Maple Sugar

Maple Sugar: Nutrition and Culinary Guide

Maple sugar is the solid crystallised form of maple syrup — produced by continuing to boil maple sap or maple syrup beyond the point where it becomes a liquid syrup, until the sugar concentration is high enough to crystallise on cooling. The result is a granular or block sugar with a very intense maple flavour — more concentrated than maple syrup on a per-weight basis — and a richer, more complex caramel character. Maple sugar has been produced by indigenous peoples of northeastern North America for centuries before European contact; the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy), Anishinaabe, and other nations boiled sap in birch bark containers and later iron pots to produce both syrup and granulated sugar, which was used as a seasoning and trade commodity. Maple sugar is more expensive than maple syrup due to the additional reduction required, and more expensive than white sugar, but provides genuine maple flavour in applications where a dry sugar is preferred.

Nutritional Value and Uses

Maple sugar provides 354 kcal and 90.9 g of carbohydrates per 100 g, with 84.9 g of sugar — somewhat less sweet per gram than white sugar due to the flavour-diluting effect of its complex compounds. It retains the minerals and polyphenols of maple syrup in concentrated form (zinc, manganese, calcium, and approximately 65 identified polyphenolic compounds). Use as a 1:1 substitute for white or brown sugar in baking where maple character is desired: in maple cookies, in oatmeal, in coffee and tea, in spiced nuts, and in glazes for ham or salmon. The intense maple flavour means smaller quantities often suffice relative to other sugars.