Recipe: Maple Syrup Liqueur

By Andrew Schloss

Rum infused with a healthy dose of maple syrup and the added richness of vanilla and prune is just what the doctor ordered.

Using maple syrup as an ingredient in cocktails is all the rage, but the syrup most often sweetens or acts as an accent flavor and is rarely permitted to serve as a base. Enter Maple Liqueur! Rum infused with a healthy dose of syrup and the added richness of vanilla and prune? This recipe from Andrew Schloss’s Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits might be just what the doctor ordered for enduring the latest snap of arctic air…especially if it’s served as a warm toddy with lemon peel and a cinnamon stick.

Maple Syrup

There are two main grades of maple syrup in the United States (Canada has a different grading system). The most expensive, grade A, comes in light amber, medium amber, and dark amber; it is the lightest and most nuanced. Grade B is a darker, richer, and more caramelly syrup. That’s what you want here.

The flavor of maple combines sweetness, tartness (from malic acid), and aromatics, mostly from proteins and vanillin, a vanilla-tasting by-product of wood. In this delectable liqueur, the taste is underscored by the generic fruit flavor from prunes and a floral hit of vanilla. Serve this liqueur mixed in a warm toddy (a cinnamon stick spiraled with lemon peel makes an excellent swizzle), or as the sweet element in a Rye Old-Fashioned.

Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients

1¾ cups dark rum (80 proof)
1 vanilla bean (Madagascar or Bourbon), split
6 prunes, coarsely chopped
1¾ cups pure maple syrup, preferably grade B

Directions

Combine the rum, vanilla, prunes, and maple syrup in a 1-quart jar.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of maple with a hint of fruit, 3 to 5 days.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.

Excerpted from Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits © Andrew Schloss. Photo © Leigh Beisch Photography.

Learn More

Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits

by Andrew Schloss

Add your favorite flavors and sweeteners to vodka, brandy, whiskey, and rum to make delicious homemade liqueurs. Andrew Schloss shows you simple techniques for making liqueurs using standard kitchen equipment, providing hundreds of recipes for blending your own flavored spirits with cinnamon, chocolate, honey, peaches, or anything else that might suit your fancy. Learn how easy it is to make your own versions of Baileys, Triple Sec, and Kahlúa, or try your hand at creating new and unique flavor combinations. Cheers!

$19.95

$24.95 CAD

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Andrew Schloss

About the Author

Andrew Schloss is a well-known teacher, food writer, and food product developer. Schloss has authored many cookbooks and countless food articles. His first book, Fifty Ways to Cook Most Everything, was a Book-of-the-Month-Club Main Selection. The Science of Good Food (co-authored with David Joachim) won an IACP Cookbook Award, and their book Mastering the Grill was a New York Times best-seller. Schloss is also the author of Homemade Soda. He is a past president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and lives outside Philadelphia with his wife, Karen, and their incredibly well-fed dog.

Learn more about this author

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