Maple sugar

[briduhunt]

I have checked past post and I can not find how to make maple sugar. Is this a national trade secret?????? I would like to make maple cotton candy and I have the directions for this but I need the directions for making maple sugar. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[802maple]

I typically boil to about 265 and take it off the stove and immediately stir and don't stop until it is very dry powder. I also start stirring in the dish while it is cooking at about 240 degrees until it reaches the desired temperature so that it won't burn down. I then put it thru a screen to take out the larger pieces.

I would work with smaller amounts until you get use to it. If you have or have access to a commercial mixer, they work very well. From experience, cheap Walmart mixers don't work well, as I have had to say sorry honey a couple times.

[ennismaple]

I generally stop at about 260 F and immediately take it off the stove and put the entire pot in the sink. Once you start stirring it don't stop or it will get VERY ANGRY and will foam up over the top of the pot (that's why I put it in the sink). It will normally foam up on me 2 or 3 times. Once it's gone granular and you've stirred out most of the chunks you can leave it to cool without stirring any more. At room temperature it's easy to put it through a fine wire screen to separate the granulated sugar from the crunchies (larger chunks). We also sell the chrunchies - people like them just as much as the granulated!

[jrthe3]

i take mine to 260 and start stirring it as soon as i take it off the heat i sift mine through a fine screen the big chunks i run though a old flower grinder

[the old guy]

Hey Birdhunt

This Might Be A Little Late But Go To "youtube" , In The Search Box Type Mi-maple And Watch The "maple Sugaring -tradition Part 2" Near The End Of The Video They Show A Numer Of Tips On Making Maple Products (sugar Is One Of Them).

The Old Guy

[glassman]

i just tried to make sugar and am not sure what went wrong. got it to 270 and dumped it into my kichen aid mixer with a wisk attachment. it got whiteish and just turned into a cookie dough type stuff with almost no grain to it. so i thought i would just keep beating. after fifteen to twenty min same thing so i had my daughters put it in ice cube trays.

cant figure out what i did wrong. any help?

thanks
wally

[Amber Gold]

Can you use a grade B syrup to make maple sugar?

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

For maple syrup to make good candy, it needs the correct "invert sugar". This is the ratio of sucrose to glucose. It changes throughout the season and with the time that sap is stored before processing. Incorrect levels and you get taffy

[Amber Gold]

Is there a way to tell if you have the correct ratio?

[brookledge]

test for invert sugar. It tells how to do it in the N. A. maple syrup producers manual
Keith

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Keith, I checked it out. The book says light syrup is the best to make candy with, maybe my B wouldn't work so hot. If I've got enough syrup left over I'll test it and see what I come up with.

[Sugarmaker]

I have made sugar (crumb) with all grades. I made sugar with light syrup and was beat out at a local fair by sugar made from dark syrup!
Syrup with very low invert sugar levels work great for sugar (crumb) Because it wants to sugar. High invert level syrup does not sugar as easily and that's why its easier to get smooth grain and no big crystals like for maple cream.

I take the syrup to 260F. Take it off the heat and hand stir. Or now with the big mixer I just dump it in there and turn it on low for about 30 min and it makes real nice crumb. I have made a gallon at a time but might be able to make 2 gallons of syrup into sugar in the A-200 mixer. It is one of the easiest products to make but it is dangerously hot and steam escapes as it is being stirred, be careful!

Chris

[MaplePancakeMan]

Would a big kitchen aid mixer be able to do it with the paddle attachment?

[Dennis H.]

I talked to a lady at the NY Maple Conf in Jan who used a heavy duty kitchen mixer and she said she was on her 3rd mixer!
She found she could lengthen its life by slowing adding the hot syrup so it wouldn't put such a load on it. She also told me that she tries to make smaller batchs also to help the mixer.
If I remember right she told me she used a Kitchen Aide, not sure the model but she did say it was the large one.

oh yeah yes she did use the paddle attch.

[Father & Son]

I use a Kitchenaid Professional 600 for cream and crumb sugar. It is just new at Thanksgiving time 2008 so I haven't had a chance to burn it up yet. When I make cream I only do a 2 qt batch, any larger batch size works it pretty hard and makes it hot to the touch whereas 2 qts isn't that hard on it. The crumb sugar I do in 3 qt batches and again that seems to work best.

Jim

[Jerome]

OK I tried it and now I have a soft ball size ball of what feels like play dough. I took the syrup to 250 as my info sheet said 40dreegs above boiling point but now I see that it looks like most of you take it 50 deg can I add this to more syrup and start again? I am using amber syrup.

[KenWP]

Boiling point of syrup not water Jerome. That would make it anywhere from 257 to 260.

[Jerome]

I just checked again on the Atkinson's popular maple products sheet it goes say water. I have no problem going to 260 but I need to know if I can reuse what I have? it will crumble but it is still soft.

[KenWP]

Yes it does say 240 to 245 . All these guys say 260 to make crumb sugar. Someplace I read to just run hunks of maple sugar back through the evaporator and reuse it again. Would take all day to find it again. I find that there is a lot of different ways to do things and a person has to try and find his own way.

[Jerome]

OK I am a failure I tried it again this time up to 260 and same result maple play dough it is good on toast though. I think my grade is too low.

[KenWP]

Are you stiring it enough untill it drys out. It will be wet and stirring the hot stuff will dry it out into crumb sugar. We are talking lots of stirring.

[Sugarmaker]

Jerome,
You are not a failure! Your batch is a failiure and if I had a dollar for every failed batch of maple something I have ever made we could go out for a very nice dinner!

From what you said you did all things right. But what you may have is syrup that
1. may be old and high in invert.
2. syrup that is fresh but very high in invert and doesn't sugar well.
3. have you double checked you thermometer to make sure you are at 260F?

Any of these things could have caused you problem.


If the invert is way to high it may never make sugar.

Have you made other products like candy or cream from this same syrup?

Chris

[glassman]

how do you check for invert sugar? i ended up with the play dough sturr too. it all tastes good but isnt the granulated sugar i was expecting.

[Jerome]

Hey maybe we can sell the idea to matel?

[KenWP]

Was a thing in the paper about a doctor in Derby who could make maple sugar almost as white as cane sugar. He said it had to do with makeing sure that all bacteria was gotton rid of and everything had to be clean and then cleaner.

[KenWP]

Well I tried to make sugar today and succeded. Turned out just like brown sugar. I had my doubts when it started to bubble up a couple of times but I kept it on low heat and got it to the correct temp and it worked. Just have to get brave enough to do it with a whole gallon now.

[Sugarmaker]

For the invert sugar check I use a grams scale set a paper cup on it and zero scale, fill with luke warm water till 90 grams, then add syrup to make 100 grams, stir to mix well then use a blood glucose meter (with the strips) to check the solution. if it reads LO then you have syrup that will make excellent SUGAR. If your reading is in the 50s then the syrup has medium invert and as the reading goes higher you have higher invert levels. I don't have the charts in the house right now but there are charts for cream and candy showing ideal invert and the scale to convert the meter reading to invert level. Also how to doctor syrup with invertase.
This is all about reducing failed batches. Training on this subject was from a local confections work shop conducted by local extension office and Steve Childs (SP?).

Regards,
Chris

[Haynes Forest Products]

So when I cooked syrup down till it was all thick and it dried up and I pounded it into powder and it was sweet that wasnt maple sugar DANG dont tell the kids. I have a 1/2 gallon jug of 3 point over B that has about 1-1 1/2" inch of clear rock candy in the bottom is that closer to the kind of sugar were talking about and want.

NOW the 64,000 question is the syrup left in the 1/2 gallon jug with the rock candy in it below syrup density?

[petersp22]

We made some sugar tonight and it went well. We put a quart in a 4 quart cast iron dutch oven and took it to 260. We had rubbed butter around the upper inch or so of of the pot to keep it from boiling over. At 260 we turned off the heat and stirred like crazy. About 2 minutes into stirring it "mushroomed up" and then quickly turned into granular sugar. We got about three cups of sugar out of it, but of course we ate a bunch of the chunks before we put it in a jar. A little bit stuck to the pan but dissolved easily in water.

[KenWP]

I made sugar out of the last batch of syrup I made and it worked as well as useing the syrup from my first batch's. This was darker syrup then before but the sugar came out a nice color. Looks like brown sugar. I figure this useing only light syrup to make sugar is another one of those urban ledgends or myths.
I want my maple syrup or sugar or candies or maple butter to taste like maple not just a sweet sugar taste. Why go to the bother of makeing syrup that is just sweet and no taste beats me.

[the old guy]

I Waited Until My Wife Left, Then I Grabbed Her New Mixer. I Heated Dark Syrup To 250+, Then Put The Bread Dough Beaters In The Mixer And Mixed, Mixed, Mixed----well The Sugar Came Out With No Waste, No Lumps. So I Tried Again, This Time Using More Syrup. It Seemed To Work Even Better. The Sugar Came Out A Golden Brown.
Maybe That Is Cheateing, But It Sure Beats Stirring By Hand!

The Old Guy