Granulated maple sugat

[highlandcattle]

Yes! We did it! Went to see Steve Childs last Saturday do a seminar on granulated Maple sugar. Once we saw it done it looked so simple. My first try from u-tube went really bad. Welded the spoon to the pan and stunk up the house. This was so easy. Heated a pint of syrup in my heavy s.s. pot to about ,270° let it cool a bit. Ron started stirring and just Like magic it turned to sugar! We used our "robust" as that's what we had this year. I put it in my little kitchen aide food chopper and it came out nice and fine. Thanks Steve and Mona! P.s. because of physical problems with our hands. Had to finish with chopper. So oh well it worked.

[jmayerl]

270 is way to hot. 45-50 over boiling is where it should be, which is 260 max. When done properly you do not use a chopper of any kind. The sugar will have a brown sugar consistency on its own when stired

[GeneralStark]

270 is way to hot. 45-50 over boiling is where it should be, which is 260 max. When done properly you do not use a chopper of any kind. The sugar will have a brown sugar consistency on its own when stired

For what size batches are you claiming this is the case?

[jmayerl]

Size of batch has no bearing on how it is made. I generally only do a gallon at a time but the same would hold true for a pint or a barrel sized batch.

[GeneralStark]

Do you sift after stirring?

[jmayerl]

Me? I don't sift per se, but I do have a screen that I use. Most of the time it is not needed as the sugar is very consistent

[GeneralStark]

Me? I don't sift per se, but I do have a screen that I use. Most of the time it is not needed as the sugar is very consistent

Sorry yes I was wondering about your method. I generally go 260-265, stir and then sift. I do get some chunks, but I need them for another product I make. I also have a couple customers that need very consistent fine sugar for what they are doing with it, so I can't skip the sifting.

How quickly you stir and then sift seems to also affect the amount of chunks. The faster it cools post stirring, the more chunks in my experience. I process in an unheated commercial kitchen in large batches and I find in winter I get more chunks than in summer.

[sapman]

I used to heat to 265~. Wife went to Steve's seminar on making cotton, and he recommended 270-275. Works for me. Maybe it's different for regular granulated? I'm thinking you want as little moisture as possible for the cotton? That's the impression I got from a cotton expert.

[wiam]

I go to 260-265 and most of mine goes into cotton candy. Never had a problem.

[GeneralStark]

I was in the kitchen yesterday making candy and sugar so I experimented a bit with the temp. I was heating to. I generally go to 265 but I tried one batch to 260 and I'll be sticking with 265. The lower temp. works ok but it took longer to granulate and was more difficult to get through my sieve. The "wetter" sugar that resulted from the lower temp. did have a more brown sugar like texture and it clogged the sieve pretty quickly. I also found that there was still about the same amount of chunks or crumble regardless of final temp. which yesterday wasn't much because the kitchen was warm.

So, I would say that if you plan to sieve your sugar, whether for cotton candy or otherwise, it makes good sense to heat to the higher temps. If you are making "Indian Sugar" and don't plan to sift and don't mind some occasional chunks, the lower temp. should work fine assuming you are using syrup with appropriate invert levels. High invert syrup will require the higher temps.

I don't think there is one way to do it and that there is only one type of "maple sugar".

[Galena]

Hey all

I need a little help with something that is probably more along the lines of a taffy than a sugar, so apologies in advance for the minor thread hijack...but this is one of the few active threads here this time of year!

What I want to do is coat a maple leaf with a thin layer of heated syrup that hasn't been heated so much that it has lost its clarity. Then I want to freeze it so it sets, carefully peel off the leaf from the underside and lightly try to shatter the sugar leaf to create a mosaic effect. I am a serious hobbyist photog and know exactly what I want.

I think I came close on the last occasion when I tried to make maple sugar by hand, but all I ended up with was a saucepan whose sides were clotted with sugar and syrup and some long stringy taffy! Believe my temp was approx 245-250.

I've already figured out that I probably need to spray the leaf with cooking spray so the heated/frozen syrup will lift off it easily. Mostly I want to pick brains in terms of anything I should watch for in terms of temps? I have pretty much the whole spectrum of grades, from XL-Amber.

[Super Sapper]

Take this for what it is worth as I have made sugar 2 times and cream 2 times (very little experience). I would say that you need a light syrup for clarity and need to bring it to at least 260 degrees F (higher temp. harder crystal) and the least disturbance (stirring, pouring etc.) possible. I will be interested to see if I am close in my assumptions when more experienced guys chime in.

[Galena]

Sounds like a good starting point, SS, thanks. Will see by day's end when I get home from work what others have posted, esp in any kinds of tips or tricks. Or if anyone else has done anything like this before, too.

[brookledge]

Looking to see what size sieve everyone uses and is it round holes or square screen?
Keith

[brookledge]

just checking again those that make granulated sugar what size screen are you using and is it made from woven wire or round holes like a skimmer has
Keith