Maple by Katie Webster

My rating: 5 of 5 spoons

ggggg

I'm a busy home school mom of four--three of them in high school. While I love to cook, with this crazy life sometimes I get a bit lazy about some the little things in cooking--little touches that make the difference between a good dish and a great dish. This cookbook has just changed that. I was in the mood for something sweet, so I decided to try the Maple Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Normally I wouldn't bother with toasting the walnuts, but I wanted to follow the recipe as completely as I could, so I toasted the walnuts in a pan before mixing the cookies. Wow! It's such a little thing, but between toasting the nuts and adding the maple syrup (I didn't have maple sugar, so I used regular sugar with a generous dollop of maple syrup), they were amazing!! They were a huge hit with my family and moved this cookbook to my "hang onto and cook from often" shelf.

You might think a cookbook on maple syrup would be just desserts, but there are plenty of savory dishes as well. I'm making Maple Glazed Carrots as a side dish with supper tonight. We love baked beans around here so the Sap Baked Beans are on my list to make soon as are the Maple Spiced Pecans. They will go well with our snacky supper we usually do for Thanksgiving night and Christmas Eve.

If you like maple syrup at all, this is a great cookbook for you! Some great history, how-to's for tapping your own sugar maples should you have any, a guide to grades of syrup and so forth just add to the cookbook. I highly recommend it!

I received a copy of this cookbook from Quirk Books for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.