I like baking with maple syrup — it’s a natural sweetener with its own subtle flavor, and it has the added advantage that it’s perceived by most adult palates as less overpoweringly sweet than granulated cane sugars (like white or brown sugar).
Nowhere are these attributes more apparent than in pecan pie, which is just about my all-time favorite pie. Caramelized sugars coating toasted pecans, atop a sweet custard and flaky crust…wow. (Disclosure...