Maple Candy | How to Make Maple Candy

Maple candy is incredibly delicious. It only has two ingredients and can be made in less than an hour, start to finish.

Want to make your friends and family a healthy treat? Get your kids eating this healthy snack instead of processed chocolate and other junk food. It’s a perfect, natural way to satisfy your sweet tooth.

What is maple candy

Maple candy is a sweet confection that is popular in the Northeast United States and in Canada. You can find it at every maple syrup store or festival around.

It can be made several ways. You can use just maple syrup heated to about 30°F over the boiling point where you live. This type is referred to as maple sugar candy.

It can be made with butter as we are doing today which will help with foaming. This candy is less hard so it’s great for folks with braces and the like.

You can also make it with butter and milk or cream. Which will make a creamy candy. That is again, more chewy.

What maple syrup should you use?

You can really use any grade of pure maple syrup for this recipe. Don’t use imitation maple syrup. That will not work.

Grade B will make a slightly darker candy but grade A will work as well.

What you need

• pure maple syrup – don’t use imitation processed maple syrup. It will not work. You can make this candy with just maple syrup. The only thing butter does is help with foaming.
• butter – use unsalted or salted butter, you can also substitute a bit of vegetable oil or milk, cream.

Optional ingredients

Many times you can find them with optional ingredients like salt (think of salted caramel) and walnuts. If you would like to add them, feel free.

How to make them

1. If using candy molds lightly spray with non stick spray or add a few drops of oil and coat them with your finger. If using a jelly roll or bread pan, line it with parchment paper or spray and wipe off excess.
2. Wipe off the excess with a paper towel.
3. Pour syrup into a large saucepan or pot. The syrup will bubble up and foam so make sure you have a large enough pan.
4. Bring it to a boil over medium heat.
5. Once it boils add the butter and stir until melted.
6. Test the temperature with a candy thermometer. The temperature of the boiling syrup should be about 240°F (soft-ball stage) 32-34 degrees F above the point water boils at your elevation. See below for a link to determine your elevation by zip code.
7. Remove it from the heat and allow it to cool for a couple minutes.
8. Then stir it vigorously with a wooden spoon until it losses it’s gloss, thickens, lightens in color and turns opaque.
9. Stop stirring. If it cools too much it will be difficult to pour or spoon into molds and it may harden in the pan.
10. Work quickly. Pour the mixture into molds, smooth them off with a flat spatula or the flat side of a knife. As the candy cools it will begin to harden and you may have to spoon it into the mold. If it hardens make sure to push it down with the knife so that it fills in the mold.

Let the candy cool for about 10 minutes. Pop them out of the molds. Place them on a rack to completely cool for a couple hours.

Pro tips for your success

• The tricky part is learning how much to stir and when to stop stirring. If you stir too much the mixture will harden in the pan. If you don’t stir enough, it may not harden at all. If it hardens, add about ½ cup of water and slowly reheat. Start the process over again.
• Did you know that water boils at different temperatures at different elevations? You need to check the boiling point of water at your elevation. Just enter your zip code.
• Once you quit stirring, work quickly to get the candy into the molds. It may help to have two people working on it. One to pour or spoon the mixture into molds and one to smooth out the bottoms of the candy.
• Use rubber molds, wood molds or silicone molds.

What you need

• candy thermometer
• saucepans
• maple candy mold

More maple recipes

• How to Make Maple Sugar
• How to can maple syrup
• Guest Post – Maple Apple Cider Chicken Thighs
• Maple Brussels Sprouts
• Smoked Catfish

Connect with us through our social media ages! Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter.

If you have any questions or comments, please ask in comment section below. We’d love to hear from you!

I hope you enjoyed the recipe today!

Enjoy. And have fun cooking!

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I get a small commission if you go to the link and purchase something, at no additional cost to you. See FTC Disclosure, here.