Creamy Oatmeal with Strawberries and Maple Butter

Late winter/early spring is the season for maple syrup production. Every year I find this perplexing, as fall is the season when my craving for maple kicks in. There is something about maple’s amber color, like turning leaves and the edges of roasted butternut squash, that hearkens fall. Its caramelized, earthy flavor brings to mind warm spices and sips of apple cider.

Luckily, maple syrup is not a food that appears on farmers’ market booths for a select period of time, like asparagus or fiddlehead ferns, so I can get as much flavor from maple during fall as I do in spring. Because maple sap requires significant boiling in order to transform into syrup (40 gallons of sap yields but one gallon of syrup), it is, in essence, a processed food, with an indefinite shelf life.

I picked up a jar of maple butter a few weeks ago during a trip to Rainbow Grocery. I had in mind to replenish my supply of maple syrup, but when the name “maple butter” caught my eye, I had to buy a jar.

I’m embarrassed to admit that, having lived in New England for 27 years, I had never heard of maple butter. I’d always eaten maple in syrup or leaf-shaped candies that make my teeth shake from their intense sweetness.

Maple butter is a thick, creamy spread made from boiled-down maple syrup. It melts luxuriously over toast, in vanilla tea, or when stirred into a pot of oatmeal. It’s spreadable, meltable and rich – much like butter in many ways.

Here’s my impromptu recipe for a decadent springtime bowl of oatmeal:
½ cup rolled oats
¾ - 1 cup water (depending how wet or dry you like your oatmeal)
pinch of salt
1 pat of butter
1 spoonful (more or less) maple butter
4 or 5 strawberries, diced
a few spoonfuls half-and-half

Cook the oatmeal, water and salt over medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes, until creamy. Remove from heat and stir in butter and maple butter. Once butters have melted, gently stir in the diced strawberries. Pour into a serving bowl, then pour half-and-half around the edges.

Serves 1