Maple Cream and Other Dessert Treats From Kosherfest

Cary and Main Maple Crème

I have a lot of memories revolving around maple trees from my childhood. The beautiful fall colors, the helicopter seeds, and syrup. REAL maple syrup.

Not the artificially flavored junk corn syrup sold for pancakes and served in restaurants. We used the real thing, made from the boiled sap of sugar maples from upstate New York or New England. On pancakes and Belgian waffles. On vanilla ice cream. One of my favorite childhood treats (which I passed on to my children) is making snow candy, pictured here. Check out the footnote for how-to.[1]

And of course, every trip to New England meant buying maple sugar candy.

Today, I use maple syrup or sugar as a sweetener for all kinds of dishes. On squash and sweet potatoes. In salad dressings and sauces, marinades for grilled vegetables, and in fruit smoothies. There is absolutely nothing like real maple syrup, and it is an essential staple in my kitchen. But it was not always easy to get kosher maple syrup and maple syrup products, and to understand that, one needs to understand how it is made.

Here is a summary[2]  (for a longer, more detailed version with pictures, click here):

Maple trees (at least 40 years old and 10-12 inches in diameter) are tapped for their sap during a 4-6 week period in the early spring, when a pattern of night freezing and day thawing temperatures build up pressure within the trees causing the sap to flow from the tap holes. The season ends as the weather warms and leaf buds form. The process starts with drilling a tap hole into a maple tree and inserting a spout to direct the sap to either a bucket or into tubing that sends the sap to a large collection tank at the sugar house or a central collection area using a vacuum pump. Maple sap is mostly crystal-clear water with about 2% sugar content, so the sap must be reduced to remove water and get a sweet, viscous consistency. It takes roughly 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. This is done through evaporation, sometimes starting with reverse osmosis but always involving boiling. During this time, clouds of sweet maple scented steam billow from the sugarhouse. As the water in the sap evaporates, the sap thickens until it reaches 219 degrees Fahrenheit. It is then filtered, adjusted for density, and graded for flavor and color. Grades include:

• Light Amber or Golden: from the start of the season, mild and delicate and great in yogurt or on ice cream
• Amber or Medium Amber: classic rich maple flavor, great in salad dressings and desserts
• Dark Robust, Dark Amber or Very Dark Amber: pronounced, robust maple flavor for cooking, baking, sauces, fruit dishes
• Very Dark or Black Amber (from the end of the season, strong, very pronounced flavor, rich and distinctive, often used in glazes, sauces and other cooking

Evaporation through boiling is where the kosher issues come in. A small hobby producer might use large pots that are used for other purposes during the year, and that can be a problem for kosher certification. However, commercial producers have dedicated equipment called continuous flow evaporators. In both cases, pure grade A syrup does not contain any other ingredient. 

However, as the sap boils, changes in sugar concentration and composition cause surface bubbling that can cause syrup to boil over. To avoid this, very small quantities of a defoaming agent, usually some form of oil or fat, is added to tame the bubbles. The agent evaporates or atomizes out of the syrup during the boiling process. It is considered a processing aid, not an ingredient, and is not detectable in the finished syrup. Indeed, to be legal for sale as grade A syrup, there cannot be any off flavor and any residue would be considered a flavor defect. The defoamer is typically made from glycerides and propylene glycol or an organic certified vegetable oil. A maple expert at Cornell University told me that he has never encountered any commercial producer using animal fat. However, hobbyists and small farms selling syrup directly may use butter, cream, or bacon fat to defoam. Maple industry trade groups educate new producers on proper defoaming with commercial grade defoamers that are all vegetable based. The most widely used defoamer appears to be ATMOS which is kosher certified.

Several sources on the Internet have suggested that commercial producers use enclosed evaporator that do not require defoamers. However, in correspondence with maple experts in New England, I have learned that such use is quite rare, even for large producers. One should always assume that a defoamer is used in any maple syrup or maple syrup product. 

Kosher certification serves two purposes: to guarantee that the equipment is dedicated to syrup production, and to ensure that the defoamer is a kosher pareve product. Some authorities have suggested that even if the defoaming agent were not kosher, it would not be an issue since a) the amount is not halachically significant (far less than 1:60), b) it atomizes out of the finished product, and c) no one wants the flavor to impact the syrup (and it is not detectable by experts). However, the prevailing custom is to require a kosher pareve defoaming agent in order to obtain certification. Many sugarhouses, large and small, now have kosher approval and certified maple syrup from both is fairly ubiquitous in the market. 

Harder to find are kosher certified items like maple cream, maple candy, and granulated maple sugar, which are made from syrup that is boiled further to 236°F, 264°F, and 272°F respectively, and then churned as it cools until it forms microcrystals,[3] so that it thickens into either a peanut butter-like consistency, semi-hard candy, or sugar crystals. While all can be made at home, it requires patience, care, and muscle (I tried and it is quite a workout).[4] Thus, it is always a treat to find these products kosher certified.[5]

Cary and Main Co. is one such provisioner of maple products – in this case, organic maple crème from either golden amber (delicate) or medium amber (rich, robust) syrup. At Kosherfest, I was able to taste their spread, which is excellent on toasted bread and English muffins. One could also mix it with a plain cream cheese or yogurt, or with mustard for a glaze. Substitute it for honey in salad dressings or put it on challah. Bake it into cookies, use it as a filling in donuts, make a PB&MC, or, if you are like me, just eat it straight from the jar. They also make maple scented candles. Order direct online. Certified by Canyon Kosher (Rabbi Dovid Weiss, Chabad of Topanga, CA).

An interesting related product is birch syrup. Never heard of it? Until recently, neither had I. Like maple syrup, birch syrup is evaporated sap. Birch sap is lower in sugar, and the syrup is very viscous and dark. For those who think it might be similar in taste to birch beer, it is not, as those flavors are found exclusively in the bark. Birch syrup is a slightly sweet, tangy condiment that can be substituted for molasses or traditional balsamic vinegar. It is typically used with grilled foods, savory sauces, glazes, and cocktails. Varieties can be more sweet or tangy, often with complex caramel and wood overtones and a hint of sour cherry or raspberry.

It is available with kosher and organic certification online from New Leaf Tree Syrups (KVH) and Georgia Mountain of Vermont (Earth Kosher). Many maple farms are adding this syrup to their lineup and using the same equipment, so expect to see more kosher brands over time.