Best sprocket for HT for off-road?

I have a mountain bike that I currently ride to work on and have a MM sprocket adapter. I have a 40t on the rear now and it's perfect for my commute. I top out at 33 MPH. I was thinking about getting another sprocket from MM to use for off-road. I tried to off-road with the stock 44t but it was a bit too fast to dodge ruts and rocks even at near idle spreeds. I would like to be able to climb some basic forest roads and have some usefull power at low speed. Seems like a 50t is still may not be enough for this. Does anyone use a large sprocket to off-road with and what size are you using? I know a shift kit would be the way to go here but I just can't justify the cost for how well my fixed sprocket works now. With the MM adapter, a swap out would be easy and I would just add some links of chain, I don't care if the top speed is low since I would change it back for street use.

56! should turn dirt and pop a mono

I've given this a lot of thought as I too like to ride somewhat rough trails, in all honesty - I think the shift kit is the only real way to go.

Given just how low you would need the gearing sometimes for a crawl and yet still want to open her up a bit on the straights, I'm not sure there's a compromise. I do ok with the 44t, but I do need to pedal and help it with the rough stuff - wow it gets exciting with clutch/throttle/brakes etc. lol

With only one gear it's always going to be a compromise, the more I thought about it - the more I realized that no matter what rear sprocket I chose, I'd want a different one If you get that sorted with one you like though, give us a shout