Maple Goodness

Remember I wrote about our trip to the Sugarloaf Craft Festival and our purchase of the fabulous maple syrup from Berkshire Sweet Gold?

Well, we've been using the syrup quite regularly, mostly on pancakes and waffles. But I've been casually looking around for other ways to use it, and boy oh boy, I found a real winner today.

It's the recipe for Maple Pudding Cake from Smitten Kitchen. It looked really easy and delicious, so I figured What the hell - it's worth a try!

I read the recipe a little more closely to see if there was anything horrifying in it -- you know, like rolling out dough or cooking stuff to a certain temperature or having to rise and proof or some other fancypants cooking technique -- but no! It was easy and straightforward, and the only ingredient I didn't already have was heavy cream. Hey, I even had apple cider vinegar, from one of the Blue Apron meals that didn't seem to get made.

So heavy cream went on the grocery list and then voila! I had all of the ingredients.

Today, then, was the day I would make the Maple Pudding Cake. I took out butter to soften and then the angels sang, because I spotted the box of Bisquick. The butter went right back into the fridge.

I looked again at the recipe and realized that it was pretty much the Bisquick recipe for shortcake. Just like that, an easy and straightforward recipe became a snap. I simply added two tablespoons of sugar to the Bisquick and mixed up the dough while the maple syrup caramel simmered.

(Speaking of the maple syrup, don't skimp on that. While you certainly don't have to use artsy-fartsy artisan maple syrup like ours, do use real maple syrup, not maple-flavored syrup.)

I poured most of the syrup into the pudding ramekins and plopped four largish globs of dough into them. I poured the rest of the syrup on top.

Then I whipped some cream while the cakes baked.

Verdict? Fabulous!