Maple cream, grainy and separating, what to do to fix it?

[Russell Lampron]

My cousin came over to make maple cream. I showed her how to heat it to 23* - 24* above boiling and and then to give it an ice bath to cool it down to room temperature. She stirred it with the whisk in a Kitchenaide mixer on speed 2. When she was done the cream was nice and white and smooth and creamy. We put it into the tubs and let it sit while she made another batch. Now I have 18 tubs of cream that has separated overnight with light and foamy stuff on the top and darker liquid stuff on the bottom. It is also real grainy. Even though I didn't think it would work I reheated a batch and let it sit overnight. I stirred that one with the paddle instead of the whisk and on speed 1. That batch is less grainy but a lot harder and still not something that I can sell to my customers.

The first batch was made with medium amber left from last season and the second was made from medium amber that was from the second boil of this season. What did we do wrong and what can I do with the mistakes to make it usable as something else?

[GeneralStark]

Was this cream made with bubbler syrup?

[Russell Lampron]

Was this cream made with bubbler syrup?

Yes it was. Is bubbler syrup not suitable for making cream? It works fine for making maple coated nuts. We made 20lbs of nuts without a problem with the same batches of syrup.

[jmayerl]

Cream is more finicky than candy, you need high quality proper invert level syrup for sure.

[GeneralStark]

Depends. Bubblers can make high invert syrup lighter in color, but it will still behave like high invert syrup. Hard to say without testing it, but kind of sounds like the symptoms assuming you boiled to 234 and cooled to about 70.. Have you made cream with similar syrup with success in the past?

I know a couple that make lots of candy and cream and they will not buy bubbler syrup for this reason.

[Russell Lampron]

Depends. Bubblers can make high invert syrup lighter in color, but it will still behave like high invert syrup. Hard to say without testing it, but kind of sounds like the symptoms assuming you boiled to 234 and cooled to about 70.. Have you made cream with similar syrup with success in the past?

I know a couple that make lots of candy and cream and they will not buy bubbler syrup for this reason.

This is the first attempt at making cream with bubbler syrup. One batch was made with syrup from my second boil of this season. I would think that the invert sugars in that would be like other early season syrups.

The batch that I reheated last night was made from this years syrup. After softening it up in the microwave this morning and hand stirring I was able to get it to an acceptable consistency. A little grainier than I would like it to be but I have bought cream that was that grainy in the past.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I make cream with bubbler syrup all the time. If it is early season syrup, the invert levels should be fine.

[GeneralStark]

Should be, but without testing it is all just conjecture. Are you sure your thermometer is accurate? are you sure it cooled to "room temperature"? Cream can be funny sometimes.

[Russell Lampron]

Should be, but without testing it is all just conjecture. Are you sure your thermometer is accurate? are you sure it cooled to "room temperature"? Cream can be funny sometimes.

I have been using the same thermometer for years. Maybe it's time to break out the new one and compare the two.

I was thinking that maybe the mixer folded too much air into it because of the way that it separated. I skimmed a lot of foam off of the top of the batch that I reheated while I was heating it up.

[GeneralStark]

Just to be clear I have no problem with bubbler syrup. Just trying to help troubleshoot. I generally make cream with a candy machine, so can't say much about other stirring methods.

[Moser's Maple]

my guess would be the syrup might have been boiled a little hard, in combination that it was stirred on the 2 setting with a whisk which will naturally put some degree of air into the mixture which could cause the cream to set. just a few thoughts.... lower the boiling temp a bit, lower the cooling temp, and after you are done stirring just set aside for a few minutes to make sure it would set up on you....if you need to thin you can either use syrup, or distilled water......all else fails add some cinnamon to the cream and people will forget that it may be a little grainy, because they'll be so happy with the maple cinnamon flavor profile

[WMF]

I have made cream every wrong way that is possible and have learned a few things.
If the cream separated with the syrup on the bottom and frothy cream on top it is usually from air whipped into it.
Cream made from too high invert or not boiled to a high enough temp will separate with the syrup on top.
The cream will not weigh right also. The industry standard glass pound jars just barely hold a pound of standard weight cream and can be underweight with air whipped cream.

[Russell Lampron]

My wife told me that my cousin was moving the pan all over the place on the burner to keep it from boiling over. We have an electric stove which is part of the problem. When I do it I turn the heat down so that I can leave the pan in the middle of the burner and not worry about it boiling over. She heated the syrup the same way that I do when she made the nuts that we didn't have a problem with. I'm going to make the next batch when my cousin isn't here.

Thanks for the cinnamon suggestion. I am going to try that this morning. Maybe a Pumpkin Head boiling soda will taste good with a shot of hot maple syrup!