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Maple Cream Candy
Three cupfuls of grated maple sugar, one cupful of thick sweet cream; boil until it hardens when dropped in cold water. Remove from the fire and beat with a silver fork until it has the consistency of very thick cream. Pour into buttered tins and when cold, cut into squares.
A two-ingredient maple fudge that depends entirely on candy-thermometer discipline and on when you start beating. The original leaves both to judgment.
- The hinge: cool before beatingBeating a hot syrup throws large sugar crystals and gives a grainy candy. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool undisturbed until it is lukewarm, then beat until it thickens and loses its gloss. That single pause is the difference between maple cream and maple gravel.
- What "hardens in cold water" means hereRead literally it points to hard ball, 250-265F, but a candy you beat and cut into squares is soft-ball fudge. Cook to 238F on a thermometer; a drop in cold water should form a ball that flattens between the fingers rather than shattering.
- Grated maple sugarHard cake maple sugar was sold in blocks and grated as needed. Three cupfuls grated is roughly 1 to 1 1/4 lb by weight; buy granulated maple sugar and weigh it rather than trusting the cup. Maple syrup is not a substitute without recalculating the liquid.
- Thick sweet cream"Sweet" only means not soured. Use heavy cream, 36% or above; light cream or half-and-half carries too much water and lengthens the boil, which scorches the maple.
- Pan and scorchingMaple sugar catches far more readily than cane. Use a heavy saucepan at least three times the volume of the mixture, stir only until the sugar dissolves, then leave it alone and wash any crystals down the sides with a wet brush.
- The silver forkThe recipe gives no reason for specifying silver; a non-reactive metal was presumably wanted. Any nonreactive spoon works, and a stand mixer with the paddle does the beating without the forearm ache.
- Tins and cuttingAn 8-inch square pan, buttered, gives a fairly thin slab. Score while still warm and cut cleanly once cold; the candy sets fast and cracks if you wait too long.
- Yield and weatherExpect a little over a pound, or 30 to 36 small squares. Like all beaten fudges it sulks on a humid day, and it keeps best airtight with a layer of parchment between the pieces.
Maple sugar, not syrup, was the working form of the sweetener in much of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada well into the nineteenth century: boiled down to a solid cake, it kept without spoiling and travelled without leaking, and cooks grated it as they would a nutmeg. That is why a book of this vintage asks for three cupfuls grated rather than a measure of liquid. The recipe also belongs to a specific moment in candy making, when the household confectioner worked from the principle that a boiled sugar syrup beaten as it cools turns opaque, smooth and sliceable, the technique behind fudge, penuche and this maple cream alike. Cold-water testing stood in for the thermometer, which existed but was still uncommon in home kitchens, and the sequence of stages from thread to hard crack was something a cook was simply expected to know by feel.