Homemade Maple Syrup vs Honey

I read a recipe today on a blog I follow. It gave a recipe to make "maple syrup" from ingredients in your pantry: sugar, brown sugar, water and maple flavoring. I understand that some people can't have their pancakes without it, but...

As a family, we discussed storing syrup, and decided that storing/making syrup (short shelf life, no nutritional value, needs time and patience and equipment to make) vs honey (long shelf life and lots of vitamins/minerals/nutrients/anti-allergen properties) is really no contest.

We're buying gallons of honey from Sam's, while we alternate using the last of our purchased syrup and honey. It took a bit to get used to, but now, 12 year old Son asks for honey on almost everything bread-like we make.

For instance, I experimented with an oat-muffin and after two tries, turned out quite tasty. Son refused to eat it without honey. Picky picky.

That's ok. It's better for him. Oh, a lot less trouble.


2 comments:

Ellen said...

Have you considered storing real maple syrup? Real maple syrup is high in pottasium and calcium. It will not freeze solid even when stored in the freezer and takes only an hour to return to pourable consistency. It stores for an extremely long time and even if mold forms on top, you can remove it and the rest of the syrup is fine if heated to boiling.

I love honey but here in VT, maple syrup is often less expensive so we tend to store that in larger quantities.

ThrtnWmsFam said...

We do have a couple of bottles of real maple syrup, but Son doesn't like it or blackstrap molasses (which we also have) as much as honey or the fake stuff. Go figure. Good idea, though. And new info about the mold idea. Thanks! The Williams Family