Maple Sugaring Results + Pumpkin Maple Pancake Recipe!

After all the hard work, we have finally boiled down and finished the last batch of maple syrup! Our first season of sugaring was a learning experience, with lots of trial and even more error, but in the end we produced 2.75 gallons of syrup, which means we must have boiled somewhere around 130-140 gallons of sap. Props to Josh, he did all the gathering and hauling of the sap buckets. We filtered (with a felt funnel) and pressured canned the "liquid gold" late Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning made a large batch of pumpkin maple pancakes to taste our syrup for the first time. Our syrup is on the lighter side, not as sweet as many others I have tried, and it is pretty darn tasty. I have included the recipe for the pumpkin maple pancakes we made below, as they are so delicious and really worth trying. I was skeptical at first because the recipe is gluten free, but I was surprised to find that I actually like them much better than traditional pancakes. Give them a whirl sometime, I think you'll enjoy them!

Pumpkin Maple Pancakes

Ingredients: 
4 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil, plus extra for pan frying

Directions:
Whisk eggs, canned pumpkin, vanilla extract, and maple sugar together. Sift the pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and baking soda into the wet ingredients.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then mix the butter into the batter. Let the batter sit for 5-10 minutes.

Grease the skillet and spoon the batter into the skillet to make pancakes of your desired size. When a few bubbles appear, flip the pancakes once to finish cooking.

Serve with sprinkled cinnamon, sliced bananas, and maple syrup.