Maple Candy: From Syrup to Sugary Goodness in About an Hour!
Surprise your maple-loving family and friends!
I’ve been a hobby sugar maker for somewhere around 20 years. Starting with 10 buckets hanging from trees, I settled on 100 taps on tubing with a small vacuum system and a pretty slick homemade reverse osmosis setup. Our family makes anywhere from 15 to 25 gallons of syrup each year. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make a single gallon of maple syrup, but the sweetness doesn’t have to stop there!
I never realized how simple it was to turn all that liquid goodness into delicious maple candy. Allow me to share how you can do this, too. It takes about an hour.
Basic Steps
- Boil two cups of syrup to 240 degrees (12-15 minutes)
- Cool to 180 degrees (15 minutes)
- Stir
- Pour
- Be patient (30 minutes)
- Enjoy!
What do you need?
- 100% pure maple syrup (16 ounces)
- Four-quart saucepan
- Candy thermometer
- 2-cup Pyrex (glass) measuring cup
- Wooden spoon
- Small spatula
- Synthetic candy molds (enough for about 12 ounces of candy) OR wax paper
- A small amount of butter
- Microwave (optional)
Detailed Steps
- Apply a thin coat of butter to the inside of the saucepan, just below the rim. Somewhere between ½ inch to an inch wide band is sufficient. Make sure that the butter is applied around the entire inside of the top portion of the pot, basically creating a ring of butter.
- Pour the syrup into the saucepan.
- Place the candy thermometer in the saucepan. Make sure that the tip of it isn’t touching the bottom of the pan or you may get an inaccurate temperature reading.
- Bring the syrup to a boil. I recommend high heat. Don’t worry about it boiling over. As long as you completed step one above, the thin layer of butter will prevent this.
- Once the candy thermometer reads 240 degrees, immediately remove the pot from the heat. Reaching this temperature will take approximately 12-15 minutes, but be sure to watch the thermometer.
- Pour the syrup into the Pyrex measuring cup
- Place the candy thermometer into the measuring cup, again making sure that the tip doesn’t touch the bottom of the cup to ensure an accurate reading.
- Allow the syrup to cool to 180 degrees without stirring. Tip: If you place the measuring cup on a cooling rack, this will take approximately 15 minutes.
- Once the temperature is reached, remove the thermometer and stir quickly with the wooden spoon for just over one minute until the syrup goes from clear to cloudy. Pay close attention and stop stirring as soon as this occurs.
- Pour into molds. It begins to set quickly while pouring. Be sure to try to get from one mold to the next quickly. Alternatively, you can pour it onto wax paper in small spoon-sized drops.
- Helpful Tip: If the liquid starts to set up in the measuring cup, place the cup in the microwave for 10-15 seconds, give it a quick stir with the spatula and resume pouring. You can do this a few times as needed.
- Allow it to cool for about 30 minutes and voila! Maple candy!
The candy is best stored in a non-airtight container. How long does it last? Some say 3-4 weeks, others say two months. It never lasts that long in our house. Everyone seems to have a sweet tooth!
