Friday, September 28, 2007

Making Maple Candy

Last Friday we enjoyed making maple candy, to correspond with our study of Vermont. We made it according to the recipe found in Eat Your Way Through The USA by Lori Pettit. We've really been enjoying the recipes in this book! I highly recommend this as a resource if you are studying US Geography.

We started with a bottle of Grade A Medium Amber Maple Syrup. Then we boiled some water with the candy thermometer in it, so we would know the boiling point (which varies at different altitudes.)



We poured the syrup into a tall pot, because I wasn't sure how high it would boil up.

It didn't boil as high as we thought it would, so I could've used a smaller pot and perhaps gotten a more accurate reading on the candy thermometer. We buttered the top of the pot in case it boiled up to that point. We boiled it until it was 28 degrees above the boiling point of the water.

We removed it from the heat after boiled, and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Then we stirred it until it became opaque.


It was easy to tell when it started to "set up" and our time was limited to pour it off. I didn't have any candy molds, so...




we just poured it onto a cookie pan and let it harden into a not-so-pretty lump.



After a few hourse we broke it up, wrapped each piece individually, and put it in a pretty fall basket. Presentation is everything, you know!
It was a yummy, fun, and easy project. Maybe you could try it for part of your "fall" study, to correspond with the changing fall leaves. (Perhaps that's a stretch, but any excuse to eat straight sugar is good enough for me...)
:)



4 comments:

Amy Fox said...

That looks yummy! I will have to try that cookbook so we can try it out.
~Amy

Sherri said...

Wow! I'm impressed!

lori said...

My Delaney's pen pal is from Vermont..we will try this and surprise her!!
thanks for sharing...the book is great and the kids are getting such a kick out of eating their way through the states!
peace,
lori

Ladybug said...

WOW! That looks great. I love Maple Candy. I grew up in MA and miss all the fall maple "goodies".

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