#Pefferlaw Creek Farm Maple Syrup

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Banana Yoghurt with Maple Chocolate Sauce

As indulgent as it is, this delicious Banana Yoghurt with Maple Chocolate Sauce can be a breakfast as well as a dessert, or a mid-arvo treat! Happy Wednesday!

Ingredients (serves 1):

30 grams/1 ounce good quality dark chocolate

1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon pure (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup (like Ontario's Pefferlaw's Creek)

1/2 cup thick Greek Yogurt

1 banana

Break dark chocolate in a small bowl, fitted over a saucepan of simmering water, over a medium flame. Add butter, and allow to melt, stirring until smooth. Then, stir in Maple Syrup energetically, until silky and shiny. Keep warm.

Spoon Greek Yoghurt into serving bowl.

Peel and slice banana, and add banana slices to the bowl.

Generously drizzle with Maple Chocolate Sauce.

Enjoy Banana Yoghurt with Maple Chocolate Sauce immediately.

[martinrebello]

[urmahkind]

Have you gone to Toronto's Christmas🎄🎀🎁 Market this year? * * They have all the yummy😋 vendors there! Let's hurry and go✨🎅✨🎄✨🎁✨🎀✨ * * My favorite one was "Pefferlaw Creek Farms" this place is a family run maple🍁 syrup operation located conveniently close to Toronto in Uxbridge, Ontario. They offer the finest quality local maple syrup and maple products with no additives or preservatives. Their Dark Maple syrup was rich, elegant, simply great! @pc.farms * * DAS KARTOFFELHAUS / Tornado Potato🥔 An outdoor market tradition; you can enjoy these German potato pancakes served with applesauce and sour cream or A whole potato spiraled onto a skewer with a choice of your favorite seasoning! * * Eat My Shortbread🍪 is a natural choice for all your dessert desires! This company is 100% Canadian; bringing vintage style baking to both your home and local stores. Samples are free! @eatmyshortbreadcompany * * Käse-Sandwich🥪 offers hot grilled cheese sandwiches on artisan bread "The Classic", "The Christmas Dinner" "The Mexican" You can add bacon to any sandwich!! Bacon makes everything better! * * You can't forget about Chimney Stax❤️!!! How can you???! 😘 They are a hand-rolled, rotisserie baked Eastern European sweets served in a variety of delicious holiday flavors. A warm delicious treat and a MUST HAVE at Christmas market, no doubt!!! @chimneystaxbco * * French Canadian poutine offers Classic Quebec poutine with melting cheese curds in dark chicken gravy! Yum! * * * #ExploreCanada#parkscanada#canada #igerscanada#ohcanada #canadaday #ig_canada#oh_canada#igcanada #snapshot_canada#tourcanada #enjoycanada#DiscoverON #ontario #lakeontario #ontario_adventures #exploreontario#ontariocanada#SeeTorontoNow #Toronto #toronto_insta #torontolife #torontophotography #torontophotographer #igerstoronto #torontoisland #yyz #The6ix#christmaslights#christmasmarket (at Toronto Christmas Market)

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Canadian Smash

It is Summer still, and it seems hardly fair to be back to work, and miss most of the day's sunshine! But the evenings are long still for a little while, thus one can enjoy a sip of a refreshing cocktail, like this gorgeous Canadian Smash (a very Ontarian variation on the classic Whisky Smash, and I might prefer this one!) before the sun goes down! Happy Tuesday!

Ingredients (serves 1):

3 wedges of a juicy lemon

4 large leaves fresh mint

6 ice cubes

 60 millilitres/2 fluid ounces (4 tablespoons) Canadian Rye Whisky (like Ontario's Lot 40)

22.5 millilitres/¾ fluid ounce (1 ½ tablespoon) Canadian Maple Syrup (like Ontario's Pefferlaw Creek Farms' Maple Syrup)

4 ice cubes

the tip of a mint sprig

Place lemon wedges in a shaker and muddle them thoroughly with a muddler to extract their juice. Tear in mint leaves and muddle thoroughly once more. Add ice cubes, and top with Rye Whisky and Maple Syrup. Close shaker tightly and shake energetically until well-chilled.

Spoon ice cubes in a rocks glass, and double strain cocktail over the ice. Garnish with mint sprig.

Enjoy Canadian Smash immediately.

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Maple Hazelnut and Pecan Granola (Vegan)

This delightfully crunchy Maple Hazelnut and Pecan Granola is a delicious (and healthy enough) way to start the day. Happy Saturday!

Ingredients (makes 5 cups):

3 tablespoons grapeseed oil

¼ cup pure dark (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup (like Pefferlaw Creek Farms’ Maple Syrup)

½ teaspoon Homemade Vanilla Extract

¾ cup hazelnuts

¾ cup pecan halves

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

3 cups old-fashioned oats

2 tablespoons golden caster sugar

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Preheat oven to 175°C/345°F.

In a small saucepan, combine Maple Syrup, grapeseed oil and Vanilla Extract, and heat over low heat stirring until combined. Remove from heat.

Roughly chop hazelnuts and pecans.

In a large bowl, combine rolled oats, golden caster sugar, chopped hazelnuts and pecans, pumpkin seeds. Stir in Maple and oil mixture, gently tossing with a spoon to coat evenly.

Spread mixture evenly on prepared baking tray, and place in the warm  oven. Bake at 175°C/345°F, for 20 minutes or until granola is a light golden brown colour, rotating the baking tray halfway through cooking.

Remove from the oven, and let cool, 15 to 20 minutes. Spoon Maple Hazelnut and Pecan Granola in an airtight container (keep up to three months if it lasts that long!)

Serve Maple Hazelnut and Pecan Granola with soy yoghurt, Greek Yoghurt or milk.

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Maple Latte

I still have a bit of a hard time adjusting to the much chillier temperature here and I’m a bit envious that it was 30°C in Vientiane earlier and that here it’s been snowing for a minute! The morning frost does lovely patterns on my bedroom window, but I’m missing wearing shorts. That said, we’re dancing around 0°C here -currently 1°C, probably -1° or -3° tonight- whereas in Toronto, where I recently was, it’s -11°C. I’m still warming up the Ontarian way though, with a hot Maple Latte!

Ingredients (serves 1):

1/2 cup nonfat milk

1 1/2 tablespoon pure (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup (like Ontarian Pefferlaw Creek Farm Maple Syrup) + more for drizzling

1 cup freshly brewed, hot strong coffee

nutmeg

Bring the milk to a simmer over medium-high heat. Wait until it starts bubbling. Pour hot milk in a blender and process until frothy.

Pour Maple Syrup in serving mug. Stir in piping hot coffee. Gently pour frothy hot milk and milk foam on top. Grate nutmeg on top and drizzle a bit of Maple Syrup.

Drink Maple Latte immediately.

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Maple Carrot Cake

A slice -or two, or three!- of this superbly moist and delicately suave Maple Carrot Cake is exactly what you want with a nice cup of tea on a Sunday afternoon!

Ingredients (makes a loaf):

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 medium carrots, rinsed

1 cup walnut halves

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

4 tablespoons light brown sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoon Ginger Paste

1/2 teaspoon Homemade Vanilla Extract

3 tablespoons pure (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup (like Pefferlaw Creek Farms’)

1/2  cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 175°C/345°F. Butter a large loaf pan, and line with baking paper. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, Pumpkin Pie Spice, baking powder and salt. Give a good stir; set aside.

Using the fine side of a box grater, grate the carrots. Set aside. Roughly chop 3/4 of the walnuts.

In a large bowl, cream butter with brown sugar until fluffy. Break in the eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition (you may add a bit of the flour mixture to prevent mixture from splitting.) Stir in Ginger Paste and Vanilla Extract. Then, stir in Maple Syrup. Gradually add flour mixture and buttermilk, starting and ending with flour mixture, until a few white specks of flour remain. Then, gently fold in grated carrots and chopped walnuts until just blended.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan, leveling with the back of the wooden spoon.

Place in the middle of the warm oven and bake at 175°C/345°F, until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool slightly before removing from the loaf pan. Peel off baking paper, and let cool completely.

In a small bowl, combine Labneh and Maple Syrup, stirring until smooth, shiny, and a very pale brown colour. 

Once the Carrot Cake has cooled, spread Labneh Maple frosting on top, in an even layer and top with remaining walnut halves.

Serve Maple Carrot Cake immediately, with tea or coffee, or keep in the refrigerator until serving time. 

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Maple Roasted Butternut Cheesecakes

My sister loves cheesecakes. It was always a given I’d bake one to celebrate her birthday. Also a given was that I’d actually bake more than one. And so we had three different cheesecakes for dessert today! I’m also particularly proud because they all came out nicely, as these onctuous and indulgent Maple Roasted Butternut Cheesecakes did!

Ingredients (serves 2):

1/2 butternut squash

1/2 tablespoon pistachio seed oil

4 tablespoons pure Canadian Maple Syrup

18 Homemade Oreo Cookies

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

150 grams/5.30 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup double cream

1 1/2 tablespoon caster sugar

1 tablespoon pure Canadian Maple Syrup

Preheat oven to 205°C/400°F.

Thoroughly scrub skin of the butternut squash, seed, and cut into four large chunks. Place butternut squash chunks in a baking dish and drizzle generously with pistachio seed oil. Roast, in the middle of the hot oven, at 205°C/400°F, for one hour. Drizzle with one tablespoon Maple Syrup, and roast, another 10 minutes, at the same temperature. Remove from the oven, and let cool, 5 minutes.

Then, place Maple roasted butternut in a food processor, and process, on high speed, gradually adding remaining Maple Syrup, until smooth. Spoon Maple roasted buternut purée in a bowl, and chill in the refrigerator until completely cooled.

Place  Homemade Oreo Cookies in the (cleaned) food processor, and process on high speed until reduced into crumbs. Reduce speed to low, and add melted butter, until crumbs are just moist.

Line a small tray with baking paper. Place two 9cm/3.5″ pastry rings onto it. Divide Oreo crumbs between the two pastry rings, and press firmly into an even layer. Chill in the refrigator.

In a medium bowl, whisk cream cheese and double cream together, until a smooth and thick consistency. Gradually wisk in caster sugar, until shiny. Gently fold in one cup of the chilled Maple roasted butternut purée and Maple syrup. Fill both pastry rings to the top, levelling with a spatula; and chill in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, carefully remove pastry rings and serve Maple Roasted Butternut Cheesecakes.

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Overnight Maple and Spice Oats

One of the great thing about these Overnight Maple and Spice Oats, beside being absolutely delicious and rather healthy, is that since you made them on the eve, you can stay longer in bed! And isn’t that what the weekend is for?!

Ingredients (serves 1):

1/3 cup old-fashioned oats

1 teaspoon light brown sugar

¼ teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

 2/3 cup Cashew Milk

1 tablespoon pure (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup (like organic Pefferlaw Creek Farms’ Maple Syrup)

1/4 teaspoon Homemade Vanilla Extract

In a mug or cup, combine old-fashioned oats, light brown sugar and Pumpkin Pie Spice; give a good stir. Stir in Cashew Milk, Maple Syrup and Vanilla Extract until well-blended. Cover with cling film, and place in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning top your Overnight Maple and Spice Oats with your nuts and seeds of choice, and drizzle with a little Maple Syrup. Enjoy!

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Maple Roasted Butternut Purée (Vegan)

I never buy canned pumpkin, I like making my own squash Purées; I’d find it a ridiculous waste of money when I’m already buying a whole squash or a quarter of fresh pumpkin to make soup anyway! And, as always, when you cook things yourself, you know exactly what’s in there. In this simple, 3-ingredient  Maple Roasted Butternut Purée, the delicate taste of the roasted squash is enhanced with organic Ontarian Maple Syrup, and that’s it! Then, it works wonder in a Cheesecake, to thicken a vegetable soup or as a pasta sauce!

Ingredients (makes about 2 cups):

1 large butternut squash

1 tablespoon pistachio seed oil

4 tablespoons pure (Grade A) Ontarian Maple Syrup (Pefferlaw Creek Farms dark Maple Syrup is delectable!)

Preheat oven to 205°C/400°F.

Thoroughly scrub skin of the butternut squash. Cut the squash in halves and remove the seeds with a tablespon. Then, cut butternut squash into large chunks, and place them in a roasting dish. Drizzle generously with pistachio seed oil. Roast, in the middle of the hot oven, at 205°C/400°F, for one hour. Drizzle with two tablespoons of the Maple Syrup, and roast, another 15 minutes, at the same temperature. Remove from the oven, and let cool, 5 minutes.

Then, place Maple roasted butternut squash chunks in a food processor, and process, on high speed, gradually adding remaining Maple Syrup, until smooth. 

Spoon Maple Roasted Butternut Purée in a jar, close tightly with the lid, and let cool completely at room temperature.

Then, chill in the refrigerator and use Maple Roasted Butternut Purée within a week.

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Matcha and Spinach Shake (Vegan)

This quick, easy and healthy Matcha and Spinach Shake covers all the Vitamin A you’ll need for the day! Happy Monday!

Ingredients (serves 1):

1 cup baby spinach, rinsed

1/2 teaspoon matcha green tea

3/4 cup cm

1/2 tablespoon good, pure Canadian Maple Syrup (like Pefferlaw Creek Farms’)

In a blender, combine baby spinach, matcha green tea, cm and Maple Syrup. Process on high speed until well-blended and very smooth.

Drink Matcha and Spinach Shake immediately.

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Maple Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I’m still nursing a cold -this sore throat did become a cold, after all- with heaps of hot tea with honey, and heartwarming soups for dinner. Now, this Maple Roasted Butternut Squash Soup is particularly comforting, because it’s delicious, and because the suave sweetness of the Maple Syrup is perfectly soothing!

Ingredients (serves 4):

1 (1.2-kilogram/2.65-pound) butternut squash, thoroughly rinsed

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons hazelnut oil

2 tablespoons pure (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup

2 Chicken Stock Cubes  

5 cups water

2 cups boiling water

6 tablespoons pure (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup

Halve butternut squash with a sharp knife. Scoop out seeds, and cut into large pieces. Place butternut squash pieces, cut-side up on a pizza pan or a in a large baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with coarse sea salt, and drizzle with hazelnut oil. Place in the oven, and roast, at 205°C/400°F, for 30 minutes.

Drizzle butternut squash pieces generously with Maple Syrup. Return to the oven for 15 minutes, at 205°C/400°F.

Meanwhile, place Chicken Stock Cubes in a large saucepan, and poor water over them. Bring to a slow boil over medium heat, until Cubes are completely dissolved and you have a fragrant Chicken Stock.

Spoon Maple roasted butternut squash pieces into a blender, and cover with half of the hot Chicken Stock. Process, gradually adding remaining Chicken Stock. Continue processing, gradually adding boiling water until the soup thickness/thinness is to your liking. Pour roasted butternut squash soup into the saucepan, and warm over medium heat, stirring in Maple Syrup. Once slowly boiling, allow to simmer, a few minutes.

Serve Maple Roasted Butternut Squash Soup hot. Enjoy!

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Maple Barbecue Beef Pizza

The Raptors are NBA Champions, but there’s still plenty of Canadian sports to watch today/tonight. The Biarritz Sevens may see (hopefully) the Canadians achieve Olympic Qualification this weekend, and the Canadian National Women’s Soccer Team is facing New Zealand (whom I will also be cheering on!) in their second pool game at the World Cup (also in France!) This mouth-watering Maple Barbecue Beef Pizza is tasty eating whilst watching sports!

Ingredients (makes 1 pizza):

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 onion

1 garlic clove, minced

2 fluffy sprigs Summer savoury

355 grams/12.5 ounces beef mince

1/2 cup Hot Chili Barbecue Sauce

2 tablespoons Grade A Canadian Maple Syrup (like Pefferlaw Creek Farms’)

1 (240-gram/8.5-ounce) portion Pizza Dough

60 grams/2 ounces Mature Cheddar

Heat olive oil in a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. 

Peel and finely chop onion. Add to the hot oil, and fry, a couple of minutes. Add garlic, and cook, 30 seconds. 

Remove Summer savoury leaves from the sprigs and chop finely. Stir into the onion mixture, and cook, about one minute.

Stir in beef mince, and cook, stirring often, until all just browned. Stir in Hot Chili Barbecue Sauce, and cook, a couple minutes more. Remove from the heat, and immediately stir in Maple Syrup, until well-combined. Set aside, and let cool completely.

Once the beef mixture is stone cold, lightly grease a pizza pan with olive oil. Preheat oven to 300°C/575°F.

On a lightly floured surface, roll Pizza Dough into a circle large enough to fit your pizza pan. Place Dough circle into pizza pan, and spread Maple beef mixture generously all over, just leaving out the edges. Using the coarse side of a box grater, grate Cheddar generously all over the beef.

Place pizza in the middle of the hot oven, and bake, at 300°C/575°F, 18 to 20 minutes, until crust is well-cooked and a golden brown colour.

Serve Maple Barbecue Beef Pizza hot, with a glass or two of chilled rosé!

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Maple Salmon Potato Salad

It’s Friday (and incidentally, my birthday!) and the heat wave shows no sign of relenting. Thus, one’s appetites veer towards cold meals. (The Lord Peter Wimsey story I’m currently reading, set on England’s Southern coast, precisely at this time of the year -albeit in the 1930s- sees the aristocratic sleuth "shudder at the thought of roast mutton and cabbage on a red-hot June day”!) 

This Maple Salmon Potato Salad is appropriately refreshing, and also hearty enough, even if made lighter with the use of cream cheese and yogurt, instead of mayonnaise. The kind of lunch you want to enjoy sitting by the riverside with a delightful mystery novel!

Ingredients (seves 3 to 4):

4 large potatoes

2 teaspoons coarse sea salt

about 2 cups cold leftover Whiskey Poached Salmon

2 1/2 tablespoons pure Canadian Maple Syrup (like Ontario’s Pefferlaw Creek Farms’), divided

4 heaped tablespoons cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoon plain yogurt

1 1/2 teaspoon Hot Pepper Sauce

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 large Spring onion

4 sprigs fresh Summer savoury

Peel potatoes, and place them, whole in a medium pot. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt, and cover with water. Cover with the lid, and bring to the boil, over medium-high heat. Once boiling, cook, for a bout 30 minutes, until tender.

Whilst the potatoes are cooking, flake Whiskey Poached Salmon into a medium bowl. Drizzle with one tablespoon Maple Syrup, and toss gently to coat. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine softened cream cheese, plain yogurt, Hot Pepper Sauce  and black pepper, and mix until well-blended.

Finely chop Spring onion. Remove leaves from Summer savoury sprigs, and chop them finely as well. Stir chopped white part of the Spring onion, chopped Summer savoury and remaining Maple Syrup into the cream cheese mixture, until combined.

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain thoroughly, and let cool, about 10 minutes, until you can handle them. Cube potatoes, and gently stir them into the Maple cream cheese dressing, until beautifully coated. Chill in the refrigerator, about 1 hour.

Then gently toss in Maple Whiskey Poached Salmon . Return to the refrigerator, and chill, at least a couple of hours more.

Serve Maple Salmon Potato Salad cold, sprinkled with chopped green part of the Spring onion.

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Maple Brazil Nut and Chocolate Granola

This simple Maple Brazil Nut and Chocolate Granola is delightfully crunchy and indulgent enough for a weekend brunch, and it instantly cheers you up, whether or not the sun is out. Happy Saturday!

Ingredients (makes 5 cups):

3 tablespoons grapeseed oil

¼ cup pure dark (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup (like Pefferlaw Creek Farms’)

½ teaspoon Homemade Vanilla Extract

2/3 cups Brazil nuts

3 cups old-fashioned oats

2 tablespoons demerara sugar

60 grams/2 ounces good quality dark chocolate (at least 65% cocoa)

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Preheat oven to 175°C/345°F.

In a small saucepan, combine Maple Syrup, grapeseed oil and Vanilla Extract, and heat over low heat stirring until combined. Remove from heat.

Toast Brazil nuts in a small frying pan over a high flame, a bout a couple of minutes until fragrant. Remove from the heat, and let cool slightly. Roughly chop Brazil nuts.

In a large bowl, combine rolled oats, demerara sugar, chopped Brazil nuts. Stir in Maple and oil mixture, gently tossing with a spoon to coat evenly.

Spread mixture evenly on prepared baking tray, and place in the warm  oven. Bake at 175°C/345°F, for 20 minutes or until granola is a light golden brown colour, rotating the baking tray halfway through cooking.

Remove from the oven, and let cool completely, about 20 minutes.

Coarsely chop dark chocolate, and stir into the cooled granola.

Spoon Maple Brazil Nut and Chocolate Granola in an airtight container, and keep up to three months if it lasts that long! Serve with milk, skyr or yoghurt.

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Torontonian

I first visited Toronto six years ago, in the late Spring of 2015. I fell in love immediately, and moved in my adoptive city in October. I’ve been away from my second home for far too long, and I miss her immensely. So, I mixed and sipped this cocktail in her honour. My Torontonian, is a cousin of the Manhattan, but with a distinctly Canadian charm and suaveness! Happy Friday!

Ingredients (serves 1):

6 ice cubes

60 millilitres/2 fluid ounces (4 tablespoons) good quality Canadian rye whisky (preferably Ontarian, like J.P. Wiser’s Deluxe Whisky)

30 millilitres/1 fluid ounce (2 tablespoons) dry vermouth

15 millilitres/1/2 fluid ounce (1 tablespoon) pure (Grade A) Canadian Maple Syrup (like Pefferlaw Creeks Farm’s)

3 dashes Angostura bitters

3 beautiful fresh blueberries, rinsed

2 small fresh mint leaves

Place ice cubes in a mixing glass. Pour in Canadian rye whisky, sweet vermouth, Maple Syrup and Angostura bitters. Gently stir with a spoon until well-mixed and chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe or martini glass and garnish with bluberries and mint.

Enjoy your Torontonian immediately.