Maple candy machine - to buy or not to buy

[Lazarus]

Hi all - hoping you can help me make a decision on a purchase. I have considered for many years buying a maple candy machine because we make a large amount of candy and it is very labor intensive. Despite carefully measuring invert sugar, controlling temperature and duration of stir, and years of experience, I still have to reprocess about a third to a half of my batches to get the quality I want.

On the most recent set of batches I have been pouring about 8 cups of finished syrup into molds (after boiling down). I have noticed that the roughly first half of my candy poured comes out excellent but the second half ends up being on the grainy, soft set side. The difference between those is temperature falling (big factor), but also I am not stirring it as I'm pouring it (on account of not having three hands).

So here is the question. Will using a candy machine give me more consistent results because of continued stirring and will it provide better temperature control while pouring (vs a large thick glass Pyrex bowl)? Or will it just enable me to make poor candy that much faster? It's an expensive purchase at nearly $2,000 and I can process a pretty sizable amount of syrup by hand so I am just not sure whether it will improve my outcome. I would really like to have nice tight candy come out of the molds for crystal coating and not have to reprocess half the batch all the time.

Any thoughts much appreciated!

[Tmeeeh]

we've been using a candy machine for many years. Sometimes we used to do candy making demonstrations using hand stirring. The hand stirring results were never as consistent as with the machine. We usually make 2 to 300 candies per batch with the machine, mostly limited by the number of molds we have. We also use the candy machine for making maple cream with good results. We usually make 40 pound batches of cream. Maybe you can find a good used candy machine and save some $$

[Lazarus]

Thanks for the feedback! I watched a video from someone making it using a Sipple machine. Since it only stirs it just before it is pouring into the molds, I can see how my "first half of the batch" results could be achieved throughout the rest of the batch.

Vs. the hand made method, when using a candy machine, would you typically heat the syrup a bit higher and not let it cool as much before starting the stir, to account for the heat loss over time?

[Tmeeeh]

start stirring immediately after the syrup reaches temperature. We generally heat to 245 degrees and then stir into molds. No need to let it cool before stirring when using the machine.

[wiam]

We let ours cool to 200°. Makes a softer candy. We start with 24 pounds of syrup. When we set up we usually make or 3 batches. By the time the next one is cooked the molds are all empty ready for more. We don’t clean the trough between batches. Just make sure the worm turns before we turn it on.

[Shaun]

It is always good to start pouring early. Sometimes if you wait just 10 seconds too long the candy sets up in the trough and plugs the outlet. As with anything definitely a learning curve to them to balance syrup flows in and out. The first few times I used mine it didn't go that well, just takes a little practice.

[Sappy Camper]

It sounds to me like you are stirring all your thickened syrup in the pot, and then portioning it out into a pyrex bowl and pouring it. First, may I suggest using measuring cups with pour spouts, but more importantly, taking the portion you want to pour and stirring just that. The small, fine crystals that you want are caused by rapid cooling, so it makes sense that the coarser candy comes toward the end. The crystals began forming when you stirred, but that syrup cools slowly while in the pot, compared to how fast it cools once poured in the molds.

[Sappy Camper]

Yes. Breaking up the stirring into smaller portions so it approximates the continuous stirring of a machine is important. I wouldn't heat the syrup higher than 32-34 degrees above boiling water, but I would find a way to keep the pot of syrup at around 200 degrees during the whole process (stick it in the oven while filling molds).

A machine will make your candy more controllable, consistent and increase your productivity. But it is a chunk of change. If you could improve your candy's appearance and consistency while hand pouring, do you still need to increase your speed? For myself right now, by hand is fine, and there are other things I would rather spend the coin on.

If you havn't seen it, here is the bible of maple confections. https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/7/5773/files/2016/06/Confection-Notebook5th-edition-tz3j4x.pdf