In the North-East of North America, it is maple season! We love putting maple syrup on anything but have you ever tried maple sugar? It’s a fine delicate melt-in-your-mouth burst of maple flavour great for flavouring coffee, topping muffins, or stirring into steel-cut oats. The instant pot is perfect for making quick and easy steel-cut oats. So let’s make steel cut oats with maple sugar!
Ingredients
All you’ll need to make the maple sugar is, well, maple syrup!
To make steel-cut oats you’ll need:
Steel Cut Oats
Water
Salt
Butter
Any toppings you’d like! I like peanut butter, pecans, and maple sugar but feel free to add jam, fruit, cream, EVEN MORE BUTTER!
Process
The steel-cut oats are easy to prepare for our steel cut oats with maple sugar. Simply pressure cook for 10 min, allow to naturally release, and stir in butter.
You can top with your desired ingredients! Get creative, anything goes – nuts, dried berries, peanut butter, or even honey.
Store leftovers in a springform so you can make a warm breakfast out of it later.
Boiling Maple Syrup
To make the maple sugar, for our steel cut oats with maple sugar, you first have to boil the maple syrup. This is a tad difficult, and more of the process for those who have some experience cooking sugar. If this is your first time, just be careful! You want to simmer the maple syrup, taking care it doesn’t overflow and make sure to not stir it too much. You want to stir as little as possible.
Using a candy thermometer, take it off of the heat when it reaches between 257F – 262F. This is referred to as the hard-ball stage.
Stir it for 5-7 min with a wooden spatula until it’s dry and crumbly. Trust me, this WILL eventually happen. Have patience. If it’s still sticky, keep stirring.
Breaking Down the Sugar
Sift the maple sugar through a sieve and then add the rest to the food processor. Use the food processor till the sugar is no longer clumpy but looks more granulated and powder-like. And there you have it! Maple sugar for your coffee, or muffins, or steel cut oats!
Instant Pot Steel-Cut Oats and Maple Sugar
What's better than steel-cut oats? Steel-cut oats with Maple sugar on top!
Course: Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine: Canadian
Equipment
Instant Pot
Candy Thermometer
Saucepan
Springform Pan
Mini Food Processor
Ingredients
Steel Cut Oats
¾ cup steel-cut oats
2 cup water
½ tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp butter plus more for greasing springform pan
¼ cup toasted pecans
¼ cup peanut butter
¼ cup maple sugar (see recipe)
Maple Sugar
1 cup maple sugar
Instructions
Steel Cut Oats
Add steel-cut oats, water, and salt in an instant pot.
Pressure cook on high for 10min.
Naturally release pressure for 12min and release manually after this.
Stir in butter and serve. Top with toppings or other desired ingredients.
Optional: Store leftovers in a greased springform pan. Swirl in desired toppings and allow to cool. Store in the refrigerator. Remove from springform pan when completely cooled and toast desired quantity on a baking pan covered with parchment. Serve with milk, cream, jam, or other desired toppings.
Maple Sugar
Pour maple syrup into a medium saucepan.
Simmer on low heat watching to make sure it doesn't boil over. If it starts to boil over, remove it from heat or stir. It's best to not stir for the entire cooking process.
Simmer until the maple syrup reaches the hard-ball stage or around 257F - 262F. The accuracy of temperature is important here. Make sure to use a candy thermometer that reaches the bottom of the pan. This takes approximately 20 min
Remove from heat immediately.
Place the saucepan on a heat-safe surface.
Stir vigorously with a wooden spatula for 5-7 minutes. It will seem for the majority of the time as if nothing is happening. It will eventually turn lighter and then suddenly start to harden.
Keep stirring and breaking apart the maple sugar with your spatula, scraping down the sides of the pan as needed.
Scrape out hardened maple sugar into a sieve. Sift out fine sugar granules.
If any chunky maple granules remain, food process to your desired consistency.
