The Breakfast Condiment That Brings A Sweet Heat To Your Meals

Spicy maple syrup is the thing you didn't know you needed to turn eggs, your favorite brand of sausage patties, and pancakes into a memorable breakfast sandwich. While the syrup, along with the likes of some creamed butter and perhaps a slice or two of American cheese keeps the sandwich moist, it also ties together the sweetness of the hotcakes with the umami savoriness of the meat and eggs. That said, if you just want to spice up your pancakes, French toast, or waffles, this spicy syrup tastes mighty fine on those, too.

It's also ridiculously easy to make. Most recipes for spicy maple syrup call for spices like cayenne pepper or chili powder and paprika to be mixed in with a standard bottle of maple syrup. Sweeter warming spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, can also be added to balance the heat of the pepper and chili powder and make the flavor of the spiced maple syrup recipe more sophisticated.

Finally, if you like this little adventure in sugar-and-spice condiments, you can make up some extra to be eaten to be eaten at future breakfasts when you long for a bit of spice to start the day. Your extra syrup just needs to be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat it again.

But this spiced-up maple syrup doesn't just make breakfast taste great. It's the kind of thing you need to create delish homemade salad dressings, barbecue sauce bases, meat and vegetable marinades, and even a dip for chicken nuggets.

How it morphs into the object of your taste buds' desire depends on what you add to it, how you cook it, or how you leave it be. For example, if you've got a hankering for some sweet-and-spicy sauce for your homemade chicken fingers, it's probably good just straight out of the container. However, if you'd like it to be thicker, putting on the stove on low to bubble for a few minutes works wonders. Heating it up evaporates the liquid in the syrup, leaving it both thicker for the dippin' and hot come chow time.

Or if you want to make it into a marinade or a sweet and savory salad dressing, you'll need to add some extra ingredients to the spicy maple syrup to flavor it up. The usual suspects include vinegar, shallots, mustard, spices like rosemary or garlic, along with a bit of salt and pepper, and olive oil. Ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce are some additional ingredients that you can add to the previous ingredients to take them from marinade or salad dressing to barbecue sauce in just a few steps. 

Kinda hard to believe this all comes from just a single bottle of some jacked-up maple syrup.