Maple sugar candy is one of Nature's little-known gifts. It has three times the sweetening power of cane sugar. Maple syrup is that rich in sugar because it 43 gallons of maple sugar sap need to be boiled down in order to make one gallon of maple syrup.
With an ingredient that sweet, making maple sugar candy at home is extremely rewarding...as long as you can avoid wasting many jugs of maple syrup trying to get it to turn out right. One common mistake is that people think making maple sugar is just like making fudge. Here are a couple tricks I learned that result in less frustration and more great maple candy every time.
First, don't use a marble slab for cooling maple sugar candy. Sure, it works great for fudge-maybe even for maple fudge-but maple candy is a different bird. A medium or small salad bowl works best for the cooling and stirring process.
Now that you're using the bowl, NEVER stop stirring once you've started. You've probably noticed that fudge cools off and hardens up slowly. But if you've ever made maple sugar candy, you'll know that the maple reaches a point where it just seizes up and becomes solid. In a nutshell, you have to stir until the maple is completely hardened and is very light in color.
Also, don't put the finished maple candy in a container until it has cooled off completely. It gives off steam, and condensation can build up. If you wait for about an hour to put it in a container, you'll have maple candy that can be good for weeks.
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