16 Best Maple Extract Substitutes {Cooking, Baking, Salads}

If you ever gotten yourself indulge in an aromatic delicious cookie, and only to find out that it is completely encompassed with the warm flavor of maple syrup. That cookie was probably made with maple extract. So, if you don’t have any maple extract at home or you just don’t know where to buy it, you may be wondering how to get wonderful maple flavor in your treats. Here are good substitutes for maple extract:

There are a variety of maple extract alternatives that you can use efficiently aside from maple extract. Molasses, brown sugar syrup, honey, rum extract, cotton candy, and citrus zest are great substitutes to replace maple extract in food dishes.

Though nothing can mimic the strong, dynamic punch that’s provided by maple extract, these are the few things that you can use instead to get a similar, maple sweet taste.

So, let’s get those substitutes!

maple extracts

Substitutes For Maple Extract In Cooking

Using maple extract replacement to your daily recipes will not only enhance the flavor but also make them special. Here are some of the best substitutes for maple extract:

Grape molasses

The molasses come in different forms depending upon their taste. Their taste differs from milder sweet with robust flavor to a very sweet and sugary taste.

The molasses of the sweetest fruits are the best substitute for maple extract in the recipes. Furthermore, they go great with sweet and savory food like a muffin, chicken, barbecue, chicken, and other dishes.

Related Article: Grape Molasses Benefits

Brown sugar

This sugary syrup contains brown sugar and water as the main ingredients. There’s no sign of white sugar granules in it. The sweet taste in savory food dishes replaces the maple extract entirely. Usually, using ¼ cup of brown sugar can replace ¾ cup of maple extract. You can use this syrup as an alternative in other sweet recipes.

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Honey

Honey is a sweet liquid substance with high viscosity. It gives the food an enticing flavor, but its taste slightly differs from maple. However, it could be a great option instead of maple extract.

Using one cup of raw honey can easily replace one cup of maple extract. Thus, you can make your meals more enjoyable by giving them a different taste than usual.

Honey is an excellent substitute for maple extract when cooking baked salmon, pork, and making cocktails.

Citrus zest

Zest is a food ingredient that gives flavor and aroma to several recipes. Usually, the citrus zest is a scrapping peel of citrus fruits such as lemon, lime, and orange.

You might be wondering how a citrus zest can be a maple extract alternative. Just use it in your routine recipes, and it will do great.

Rum extract

This extract is a food ingredient with a very high concentration. It is made from rum with a strong and dynamic flavor. If the rum extract is available in your kitchen, then you can use it as a substitution for maple extract.

There are two common types of rum extract mostly available in the market. One type is natural, and the other one is imitation only.

The natural type contains a real rum with a strong concentrated flavor, while the imitation is made from artificial ingredients with a mild flavor. As a substitute for maple extract, the natural rum extract is the best option because it provides a similar flavor to maple and does not disturb the concentration of the recipes.

Substitutes For Maple Extract In Baking

Maple extract gives a delectable taste to baked goodies, and maple extract in the form of icing or glazing adds a unique flavor to sweet products.

No worries, here are some wonderful substitutions for maple extract that you can use while baking. The use of maple syrup, vanilla extract, maple candy, maple butter, almond extract, and corn syrup is widely used as a replacement for maple extract in baking.

Maple syrup

Maple syrup is the closest alternative that you can use instead of maple syrup. It goes great with desserts, pies, cookies, and muffins.

You can substitute one cup of maple syrup for one cup of maple extract, so there’s no need to compromise on the exact mapley flavor in the recipe.

In your next baking session, try maple syrup instead of maple extract, and you will achieve a similar result.

Vanilla extract

Instead of using maple-inspired flavor, you can also try vanilla flavor in your recipes. It can improve the overall flavor of goods, just like maple extract. Try vanilla extract as a replacement for maple extract in cupcakes, cheesecakes, and cookies. One tablespoon of vanilla extract is enough to replace one tablespoon of maple extract.

Now, try this new combination of ingredients when baking, and take your skill to next level.

Maple candy

Another sweet alternative to maple extract is maple candy. It has a pure mapley flavor with a creamy taste. Furthermore, it makes your baked goods have a fluffy texture. From now on, you may use this maple candy in a soft form as glazing to cupcakes and muffins.

The consistency is strong and has a creamy flavor, making it a great replacement for maple extract completely. In addition, it gives the same mapley flavor to the sweet treats.

Almond extract

It is a sweet gooey fluid that gives a sweetish taste to food dishes. Typically, there are two types of almonds extract. One is normal, and the other one is artificial. What’s more, both of these are available on the market.

As a maple extract substitute, use almond extract which is made of natural ingredients. Almond extract replaces maple extract in bread baking. Other than this, it gives a soft texture to bread additionally with a sweetish taste.

Maple butter

One more option to maple extract in baking is maple butter or maple cream. For the most part, maple butter is a concentrated type of maple syrup with a creamy texture.

Interestingly, maple butter is an extraordinary substitute for maple extract in treats and rolls. It gives a rich taste as well as a mapley flavor to treats. In this way, use maple butter rather than maple extract in baking.

Corn syrup

It is a food syrup having corn starch and a high amount of sugars in it. Corn syrup is sweet with extraordinary consistency.

It is the best option of maple concentrate, and you can serve pancakes, pies, and tarts with this corn syrup. One cup of corn syrup can be used to replace one cup of maple extract per serving.

Substitutes For Maple Extract In Salads

Maple extract is a significant element of several fruit salads.

Also, it gives ideal pleasantness and upgrades the overall flavor of the salad. Yet, there are also some great maple extract substitutes that you can use in your salad. Moreover, you can utilize these substitutes in the vegetable salad.

Cider syrup, agave nectar, fruit syrup, and palm extract are commonly used to replace maple extract in servings of salads.

Cider syrup

It is usually known as apple molasses, this cider vinegar is the best replacement for maple flavor in plates of salads. It is a concentrated dull earthy colored fruity syrup that gives a sweet-tart character to food servings of salad.

Cider syrup as a salad dressing impeccably replaces the maple extract. Also, it is a great way to utilize this fruity syrup in your eating regimen. Thus, assuming there’s no maple extract accessible, use it and enjoy it in your meal.

Agave Nectar

It is a sweet dessert having a consistency like nectar. Agave nectar, usually known as agave syrup, adds a sweet note to your plates of salad.

It is the best maple extract substitute in fruit salad just as in vegetable plates of salad. Likewise, it gives sufficient pleasantness and flavor to the salad, actually like maple. Indeed, it would be a unique addition to your diet.

Fruit Syrup

Now, try more choices to get natural sweetness in your plates of salad with fruit syrups. Fruit syrups or fruit molasses are viscous juices that are utilized as sweetening agents.

There are a few fruit syrups that are available on the market. However, the syrups of grapes, cherries, and apples are generally utilized as substitutes for maple extract.

In addition, these fruit syrups give natural sweetness, but also a better taste than usual.

Palm extract

Another maple extract substitute in servings of salad is palm extract. Palm extract with its sweet, nutty taste can be pleasing, making it the perfect maple extract substitute.

Instead of palm extract, you can also utilize palm oil as a salad dressing. I think its taste is very different from maple extract, but you can also try it in a fruit salad.

Ways To Use Maple Extract Substitute

After explaining all those maple extract substitutes, here I have some ideas to use these options in your diet

All these substitutions for maple extract go incredible with:

  • Exquisite food varieties like pork, barbecued meat, and waffles
  • Baked vegetables, fries, and fish
  • Baked goods like pancakes, biscuits, and pies
  • Tarts, cupcakes, cheesecakes, and other sweets
  • Fruit salads
  • Also, vegetable salads

What Is Maple Extract?

Maple extract is a kind of flavoring that can be utilized as a substitute for pure maple syrup or maple sugar. It is made from the evaporated sap of maple trees (usually Sugar Maple) and has an exceptionally strong, sweet flavor.

Maple extract comes in two forms, imitation and pure. Imitation maple extract is frequently made with propylene glycol. This is the reason I only use and suggest using pure natural maple extract in recipes.

Related Article: Does Lemon Extract Go Bad?

What Does Maple Extract Taste Like?

Maple extract has a considerable sweet taste and adds a lively mapley flavor to your sweet treats. It goes extraordinary in a few sauces, fillings, and maple frozen yogurts.

Likewise, the use of maple extract as frosting, icing, or frosting to your cakes gives you a sweet maple flavor. You can also use it in treats and bread mixtures. What’s more, it will simply amuse you because of its excellent sweet taste.

Does maple extract have sugar?

The appropriate response is that it relies upon the brand you pick. The best way to know without a doubt is to take a look at the label. Sometimes sugar itself is not listed on the label; however, it is classified in other ways, such as:

  • Maple syrup (comprise mostly of sucrose with hints of glucose and fructose)
  • Maple extract

Does Maple Extract Have Alcohol?

Like sugar, regardless of whether an extract contains alcohol relies upon the brand you select. The explanation for most producers of extracts use alcohol is that it is the best method to extract the maple flavor on a large scope.

Something else you should know about is that you might go over certain extracts that contain a colorless, unscented, bland liquid known as propylene glycol. Even though it’s not labeled as such propylene glycol, it is chemically similar to liquor.

If you want to avoid alcohol in your extract, check the label for food-grade vegetable glycerin (or just glycerin) which is broadly used as an alternative to alcohol when making extracts.

Related Article: Is Alcohol in Vanilla Extract Harmful?

How To Make Maple Extract?

Add 1 cup of 100% pure maple syrup to 1 cup of vodka or other high-proof alcohol. Allow it to sit for a few days in the fridge. The extract needs to be prepared after 3 days, however, you can allow it to sit for as long as a month if you want. Some fluid will have evaporated, leaving the extract thicker than when you began.

What’s The Difference Between Imitation Maple Flavor And Maple Extract

A few things simply make breakfast special.

Great espresso is one of them, and an hour or something like that of harmony and calms toward the beginning of the day – rare though it is most certainly another. Real maple syrup is right up there too, especially if your end of the week isn’t over without having hotcakes or waffles at least once.

Genuine maple isn’t the most convenient ingredient for baking, yet natural maple extract and imitation maple extract, and imitation maple flavoring works pretty well.

Making natural maple extract

Normal flavor extracts are often made by infusing the main ingredient into alcohol.

You can make your natural vanilla extract at home, for instance, by soaking vanilla beans in vodka. Alcohol is an almost all-inclusive base for extracts because it’s an incredible solvent that is inexpensive to deliver in mass.

In the case of natural maple extract, it’s generally made by infusing a fluid – concentrated maple syrup, in this instance – into the liquor, rather than a solid ingredient.

A few brands guarantee to infuse portions of the actual maple tree, also. The liquor is then isolated back out, carrying the maple flavor with it. Most brands add some caramel tone, too, to make it look more “maple-ish.”

Natural and imitation maple flavor

Imitation maple flavors are a bit unique, and they can emerge out of various sources.

For instance, one interaction tracing back to the 1940s calls for directly controlling the amino acids in sugars to make maple-like flavors. That is the kind of process that gets listed on the container as “artificial flavor.”

A more common source, however, is a seed called fenugreek that is broadly utilized in Indian cookery. It contains a seasoning fixing called sotalone that tastes and smells shockingly like maple when utilized in low concentrations.

Fenugreek is an existing food crop that is not difficult to develop and process, so it’s a safe and relatively minimal expense ingredient for manufacturers.

You’d see this listed on the bottle as a “natural flavor”, even though it is unrelated to maple. Though there are lots of plant sources that can be used for maple flavors, fenugreek is the most common.

Using the flavoring

The whole idea of using a maple extract, whether it’s natural or imitation is to get a greater punch of maple flavor than you could deal with genuine maple.

The syrup you purchase for table use has a generally gentle character, particularly in case it’s the lighter “A” grade, and it will not give a truly distinct maple flavor to most of your baked goodies except if you pour it with a heavy hand.

You can do that once in a while in a coffee cake or a muffin, yet it surely doesn’t work in cookies. With extracts, you can add simply a spoonful to the recipe, and no longer need to adjust the recipe to work with a huge amount of liquid sweetener.

Make your own

In case you’re up for a delicious DIY project, you can even make your imitation of maple extract at home. You’ll require around two parts of vodka to one part fenugreek seeds.

To begin with, toast the fenugreek seeds in a dry skillet until they’re sweet-smelling, which takes 5 to 10 minutes at low-to-medium heat. Pulse the seeds in a spice grinder or food processor to split them up somewhat, then, at that point move them to a Mason container.

Warm the vodka and pour it over the seeds, seal the container, and it’ll be prepared in about a month and a half or something like that. In case you’re in a rush, put the container with the seeds and vodka for a half-hour in a pressure cooker.

The extract will be usable when it’s cooled enough to deal with.

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