Dear weather, this is unacceptable behaviour. Make room for spring. I mean, it’s April and I’m still wearing a toque.
I eagerly await the tulips to poke their heads from the frozen ground, the boots to be put away, the bikes to get dusted off, and the cottage to be opened up. And….to find some maple taffy to satisfy my spring induced craving.
Seriously winter, GTFO.
Spring did tease us with a few maple inducing days last week, before a Friday filled with flurries. Warm snow busting sunshine, and cool crisp nights below freezing get all that sap running up and down the trunks. Sugary water is pain-stakingly collected and at least 50% of the water is removed – ideally through old school wood fired evaporator pans. The syrup is “finished” – boiled even further until it reaches a brix – or sugar content of 66.5%. Its quite the process, and takes patience and love to craft maple syrup. One tree will give approximately 40 litres of sap to produce 1 litre of syrup. I am trying to calculate how many trees my family would need to satisfy our maple syrup consumption. I did the math; it would roughly be…a lot.
My favourite maple treat of all is tire (teer) – or taffy. Basically, its syrup further reduced 50% to sticky, intensely maple goodness. Growing up in Montreal, I knew spring was in the air when we would head up north to go ‘sugaring off’. (The Anglo translation for Cabane a Sucre) This is not a term you hear in Ontario – but it’s practically religion in Quebec, and my immigrant parents embraced this piece of Quebecois culture with vigour. On a sunny weekend day each spring, we walked around the bush, inspected a few tin buckets, and gorged on stacks of pancakes, baked beans, and bacon all nestled in a lake of maple syrup….but then the best part….
Kids, popsicle sticks in hand, would head outside to a trough (literally) filled with snow, and try to elbow all the other kids out of the way, wrestling some to the ground if need be. You had to be front and centre when Joe Louis came out of the sugar shack with a pail of piping hot taffy. Sticks at the ready –the golden goodness was poured onto the snow, and you’d follow, twirling your stick, collecting quickly hardening taffy and bits of snow into the best. lollipop. ever.
It was a full contact sport. I always ended up with some in my hair, some on my Miracle Mart snow suit and Cougar boots……definately all over my hands. I would gobble it down waiting for the mad sugar rush to hit, and then prayed my parents were having one more drink at the bar (incredibly likely), one more fiddle dance in the hall, so I could line up with the kids and do it all over again.
Last year, I decided to introduce my taffy deprived Ontario offspring to tire, and set about making some myself for a party. It was without doubt the biggest lunch box let down of all time. The moment my so called piping hot tire hit the snow – the snow melted (shocking, I know) creating a massive pool of super sticky maple water-slush. Every kid at the party scooped it up and crazy-glue-like-stickiness ensued. I had followed the recipe to a tee – using my candy thermometer and everything. It was a complete disaster.
I am married to a true Canadian whose family has been in Ontario since the early 1800’s. Foresters by trade, each spring, locals set up in their woods to tap trees for maple syrup. It was always a celebration – a party – no tire (for shame), but a good time nonetheless.
Needless to say, in over 20 years of marriage, I have come to adopt the Copeland tire-less ways with maple syrup. Here are a few of their favourite recipes. They are all tried and true – yielding much better results than my sticky tire disaster. I promise.
Maple Mousse
This is only served on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter. Apparently it appeared in the Globe and Mail in the early 1950’s, as part of a story on the food served at Ottawa’s Canada House.
9 oz maple syrup
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup cold water
1 envelope gelatine
3 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks
250ml whipping cream, whipped
Simmer syrup until almost boiling.
Mix egg yolks with 2 tbsp. water
Add syrup to egg, whisking constantly, until well mixed.
Dissolve gelatine in remaining water and add to egg mixture, stirring well.
Return to heat, to thicken.
Cool quickly in ice bath.
Fold in cream, then egg whites.
Pour into serving bowl and chill.
To serve, spoon into dishes and top with mixed salted nuts. (The salted nuts simply make this divine)
Laura Secord’s Traditional Pancakes
This recipe is direct from The Laura Secord Canadian Cookbook. This book was originally published in 1966, and then was out of print for many years. Everyone in my husband’s family photocopied “the best bits” from the original cookbook to take with them as they started their own families. This is the only pancake recipe the Copelands will use – the only acceptable variation is to add wild blueberries when in season.
Preheat griddle or heavy fry pan.
Sift, or blend together
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Beat together with a rotary beater
1 egg
1 ¾ cups milk
2 tablespoons melted shortening or vegetable oil
Stir in dry ingredients, beating until almost smooth.
Pour batter onto preheated griddle, using about ¼ cup batter for each pancake. Turn when bubbles break on surface.
Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.
Makes 12-14 pancakes.
Maple Sundae (I realize this is not really a recipe, but run with it)
When Cam was a kid, he would sometimes be allowed to go with his dad to their log cabin in the woods for a boy’s weekend. The menu was always the same; an enormous T-bone steak cooked in the frying pan, with a tin of Le Sur French peas. For dessert: a cereal bowl of maple syrup, with a piece of white bread flopped on top to soak it up. The sundae below is a distant relative of this tradition, and is a staple in our house. I guess I just can’t wrap my mind around a bowl of syrup with a slice of Wonder bread in it….do you blame me?
Two scoops vanilla ice cream; generously pour over maple syrup, and top with roasted salted peanuts.
Maple Leaf Cocktail
This is only served at Christmas, and during the Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival, and is always poured from an antique nickel pitcher, into tiny glasses with crushed ice. Be sure to make this one week ahead to allow all the flavours to develop.
3 cups Canadian Rye Whisky
2 cups Maple Syrup
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Mix together well. Keep in fridge, stirring daily. Serve two ounces over crushed ice. Repeat as many times as necessary.
