Q: How do you make maple cream?
A: Maple cream is a sweet, creamy spread made from maple syrup. It's delicious when spread on a piece of toasted bread. Although the cream itself has a buttery flavor, it tastes even more delicious when you spread the toasted bread with maple cream and butter. Don Harlow is a maple syrup maker from Putney, Vermont. He shared his recipe for maple cream, which he never prepares without his trusted giant sugamaker's thermometer, which is marked at the temperatures for boiling water, maple cream, hard sugar and cake sugar. This particular thermometer also contains a part that allows the user to adjust the thermometer according to altitude. Maple syrup becomes cream when it reaches 232 degrees F. This temperature should also be the same temperature for making sugar on snow, which is simply heated syrup poured on top of a bowl filled with snow.
According to Don, to prevent the syrup from boiling over on the stove, add a 1/4 teaspoon of milk, cream or butter to the cooking maple syrup. Harlow's Sugarhouse in Putney, Vermont, produces more than three thousand gallons of maple syrup each year. Don notes that one tree on his property is more than 450 years old and has a unique history (Native Americans once tapped this tree for sap). Don's mother started the tradition of making maple cream and maple candy in his family.
RECIPE
MAPLE CREAM
Ingredients:
- 2 cups fancy grade-A pure maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon milk, cream or butter*
Directions:
- Prepare an ice water bath: Fill a large bowl with a 1/2 inch of water and ice. Pour the maple syrup into a small, high-sided saucepan and stir in the milk, cream or butter.
- Set a candy thermometer in the syrup and place the pan over medium heat.
- Cook, without stirring, until the temperature reaches 232 degrees F., about 10 minutes.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat. Pour the maple syrup into a cold, clean saucepan placed in the ice bath. Do not move or disturb the cream in any way while the syrup cools: If the maple syrup is jiggled, the cream won't form properly. Let stand, adding ice as needed to the ice water bath, until the syrup radiates a gentle warmth to the back of your hand when held about 1 inch above or a candy thermometer measures 140 degrees F.
- Once the mixture reaches the correct temperature, use a wooden spoon to slowly stir the mixture until it forms a light color and thickens to the consistency of peanut butter, about 12 minutes.
- Working quickly, transfer the maple cream to a jar or plastic container. Store, covered in the refrigerator, for up to 6 months, or in the freezer up to a year.
*In place of the milk, cream or butter, a 1/4 teaspoon of vegetable oil may be added to the maple syrup or rubbed around the rim of the saucepan to prevent the maple syrup from boiling over on the stove.
SPECIAL THANKS
Don Harlow
Harlow's Sugarhouse
SOURCES
Maple Cream
Harlow's Sugarhouse
R.D. 1 Box 395
Putney, VT 05346
802-387-5852
RECOMMENDED READING
Betty Ann Lockhart
Maple Sugarin' in Vermont: A Sweet History
Available from Perceptions, Inc.
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