HOWTO: Maple Cream
Published October 20, 2019
I recently tried making Maple cream. It was much more precise, fragile, and generally difficult than I initially imagined. It took me three tries to get it right.
Here’s the high-level recipe:
- Heat Maple syrup to 235F/113C without stirring
- Optional: add a dash of oil & salt
- Immediately cool to 100F/38C without stirring
- Stir (15+ minutes!) until it lightens in color and loses its shine, becoming more dull
- Store immediately, before it sets
The dash of oil (you can also use butter) helps keep the bubbling down. I’d highly recommend it.
Otherwise, the recipe appears relatively simple, no? Unfortunately, since this is effectively a candy, it’s a precise endeavor. Here’s where I failed:
- The temperature really matters. A lot. My first attempt I was using a small folding digital thermometer with a short probe. This was non-ideal. I remedied this my 2nd time by purchasing a candy/deep frying thermometer.
- The stirring is actually an exact science. The Maple syrup will slowly change color however the point where it changes from shiny to dull is extremely critical. Once that happens, you want to immediately stop stirring and store it. Stirring beyond that will cause it to rapidly dull even further and develop a texture that more closely resembles a drier nut butter and not a smooth cream (still tasty, but not what we’re after).
The three attempts from left to right
Notice in the first attempt it only lightened in color slightly and developed a coarse crystallized texture. This was likely due to being slightly under-heated and stirred slightly before being cooled. In the second attempt it is significantly lighter (due to being a lighter Maple syrup) but has a slightly coarser texture than the final attempt.
This works excellent as a general-purpose sweetener but I’m partial to it on waffles mixed with some peanut butter.