Maple nuts for beginners

[mathprofdk]

Just a bump, because it's about that time!

And sorry for not replying, Rustybucket. I must have missed your post. And unfortunately, I can't remember!

~DK

[morningstarfarm]

have made a ton of these in the last couple weeks...suggestion...try smoked almonds...cant seem to make enough and they have a hard time getting to the shelf...

[Pumpkin Village Maple]

Your right about the peanuts. My family calls me every week to ask for peanuts not about how are you?
They are very easy to make and I'm down to 7 gallons of syrup. Going up to 200 buckets just because of those dam peanuts. (That's my excuse anyways!!)

[McClintick Maple]

I just tried these. I have taffy nuts, not crystalized coated ones. Did I miss an assumed step of cool syrup after boiling before mixing with nuts, like when making molded candy?

Samantha

[mathprofdk]

No cooling is necessary. The two things that come to mind are that the syrup may not have gotten up to the right temperature, or you may have stopped stirring too soon. What happens is that as you stir, it will cool and start to get "tacky" - you'll see little stringers of syrup as you stir and pull the nuts apart. Then as you keep stirring, they get stickier and stickier, until it finally crystallizes and you have candied nuts. That usually takes about 2-5 minutes. At least, that's how it goes for me.

Another issue I had recently was that I didn't have enough nuts and ended up with a syrup:nuts ratio that was too high, and it took forever for the syrup to crystallize and coat the nuts.

I hope this is helpful. I'm no expert, so maybe others on here will have some suggestions, too.

[Ed R]

I tried these last weekend and ended up with taffey nuts as well. I went by temp on the first try. Second attempt I got out my computer and looked at the pictures posted and I went by the look of the boil and perfection!!

[McClintick Maple]

Ed D, what temp didn't work for you? I used 242*, same as what I've been doing for molded candy. Going by look of the boil is new to me, but then again, everything in this realm is still new to me.

Some little things might have been the slightly higher humidity at the time and the darker syrup I used. Mostly I think I just wasn't prepared for how hard it would be to stir 2 lbs of nuts during the gooey stage to get past it to the crystalize stage. I was afraid it would harden in the pan and I wouldn't be able to get it out so I started laying it on the cookie sheet too soon. My husband took over the stirring and putting onto another cookie sheet while I tried to spead out the taffy on the first. Then we left it and were gone for several hours. When we got back the end of the batch proved lovely! The first part was darn good too. I managed to package enough of the best as a thank you gift to the one who gave us the nuts, enough of the pretty good for a couple family gifts, and my husband assures me it will not be a problem to eat the mistakes of the experiment.

My pan and therometer depth require 2 cups syrup to start, thus the batch size. Next experiment is to take not so pretty molded candy pieces, melt them in the microwave, add to smaller quantity of nuts and see how that turns out. Unless someone here can already tell me and strongly advises against it.

[Dennis H.]

This is how I do it and I haven't had an issue yet.

I use 6oz of syrup per pound of nuts.
I put the nuts on a cookie sheet and place in oven at 190.
While the nuts are warming in the oven I boil the syrup.
I boil the syrup to 240 degrees as to the Taylor candy thermometer that I use.
Once the syrup gets to 240 I dump all the nuts into a large SS bowl.
I then pour the syrup over top of the nuts and start to stir. Once they are coated I will sprinkle on salt if needed.
I continue to stir. It will be still glossy and gooey, keep stirring.
You will start to see it turning to a dryer look, keep stirring.
I keep stirring until there is very little glossy look on any nuts. They should now be loose and not in large clumps.
There will still be a few small clumps of i'd say 4-5 peanuts.

I then pour this all back onto the cooking sheet and place back into the oven.
I turn the oven off and let them in there to cool.

I have to say maple coated nuts is one of the easiest things to make, and they taste great to boot!

[Ed R]

If I remember right it was 244-245 when the boil consistency changed. Correct temp may change due to atmospheric conditions.

[mathprofdk]

From what I can tell, you just weren't stirring long enough, Samantha. And as you found out, two pounds can be pretty hard to stir. If you want to speed it up, try pouring the syrup over the nuts in a bowl and stirring there.

Also, the temperature does not need to be precise. I've made great maple nuts going only to 235.