Smoked Ham with Apple-Maple Glaze

Just in time for your Holiday meal.

We have the smoked ham and the maple syrup, all you need to supply is the butter and apples. How easy is that! Our hams (and bacon) are smoked and cured the traditional way without the use of nitrites. Enjoy!

Smoked Ham with Apple-Maple Glaze

serves 6 to 8

3 to 4 pound, semi-boneless cold smoked ham

1 to 2 large tart baking apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped

2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 to 3/4 cup pure maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 325º F.

Rinse the ham well with cold water and pat dry. Place in a baking dish or roasting pan large enough to comfortably hold the ham, and cover tightly with foil.

Bake the ham until completely heated through, about 20 minutes per pound. About 10 minutes before the ham is done, melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat until it begins to foam. Saute the apples in the butter until tender and golden, about 5 minutes, and add the maple syrup. Increase the heat slightly and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the syrup begins to thicken. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Remove the ham from the oven and increase the temperature to 350º F. Carefully pour the juices from the ham into the skillet with the apple/maple syrup mixture and stir to combine. Spoon the glaze back over the ham and return to the oven. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 15 to 20 minutes to glaze the ham, basting it every 5 minutes.

Remove the ham to a cutting board and allow it to rest for about 5 minutes before carving; reserve the glaze from the pan. Carve, spoon the glaze over the slices and serve.

Recipe variation: Want to try this but don't want to get a big ham? There is only goint to be 1 or 2 of you eating at this meal? Why not try some of our ham slices and put them in a baking dish, cover and then bake. Add other ingredients as above and drizzle over your slices. You won't even need to cut it up with this version.

Honey Maple Oatmeal Cookies

This cookie recipe actually uses 2 natural sweeteners -- honey and maple syrup.
I do use a tad bit less than what the recipe calls for as there is also sweetness that comes for the raisins and/or dried fruit that you also add. We have gotten use to things being not as sweet that I can usually cut the sweetener down some in most recipes and it still turns out OK....plus it's more economical as I can make my sweeteners go further that way.

I have thought about it more than once that adding flaked coconut (unsweetened, of course) to this would be good too, but I've not done it yet. If you try this, you might want to add less oats to make up for the added dryness of the coconut.

One last thing--The darker grades of maple syrup do work better for baking/cooking as the maple flavor stands up better to the other ingredient.




1 c. butter, softened (I use 3/4 c. butter & 1/4 c. coconut oil, softened but not melted)
1/3 c. maple syrup
1/3 c. honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
2 1/4- 2 1/2 c. rolled oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. walnuts, chopped
1/2 c. raisins (I use a mixture of raisins and other dried fruit that I have on hand and it's usually ends up being a bit more than 1/2 cup.)

Mix butter (coconut oil too if using it) and sweeteners together then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix to combine. Drop about 1 1/2 tbsp. of dough onto greased or parchment lined baking sheet (***or see note below). Bake @ 350* for 15 minutes.
Yield: about 2 1/2 dozen


(***The cookies can be a bit crumbly so one day I decided to not make them drop cookies and try some thing different to see if that would help. I chilled the dough for a short while to make it a bit easier to work with, then instead of dropping it, I took a chunk of it and formed it into a flatten disk and put that on the cookie sheet. They are now more uniform and hold together so much better).

louise