Maple sugar candy
Following on Donna's post ... the sap just kept running. We were going to treat the whole sap and syrup thing as just an experiment for this year but we couldn't bear to watch all that newly collected sap go to waste!
This weekend we collected another 12 gallons, give or take, and boiled it down again on our borrowed boiler. We brought it inside for the final boil, but this time boiled it down a lot more, waiting until it reached a temperature of 235 deg F. We then let it cool for about 10 minutes to about 175 deg F. At that point we mixed vigorously for about 5 minutes until it turned a lighter colour and thickened.
That's where the plan went a little wrong. We had found a couple of gifted candy molds in the cupboard, intended for making chocolate on a stick ...
Unfortunately, we decided to move from the pot into a measuring cup to make the pouring into the moulds easier ... but the mixture turned quite solid in the measuring cup. We quickly scooped into the nearest container we could find and will cut some pieces from there. The container on the left contains the scrapings that we couldn't bear to lose!
In the end, 2 cups of candy from 12 gallons of sap. It has a different flavour than typical maple syrup candy - slightly stronger, and maybe less sweet - but extremely delicious.