Adventure: Maple syrup brunch

Looks tasty, but ended with maple syrup overload.

Carl and I got ambitious this morning thanks to our latest Food Network magazine and a half- bottle of pure maple syrup in the 'fridge.

You see, last spring, the magazine included a recipe for Maple Oatmeal Scones, which sounded delicious. In October, they included Spiced Maple Sausage, which also sounded pretty good. So, since we had the maple syrup, we decided, why not?

On a side note, when I was in Germany, I attempted to explain biscuits to my Scottish and Irish friends by explaining that they were similar to scones. They aren't really. Scones and biscuits have entirely different textures. But, they sort of look the same. And, it is really hard to explain biscuits to someone for whom that word means "cookie."

But, back to brunch.

While tasty, the meal ended in maple syrup overload.

Unlike biscuits, the scones were much drier and more crumbly. They sort of fell apart in an almost cake sort of way. We made a powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla glaze to spoon over the top, then sprinkled a few oats on that. I liked the oats. It made them look healthy.

Before baking, we brushed the scones with an egg and milk mixture.

The sausage was where we went wrong. The original recipe called for 1 3/4 pounds of pork sausage. We only had one pound and that conversion gets a little sticky. What ended up happening is that not all the ingredients, including the maple syrup, got cut as they should have.

After you mix all the ingredients, including the maple syrup into the sausage and cook it, it ends up concentrating the syrup. Since we had too much in the meat, that was not a good thing. The end result was too sweet, and with nothing savory to contrast, the whole meal just didn't quite come together.

Never mind, though. We will try again another day.

After all, the scones were delicious!

If you want to try them for yourself, the recipes are here: Maple Oatmeal Scones and Spiced Maple Sausage Patties.