Books & Brews: Maple Candy in the Big Woods
Pairing: Christmas in the Big Wood by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Maple Candy
The Book:
This picture book follows little Laura around as her and her family prepare for and celebrate Christmas in their log cabin in the big woods. Together the family bakes,decorates and plays.
Why this pairing?
As a parent of three,I know how hard it can be to find something to entertain the family when the weather is cold and snowy.And, while snow days are fun, what are you supposed to do with them now? Sit by the window and watch it snow all day? So when I find ways to pair something fun with a book, I’m all in.
In this particular book,one of the things that Laura dose to get ready for the holiday is help her Mama make maple syrup candy. They made it sound so simple and easy, I almost couldn’t believe it! So I went looking for recipes. However, we don’t have any snow right now so that complicates things.
After asking around and checking my grandmother’s recipe cards, I knew no more about how to make this candy with my kids then I did before I started to dig, so I ended up scrolling through Google. I know! It’s not very exciting, but I did find two recipes, one sounding pretty close to how Laura and her family made theirs.
Maple Syrup Candy recipe #1
Prologue:
I had big hopes for this source. I saw it and thought, “Oh! This’ll tell me how Laura did it!”. However, I was wrong. This recipe comes from littlehouseontheprairie.com.
Ingredients:
2 cups of real maple syrup (it has to be real maple syrup)
Directions:
Pour maple syrup into a heavy stainless steel pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until temperatures reach 235 degrees fahrenheit with a candy thermometer. This may take a half an hour.
Remove pot from the stove. Let syrup cool to 175 degrees. DO NOT STIR during this time. This will take about 5-10 minutes.
When your syrup has reach the desired 175 degrees, begin stirring with a wooden spoon or whisk rapidly for about 3-5 minutes. Your mixture should become thick and creamy. It should also lighten in color.
Now you’ll have to work quickly. Pour in the syrup into your molds, cupcake liners or plates to cool. You may want to lightly grease your molds or plates with butter or coconut oil first.
Let the Maple Candy cool down completely.
Enjoy it as it is, or crumble on top of yogurt, oatmeal, or your favorite desert like cake, cookies or ice cream.
Maple Syrup Candy recipe #2
This next recipe comes from happyhooligans.ca.This one is closer to how it is done in our book but will require many of the same tools.
Ingredients:
1 cup real maple syrup (again,must be real maple syrup)
Clean, fresh snow
Directions:
Pat a layer of snow onto a baking sheet.
Put your maple syrup in a pot on the stove and bring it to a boil.
Using a candy thermometer, continue boiling the syrup until it reaches the soft ball stage (about 235-240 degrees F)
Remove from heat. Pour syrup over the snow
Press popsicles sticks into the syrup and roll it around, making something akin to a sucker or lollipop.
Enjoy!
Which of the two are you going to try with your kiddos?
Do you have a different recipe?
Let us know in the comments!
