Maple Cream Candy (1884)
Reader ratingsMaple cream candy after the one a Chicago candy maker sold over the counter in 1884: maple syrup boiled to a soft ball, cooled and stirred until pale and creamy, then set in a pan and cut into squares.
- Recipe makes
- About 1 pound, 24 small squares
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
The syrup boils for 15 to 20 minutes and cools for about 20 more before stirring. Stirring takes 5 to 10 minutes, and the candy needs about an hour in the pan before cutting.
Maple cream candy cut into squares, one broken open.
The story behind the recipe
Maple sugar was the sweet that replaced candy in Witch Winnie, and the candy shops sold it too. G. V. Frye’s Practical Candy Maker, a Chicago trade manual of 1884, gives “Maple Cream for Counter,” a trade recipe for ten pounds of maple sugar at a time.
Ten pounds at a time
Frye dissolves the maple sugar in three pints of water with a small spoon of cream of tartar, boils it to a soft ball, and sets it away “till it is almost cold.” Then it is creamed with a spatula in the basin until it looks cloudy and poured at once into a deep pan, because, he warns, “this must be done quickly or it will become hard in the basin.” Once cold, it is turned out like his pan creams and marked into bars or large squares for the counter.
It sits in his miscellaneous chapter two recipes after the pan creams, which are made the same way from white sugar flavored with orange flower water. Maple sugar gave the shop its color and flavor without any extract at all.
In Elizabeth W. Champney’s novel of 1889, a schoolgirl gives up her confectioner’s candy and is rewarded with a cake of maple sugar a day, from a box sent by cousins in Vermont. Frye’s maple cream began as the same sugar, boiled again and creamed for the counter.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Maple syrup is maple sugar already dissolved, so we start from syrup and skip Frye’s water. We boil it to 235°F (113°C) and stir it while it is still warm, at about 190°F (88°C), as modern maple candy recipes do; Frye let his ten-pound batch get almost cold. A pinch of cream of tartar stands in for his small spoon. Pour as soon as the color turns, because the candy sets in minutes.
The novel and its candy pledge are in What Did a Total Abstinence Candy Society Eat Instead?. Plain maple sugar was the novel’s own alcohol-free answer to the candy shop. For a cooler sweet from the same story, the Strawberry Ice Cream (1896) goes with the ducks.
Ten pounds of Maple Sugar, small spoon of cream tartar, and three pints of water ...
Recipe makes: About 1 pound, 24 small squares
Ingredients
For about 1 pound, 24 small squares. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for about 1 pound, 24 small squares.
- Pure maple syrup2 cups
- Cream of tartar1 pinch
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 2 cups pure maple syrup
- 1 pinch cream of tartar
Equipment
- Deep, narrow heavy saucepan, about 2 quarts
- Candy thermometer
Wooden spoon- Loaf pan, 8½ by 4½ inches, lined with parchment
- Sharp knife
Instructions
Put the maple syrup and cream of tartar in the saucepan and clip the thermometer to the side (if its tip doesn’t reach the syrup, tilt the pan briefly to read it). Bring to a boil over medium heat without stirring.
Boil without stirring until the thermometer reads 235°F (113°C), 15 to 20 minutes. If the syrup foams up toward the rim, lower the heat a little.
Take the pan off the heat and leave it alone, without stirring or moving it, until it cools to 190°F (88°C), about 20 minutes.
Take out the thermometer and stir steadily with the wooden spoon. After 5 to 10 minutes the syrup loses its shine, turns lighter and begins to thicken.
As soon as it turns cloudy and pale, scrape it into the lined pan and smooth the top quickly.
Let it set for about 1 hour. Lift it out by the parchment and cut it into small squares with the sharp knife.
Nutrition
70calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 1 pound, 24 small squares
- Servings
- 24
Estimated per square from USDA FoodData Central values for maple syrup.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Doubling works in a larger pan; the syrup foams up high, so use a pan that holds at least four times its volume.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
If your water boils below 212°F (100°C), as it does at altitude, lower the target by the same number of degrees. If the candy sets in the pan before you can pour it, press it into the loaf pan with the back of a spoon. Use pure maple syrup; pancake syrup will not crystallize. If the squares are still soft after an hour, boil the next batch 3°F to 5°F (2°C to 3°C) higher. Stored airtight at room temperature, the squares keep for about 2 weeks.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After G. V. Frye, Frye’s Practical Candy Maker (Chicago, copyright 1884), Maple Cream for Counter
Recipe details
- Course
- Dessert
- Dish family
- Desserts & Sweets
- Region
- American
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1880s
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Season
- Winter