Maple Fudge
2 1/2 cups maple sugar 1 cup milk 1/2 cup boiling water 1 cup broken nut-meats Break the maple sugar into small pieces and heat it in a saucepan with the water. When it is dissolved, add the milk. Boil to the soft-ball stage, or 236 degrees F. Remove from the fire and cool. When it is lukewarm, beat until it creams and add the nut-meats. Spread it in a buttered pan and when it hardens mark it into squares.
A two-ingredient maple candy plus nuts, and the whole thing turns on temperature control rather than technique. Read the cooling instruction before you start.
- The hinge: cool before beatingThe syrup must come down to lukewarm, roughly 110F, undisturbed, before you stir it at all. Beating a hot syrup throws large sugar crystals and gives grainy fudge; beating a cool one gives the fine crystals that make it creamy.
- Buying maple sugarThe recipe assumes a hard pressed cake or block, hence "break into small pieces." Granulated maple sugar sold today needs no breaking and dissolves readily, and weighing is more reliable than measuring broken lumps.
- Soft-ball stage236F is correct for a soft fudge. Use a calibrated candy thermometer: check it in boiling water first and adjust your target by the difference, since a thermometer reading 210F in boiling water means you should pull the syrup at 234F.
- Milk and scorchingOnce the milk goes in, the mixture catches easily. Use a heavy pan at least three times the volume of the syrup, stir until the sugar has dissolved, and keep the heat moderate rather than fierce as it climbs the last few degrees.
- "Remove from the fire"A stock phrase from range cookery. Move the pan off the heat entirely and set it somewhere undisturbed; do not run it into cold water, which chills the outside faster than the centre and encourages uneven crystals.
- NutsThe recipe specifies only "broken nut-meats"; walnuts, butternuts or hickory nuts were common in maple country and all suit maple. Toast them and let them cool first, and add them as directed once the mixture creams, since it sets quickly once it starts.
- Pan and yieldAn 8-inch square pan gives a good thickness. Expect a little over a pound of candy. Score it while still warm; cut through once fully set.