Maple cream, maple candy and maple sugar are all made from pure maple syrup, and the traditional versions have nothing else in them. Each one is syrup boiled past the syrup stage, then stirred until its sugar starts to crystallize. Cream is boiled the least and stays spreadable, candy goes further and sets in a mold, and granulated sugar goes furthest, until it's dry and crumbly.
One ingredient, three textures
Vermont's maple regulations define maple products as maple syrup, maple sugar, maple cream and anything else whose sugar comes entirely from pure maple sap, with nothing added. What changes is heat, cooling and stirring.
Sap becomes syrup at about 7°F above the boiling point of water. Keep boiling and more water leaves. As that extra-thick syrup cools, it holds more sugar than it can keep dissolved, and stirring makes the extra come out as crystals. Cornell's Maple Program notes that syrups with identical chemistry can still become very different products, depending on how they're cooled and stirred.
Sugar makers set how far to boil in degrees above the boiling point of water, since that point shifts with the weather and with elevation. They boil a pot of water on the day to find it. If the water boils at 212°F, 28 degrees above is 240°F.
Maple cream (maple butter)
Maple cream, also called maple butter or maple spread, is a smooth spread about as thick as peanut butter. Despite the names, there's no dairy in it. (Our whipped maple butter recipe is the other kind, real butter beaten with syrup.)
For cream, syrup is heated to 22 to 28°F above the boiling point of water, then cooled fast. If you're making a little, a sink of ice water works. It has to sit still while it cools, or crystals start early and the cream turns grainy. At 75°F or below, it's stirred, by machine or slowly by hand. It loosens a little at first as crystals form, then thickens, turns lighter and loses its shine. When it's smooth and paste-like, it's done. Made well, its crystals are too small to feel on your tongue.
People spread it on toast, bagels, muffins and pancakes. Traditional maple cream has no preservatives, so it's sold refrigerated. Cornell gives it less than a month at room temperature, about six months in the fridge and up to a year in the freezer. If syrup separates on top, stir it back in.
Maple candy
Maple candy, also called molded maple sugar, is firm enough to hold the shape of its mold. The syrup goes hotter than for cream, to 28 to 34°F above the boiling point of water, then cools to between 160 and 200°F. It's stirred, often with a spoonful of finished maple cream to start crystals, until it turns lighter, thicker and creamy looking. That takes under five minutes. Then it's poured or pressed into molds to set.
The temperature when stirring starts sets the texture. Below 170°F gives a soft candy that melts in your mouth, the kind Cornell says customers like by far the most. Closer to 200°F gives a firmer, grainier candy that holds up better in shipping.
It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup, and that gallon makes about 7 1/2 pounds of candy. Fresh pieces keep a few weeks somewhere cool and dry. A crystal coating, a thin shell of sugar crystals, helps them keep longer.
Maple sugar
Granulated maple sugar is cooked the furthest, to 50 to 70°F above the boiling point of water. It's stirred right away or once it cools to about 200°F. The stirring goes on until most of the moisture is gone and only crumbly sugar is left. Then it's sifted through a coarse screen for even grains.
Stirring hot makes bigger crystals, and cooling first makes a finer, more powdery sugar. Slow stirring by hand gives a coarse sugar a lot like brown sugar. A quart of syrup makes about 2 pounds.
With so little water left, maple sugar won't separate or mold, and kept dry it lasts indefinitely. It does pull moisture from the air, so store it airtight. If it hardens, leave it overnight in a sealed jar with a damp paper towel. Cornell says it can replace white or brown sugar one for one in recipes. Baking with syrup instead? Here's how to swap maple syrup for sugar.
Sugar on snow
Sugar on snow is the one that skips the crystals. Syrup is heated to about the same point as for cream, 22 to 27°F above the boiling point of water. Then it's poured right away, unstirred, in thin strips over packed clean snow or crushed ice. It cools too fast for crystals to form, leaving a thin, shiny, taffy-like sheet. Roll it onto a stick, or lift it off the snow with a fork. It's meant to be eaten right away, which is rarely a problem.
It's a sugarhouse favorite in sugaring season. In Vermont, you'll find it at many stops during Maple Open House Weekend in March.
Sugar came first
For a long time, sugar was the point. Journals of early New England explorers record Native peoples of the Northeast making three kinds. There was coarse grain sugar, cake sugar hardened in wooden molds, and wax sugar, thick syrup poured over snow. Today we call that last one sugar on snow. Dry sugar stored easily and liquid syrup didn't. Syrup only took over after the tariff on imported raw sugar ended, around 1890, and cane sugar soon outsold maple sugar. The full story is in our short history of maple syrup.
If you try this at home
Syrup at these temperatures is much hotter than boiling water and can stick, scorch and burn, so keep kids well away. Maple sugar can also let off a sudden burst of steam as it crystallizes, and Cornell recommends gloves, an apron and eye protection for it.
Start with the syrup
Every one of these starts as pure maple syrup, which is what our tins hold. Ours is one ingredient, from a single Vermont forest, boiled over a wood-burning fire. Amber is warm and smooth with caramel notes, the one that goes on everything. Dark is deep and robust, built for cooking and baking.
