I was recently given a bottle of smoked maple syrup. Yes, I was skeptical as well, especially when I opened the bottle and it was really, really smokey. Hickory and Oak, but smoke, smoke, smoke. I thought long and hard about what I should experiment with, and ultimately, I think that it would go great simply poured over some BBQ ribs, but I thought that I would actually try it in a sweet application, so I came up with this recipe for blondies. And you know what? It worked and they are actually very good. The smoke flavor (and admittedly, I only used a few tablespoons) is really tempered by the toffee and maple and instead of it tasking like smoke, it simply has a deep, almost earthy thing going on. Really quite nice. Also, if you don’t want do the whole “smoke” thing, this recipe works just as well with regular maple syrup.
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Sweet Snacks
Today, I had to say goodbye to some dear friends. OK, so it isn’t a real goodbye as I am positive that I will see then again and through the powers of this Internet thing, I am quite sure that we will be in touch all the time, but today these two friends stopped being co-tenants. They moved into the building we shared within weeks of me, and it’s been a decade of living here, so ten years of waves and smiles when we were in a hurry, gossip about other neighbors, the parking, the laundry, the snow — god, the snow of 2015! — Italy, Harvard, Germany, our respective families and cats. They have always gotten my foodie experiments, and I remember telling Erin about CSPS a few weeks after I went down this path and she trying my Roasted Salsa Black Bean Soup (March 2011). In exchange, I always received extras from their Crop Share (thank you again, guys!). So a fare-ye-well from me always involves food. So I made these Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie Cupcakes with Butter Pecan Frosting for them to take on their drive down to their new home.
For once, a truly healthy recipe! These are my standard granola bars, ones that I have made with both dried apricots and cranberries and are very much my “go to” thing when I want to make a healthy snack. They are super easy, last a few weeks in an airtight container (if you don’t eat all them straight away) and well … are healthy. This time I went with maple and date as the flavorings, but again, those can be substituted to whatever flavors you like.
I know that Hot Cross Buns are more of a Good Friday then than a Maundy Thursday thing, but seeing they are *everywhere* right now, I thought that you wouldn’t mind the recipe a day early. Every year I try to make a new variation on the Hot Cross Bun theme, and this year, believe it or not, they have Sweet Potatoes in them. A little different, I know, but super yummy. They also made the yeast go crazy, so these are really light and fluffy. I should have waited for them to cool a little more though, because the glaze kind of melted and made the crosses look all freaky. Oh well. 🙂