Thanks for this exploration. Have to say, when I make less-sweet desserts, I eat bigger portions! Hard to fool my brain. We make maple syrup and use it a lot in baking--muffins, scones, cornbread, whipped cream, strawberry shortcake and more. In pie we use part sugar, part maple. It's not so great in cakes. Cookie-wise, it works only in what The Tassajara baking book called "earthy, gritty" hippie cookies. When I used to use 100% maple in blueberry pie, I used a stick blender to mix ClearJel into the syrup. While the pie "gravy" was thick, I was creeped out by the industrial nature of the product. Back to arrowroot and part sugar.

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