When Grade B Is Better Than Grade A

After all this time, you think I would have learned about the delicate nature of ice cream making. Alas, it is a lesson I seem doomed to learn over and over again. This week I tried making maple ice cream. Most of the recipes I looked at online called for using Grade B Maple Syrup, but all I had in my refrigerator was Grade A. Eager to make maple ice cream, I thought why not? I'll tell you why. Grade A Maple Syrup is too delicate to use in ice cream. In fact, Grade B Maple Syrup is used in almost anything you would bake with maple syrup (ex: maple cookies, candies, etc).

For those of you who may be confused as to why this is, a brief tangent on the "rankings" of syrups. Unlike many other things, such as meats or school, in the case of syrups, grades do not refer to the quality of the syrups. Thus, Grade A Maple Syrup is not better than Grade B Maple Syrup. Rather, the grades refer to the darkness and thickness of the syrups. Grade A are lighter syrups, while Grade B are thicker, more syrupy syrups. When eating something like waffles or pancakes, Grade A syrups are usually better because you do not want to be overwhelmed with a thick, syrupy taste in your mouth. However, when baking, when you have to contend with other flavors, such as flour or creams, that will be changing as the items cook, so you want a thicker syrup that allows the maple taste to stand out.

Maple Ice Cream

Ingredients

2/3 cup Grade B Maple Syrup

1 3/4 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup whole milk

4 large egg yolks

Preparation

Heat the maple syrup in a small saucepan until it is reduced by a quarter, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Heat the cream and milk in a separate saucepan until simmering, about 5 minutes

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg yolks for about 2 minutes.

Pour about half a cup of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolks whisking constantly to temper the egg yolks.

Add the egg yolks to the cream mixture. Stir constantly until the mixture is thick, about 3 minutes.

Remove the mixture from the heat and add in the maple syrup. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight to chill.

Churn mixture in your ice cream maker. Enjoy!

The consistency of this ice cream was great. Unfortunately, the Grade A Maple Syrup I used does not pack enough of a punch to stand out against the cream and the milk. The result is not bad, but does not really taste like maple. Use some Grade B Maple Syrup and let me know how it turns out.

Note: After leaving this ice cream in the freezer for a couple days, it tasted much better. The maple flavor was richer and tastier. Sometimes ice creams just need a couple days to sit and that seems to be the case with this flavor. Grade B Maple Syrup may still make a tastier maple ice cream, but Grade A will work as well.

Until next time, keep calm and get your ice cream eating on.