Home › Cake Fillings and Frosting › Maple Sugar Candy
Maple Sugar Candy
1 lb. soft maple sugar 1/4 cup boiling water 3/4 cup thin cream 2/3 cup English walnut or pecan meat, cut in pieces Break sugar in pieces; put into a saucepan with cream and water. Bring to boiling-point, and boil until a soft ball is formed when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, beat until creamy, add nut meat, and pour into a buttered tin. Cool slightly, and mark in squares.
A simple boiled maple cream candy, closer to a penuche or maple fudge than to hard candy. The one thing that decides success is stopping the boil at the right temperature and then letting it cool before beating.
- Soft maple sugarThis indicates fresh, moist maple sugar rather than the hard cake sort. Modern hard maple sugar cakes or granulated maple sugar work, but allow a little extra liquid if the sugar is bone dry.
- Soft ball, in numbersThe cold-water test here corresponds to roughly 234-240F on a candy thermometer. Below that the candy may not set; boiled much past 244F it sets firm and is more likely to go grainy.
- Cream"Thin cream" is roughly today's light cream or half-and-half, about 18 percent fat. Heavy cream will work and gives a richer, softer result.
- Cool before beatingThe recipe says to beat as soon as it comes off the fire. Letting the syrup fall to about 110F undisturbed before beating gives a smoother result; beating while very hot tends to throw large sugar crystals and the candy goes sandy.
- Pan and yieldAn 8-inch square pan, well buttered, is about right, and will give squares of a manageable size.
- Marking the squaresScore while the surface is still warm and pliable, then cut through once fully set. Waiting until it is cold makes it crumble along the cut.
- NutsToast the walnuts or pecans briefly before chopping if you like. A rough chop, not a fine one, keeps the texture; the recipe asks only for nut meat 'cut in pieces'.