the first time I have ever seen an opossum play dead.  It was alive and well then just rolled over.  At first I thought, “oh not, that opossum is not right.  Something is terribly wrong”.  But then remembered that is what they do.  Oh yeah.  I forgot.

IMG_4397

I hope our efforts bear wonderful fruits.  How do you keep a fire burning for days on end and get anything else done?  hmm.

God bless,

Karen

4 Comments

Filed under Farm, Food/Recipes

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,