Perfectly Delicious Maple-Vanilla Granola

From the first moment I tasted maple sugar I have been addicted to its sweet, complex flavor. I honestly don’t remember the first time I tasted it, but I’m assuming it was either a maple leaf or little figure made from the sugar, or perhaps it was the syrup. I do remember riding in a car to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, out in the countryside away from the heat and noise of Cleveland, to purchase maple candy and syrup. I was eight years old and my mother, brother and I were traveling from California to Cleveland, New York and Connecticut to spend the summer with family.

We were given circular, half-inch thick disks of maple sugar candy the size of cookies. It was fabulous – sweet, sticky and so, so good!

We looked forward to maple sugar candy in our Christmas stockings, syrup for French toast and pancakes. Even as an adult, I asked for maple sugar for Valentine’s Day. But I can honestly say that I never truly appreciated the complexity of maple syrup until I was in Montreal in 2003 and visited a sugaring farm in the countryside southeast of the city.

It was an excursion with the International Association of Culinary Professionals so our hosts provided us with far more than a little hot maple syrup tossed onto snow to impress us.

We sat at a long table for a syrup tasting. First, we were served a pale golden yellow syrup, the first tapping of the trees. The “maple” flavor we attribute to the syrup was actually very subtle. Instead, there was a delicate, grass-like quality to the syrup, or maybe it was the tree itself that I tasted. I remember being astonished, and for the first time I really understood what my friend Sandra, who lives in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, had told me.

Sandra said that the syrup that travels around our country from Vermont or Canada is actually from the second or third, maybe even fourth tapping of the trees. The true delicacy, the one that locals who really know maple syrup crave, is this first tap. When sugaring time approaches, locals come to the cabins or farms with containers to get this remarkable syrup.  And this is only when it’s available as, if there is too much rain, it will be paler and the delicate flavor will be impaired. Some years, like this year, there is very little syrup of any grade as the necessary conditions were ruined by an unseasonal heatwave and way too much rain.

We then tasted the additional grades used by the sugaring experts, an experience not unlike tasting olive oils or even wine. At the end of the tasting, we dined on a biscuit-like dumpling boiled in maple syrup, maple sugar pie and other confections. And yes, we did get the maple-on-snow experience as well, though by then, I was pretty sugared-out.

All of the above is the backdrop for where I’m going with this blog, which is using maple syrup in cooking and baking. Actually, I’m devoting two or three blogs to the subject as I’m on a maple jag, thanks to Sandra’s having just gifted me with syrup, sugar and butter. I’m in heaven.  Just so you know, as Grades A and B are  best for baking, you’re not deprived if you live far the maple sugar producing regions of the US or Canada.

Over the last two years, I have become a big fan of a particular granola made by 18 Rabbits. It is a heady blend of rolled oats, with lots of nuts and seeds, cacao nibs (one variety), sweetened with maple syrup and flavored with butter. It’s lightly sweet, my personal preference. The issue is that my market sold it bulk for $8.99 a pound. Most customers apparently preferred the sweeter, less expensive varieties. We stopped carrying it about eight months ago.

We had a packaged version on the shelf that I wasn’t crazy about which was $8.99 for 12 ounces — even more expensive. Then I discovered that our biggest competitor carried the variety I like for $7.69 a package; I all but disguised myself and went there at night to buy it. Finally, however, I decided that I could save a lot of money and disguises if I’d just knuckle down and make it myself.  Today I did, and guess what? It’s better than the 18 rabbits maple granola! Lucky for you, I’m happy to share my secrets!

My suggestion, as always, is to use the very best ingredients you can afford if you want stellar results. Get really fresh seeds and nuts. No rancid stuff that has lost its nutritional value. Use good butter. Grade A maple syrup is a little lighter in flavor than Grade B; use whichever you want.

For those of you who may question coconut oil or butter, they actually are not bad for us. Coconut oil has been taken off the “don’t eat” list by nutritionists as it has been scientifically proven that its saturated fat is not bad after all. In fact, coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides, which can help prevent plaque from building in the brain and it protects against Alzheimer’s disease. Clean, organic butter in small doses is also now on the okay list as it has been proven that inflammation, not cholesterol, causes heart problems.  Remember, scientific information on nutrition is just moving out of the dark ages.

Here’s the recipe for Maple Granola

For making parfaits, whether for brunch or dessert,  I recommend Greek yogurt as it is thick and won’t get runny. Feel free to use either low-fat or full-fat. For dessert, you could even substitute creme fraiche for some of the yogurt.  Maple Brunch or Dessert Parfaits

Joining Les Dames d’ Escoffier and Deconstructed Desserts

Remember when you were a kid and you wondered when you’d be grown up and what it would be like?  And have you noticed that since becoming a grownup you haven’t figured out  if you are really grown up, or even if you’re one of the big kids?

Apparently this never changes.  I mean, let’s face it, when you’re pushing 70 you’re a grownup. But having been the youngest and smallest in my class, and having always aspired to be a teenager, or an adult with a cool job or someone who has done something really important, I apparently haven’t quite grasped that I’m one of the big girls after all.

As a result, when I was invited to join Les Dames, I had the feeling of, Wow!  I get to be with women who have really done something special!

With that in mind, you can imagine my shock and surprise to learn that the San Francisco chapter had voted me in as their first and only Living Legend. It wasn’t until I needed to write a biographical sketch about my work with vanilla and farmers that I realized that maybe I actually had done a few things and that a few of those things had made a difference.

So I put on my grownup clothes and went to the induction ceremony in San Francisco, which was held September 14th at Orson in San Francisco.  Suddenly, standing among these very accomplished women, who were laughing and talking like crazy, I felt as if I belonged there.  Especially when I realized that this was not a formal event at all, but a time to get down and have fun!

Even the ceremony was informal and welcoming.  Some great young women were inducted into Les Dames, several of whom are instrumental in making a difference for the community at large.  That was exciting.  I’m really glad to be one of the big girls — even a Living Legend if necessary– as long as it allows me to support and mentor the young women following us big girls.  The shoes do fit.

Orson is a hoot.  It’s a big, rangey restaurant attached to an old hotel south of Market Street.  The main room is huge, almost cavernous, and painted in dark, industrial tones.  We met upstairs in a private room off a balcony that looks down on the dining room.  The room was painted black and dimly lit.

Dame Elizabeth Faulkner had graciously offered to host our meeting at Orson.  I was really excited to try her food as I knew it would be adventurous.   In addition to the restaurant, she has a bakery,  Citizen Cake, and she wrote Demolition Desserts, with recipes that are a creative stretch that are difficult to describe.  So into the cave we went to dine.

The Menu

First
Fennel, apples, and chevre with a Hazelnut Vinaigrette
Small, fresh, flavorful, no lettuce, just finely chopped apples, shaved fennel, goat cheese and a crunchy vinaigrette.

Main

Chicken ballontine with Blue Cheese Ice Cream

Fried Chicken Ballontine, Celery Root Mousseline, Habanero BBQ Syrup, Blue Cheese Ice Cream
Yes, blue cheese ice cream served on a porcelain Chinese soup spoon.  The chicken was molded in a ramekin and delicious as was the celery root mousseline.  It was more like a coulis spread across the plate than what I would call mousseline, and I wish there had been more of it as it was delicious.  I don’t do hot, so I didn’t try the Habanero syrup, which was served on the side.  The blue cheese ice cream?  It didn’t hold together for me flavorwise or as a refreshing side to the chicken.  But definitely unique.

A Selection of Desserts
I brought my camera and took pictures of everything brought to the table.  But the ambient light was so dim that there was no way to effectively shoot the food, and the desserts took up only a small portion of the huge bowls they were served in, making it even more challenging to do them justice.

We had five desserts placed in the center of our table of eight and we were each given spoons.  I only have the name of three of the desserts:  Midnight at the Oasis, Aple 3.14 and Grilled Sourdough Ice Cream Sundae.  I think we had some kind of shake in a glass and I don’t remember the last of the desserts.  Suffice it to say, I had no clue which was which though the picture below might be the Midnight at the Oasis.  They all were based on ice cream.  There were smears of flavors across the bowls, and they tasted good.

One of the Desserts

 

But the only way I can effectively describe them would be to quote my last husband, who looked at the meal I presented him one evening and said, “No one in my family would recognize a thing on this plate.”

This wasn’t criticism, it was simply the truth.  He came from Southern parents and his mother  specialized in five-minute meals from a box or can.  And in a very different way, that’s how I felt about dessert.

Elizabeth has a degree in Fine Arts and everything about her restaurant and food is trendy, industrial and artistic.  Willowy, with punked-out bleached blond hair, even in her chef-whites and apron, she has the demeanor of an artist.  Surprisingly, for all the bravado of the restaurant and the food, she’s humble, almost shy in person. 

Shortly after becoming a Dame and given a new title, I received a bill for the 2011 dues.  Back to reality  — oh that! – and the dailiness we all deal with as grownups, or not.  But I now have something new and fun: My name now reads: Patricia Rain, Vanilla Queen, LL.   And I’m finally over it; I’ve accepted that I  am a grownup after all.