Have you ever gone apple picking and brought back pounds of fresh apples with high aspirations only to watch helplessly as your prized stock slowly breaks down as you're just too busy to commit to making all the Apple Pies, Apple Turnovers, Apple Cider Doughnuts and Apple Strudel? This happened to me recently and as I was opening the compost bin of shame my friend Dan mentioned, "you know, my Mom uses the soft apples for apple sauce and it comes out awesome!" This sounded really interesting to me but I still didn't have time. So why not combine these soft apples with this lack of time and make a quick and easy applesauce?

This Vegan Maple Roasted Peanut recipe makes an addictive snack. Once I was on a San Francisco Muni train and was in the process of getting busted for both sneaking on without paying and eating while on the train. As the Muni cops closed in, I clutched my container of Maple Roasted Peanuts tightly.

This silky smooth Rich Vegan Maple Frosting recipe uses slightly caramelized maple and agave syrup as its base. This allows it to be 100% sweetened by these syrups, giving it maximum maple flavor and a velvety consistency with no sugar crystals. The agave syrup prevents the maple syrup from crystalizing after it's caramelized. The firmness of this frosting can be customized to your preference easily by caramelizing your syrups plus or minus 5F (3C) from the 235F (113C) caramelization temperature which is known as the thread stage. If you slather this on pancakes I promise not to tell anyone.

One of the best parts of growing up was waking up to the aroma of Dad's legendary pancakes every Sunday. After gorging on them doused with maple syrup, the fam and I would go hiking on Mt Tam. Like clockwork, I'd eventually proceed to have an enormous mysterious energy crash that would reduce me into a quivering mess that Mom would call the shakes. I later found out this was because the maple syrup I loved so much was causing my blood sugar to peak, then crash due to its high glycemic index. Now I'm a lot more careful by making sure that I get some veggie sausages and go easy on the maple syrup. Agave syrup has a significantly lower glycemic index than maple syrup. Adding maple extract to it makes it a delicious maple syrup substitution, as shown in this recipe. Check out our article on sweeteners and glycemic index to see how different sweeteners stack up.

Peanut butter and maple syrup have this amazing relationship. I think they might be in love with each other. This Vegan Peanut Butter Maple Fudge recipe is really easy to make and you have the option of adding chocolate chips if you want to crank up the flavor/passion levels even more.

I used to own a vegan baking company called Enchanted Oven Baking Co. This Vegan Maple Walnut Wonder Cookie was one of the cookies I sold, individually packaged, to health food stores around the San Francisco Bay Area around 2003-2005. Here it is in all its glory. This recipe has been modified from a 200 cookie batch so please excuse the wonky measurements.

Maple syrup, rolled oats, cinnamon, vanilla and just the right amount of raisins and walnuts really bring out the best in these dense, chewy maple oatmeal cookies.

This Vegan Mulled Wine recipe uses maple syrup as its primary sweetener then utilizes allspice berries, cinnamon bark, orange peel and clove berries for a smooth, spicy wine that will soothe those winter blues. This vegan spiced wine is great for holiday parties because it's easy to make and it gets things started.

This Vegan Protein Power Granola recipe is great for a hearty first meal of the day because it's low in sugar, high in protein and high in flavor. It gets the bulk of its protein from hemp protein powder. It then utilizes natural sweeteners like maple syrup, chopped dates and raisins for a complex sweetness profile that won't send blood sugar levels through the roof, if you don't drown it in maple syrup anyway. Walnuts and pecans round out the crunch department in this vegan granola while providing a tasty contrast with the hemp powder.

This Vegan Peanut Butter Maple Ice Cream recipe takes advantage of the alchemy that happens when peanut butter and maple syrup are combined in holy matrimony. These flavors are further bound in this vegan ice cream with the addition of non-dairy milk and a touch of vanilla extract.

This Vegan Apple Pecan Muffin recipe has a wonderful apple notes enhanced by maple syrup, lemon juice, allspice and cinnamon. The addition of pecans adds a welcome flavor and texture contrast and a touch of unrefined coconut oil makes you not miss the fact that they don’t contain any butter. Using tart apples like Granny Smith is preferred for maximum apple flavor.

Sweet potatoes are sweeter than pumpkin and the flavor is considerably more complex. This allows sweet potato pie to beat the living daylights out of pumpkin pie if the two were to battle in a flavor war. This Celebration Vegan Sweet Potato Pie recipe is living proof, especially when it's enhanced with maple syrup, nutmeg cinnamon and ginger. Flaky Pie Crust is recommended for this pie.

I thought I didn't like pecan pie until I had this Vegan Pecan Pie. The questionable brown mush experienced in normal pecan pies is replaced by barley malt, maple syrup and enhanced with cinnamon, ginger and a touch of cardamom in this version. Flaky Vegan Pie Crust is recommended.

This Vegan Peanut Butter Bar recipe makes perfect vegan energy bars for sporting events, a nutritious snack for people on the go or simply just dessert. Peanut butter and chocolate is such a delectable flavor combination it may be banned in some countries. Add maple syrup and brown rice syrup to enhance chewiness and provide a complex sweetness profile and you had just better be careful walking around with these bars.