Maple Days: Day 5

No boiling; too cold. But it warmed up by the end of the day, so sugaring will commence again tomorrow! Huzzah!

I am getting accustomed to sugar rushes these days. Mmm.

What is that, you ask? Maple cream! For those of you out there that don't know what that is, it's simple. Take maple syrup, boil away, and you end up with a spreadable form of maple sugar that has a butter-like, creamy texture. Perfect on toast (or just a spoon).

Okay, so it's a little more complicated that that. See the thermometer in the picture above? It's a digital candy thermometer, and the only gadget needed for this process (well, besides a spoon, but I hope you have one of those in your kitchen). To make the cream, you need to boil maple syrup until it's 23 degrees above the boiling point of water. The boiling point of water when we did this was 212.6 (yes, I'm afraid it needs to be that accurate), making the goal temperature 235.6 degrees.

The process takes a couple hours on the stovetop. In the meanwhile, you have to keep an eye on it and stir the syrup when it threatens to boil over. Also, you'll need to get an ice bath ready for the next step.

When you hit 235.6 degrees (or whatever temperature you need) immediately transfer the pot to the ice water bath. You'll need to let it sit - WITHOUT MOVING THE SYRUP AT ALL - until the liquid has cooled to 75 degrees. It'll take about an hour, maybe more.

Rub a dub dub, don't move that tub!

Next up? Stirring. Sounds easy, but this is actually the labor intensive part. Since the sugar has cooled, it's about the consistency of taffy. The best recommendation I have is to stir sitting down. You can hold the pot better with your knees, and you'll probably be at this for a half an hour or so - might as well take it easy.

Keep in mind too, you don't have to stir quickly. Your arms will tire quickly if you attack the sugar, plus it won't really make a difference. The sugar won't set up more quickly by faster stirring.

As you stir for a while, you'll notice some color changes. This is what you have to watch out for. At first, it'll look about the same color as dark maple syrup, but slowly, it will lighten in color.

Eventually, it'll turn a coffee ice-cream color, or a peanut-butter brown. Keep stirring until it looses its sheen; the image below still has some shine because of the lighting, but trust me, after staring at the same pot of sugar you'll be able to tell when this happens.

Now for the final bit! Load up some containers with cream; pretty much anything with a cover will do. You can stick it in the fridge at this point, and after a little while, take another peek. It'll have set up and thickened into maple cream! Enjoy on toast, waffles, pancakes, or in coffee or tea.

And of course, don't forget to lick the bowl.