Canadian Maple Taffy

These Canadian Maple Taffy are a traditional Canadian sweet that requires only two ingredients. Maple syrup and…snow!

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Hello everyone. I hope you are doing well. I have been extremely lazy with blogging this month (Indeed, simply so busy with other stuff). But I wanted to end my hibernation and bring something delicious to you.

Clickable Recipe Names

But first, I have a question. Have you ever seen recipes, mostly on YouTube, with clickable (But often just ridiculous) titles? Like: “My husband TRIED this, and now asks to make it EVERY DAY!!!!!!!!” Or even better: “Do you have one egg and salt? Make THIS then!”. And then the recipe continues: take one egg and combine it with flour, milk, melted butter, overripe banana…” LOL

Even though I am not a fan of clickable names, I could easily use one for this recipe.

“Do you have some maple syrup and CLEAN, FRESH SNOW? Then make this Canadian Maple Taffy. Your kids will be excited!”

Canadian Maple Taffy

Maple Syrup Taffy Candy is the quintessential Canadian sweet I’ve finally had a chance to try myself.

Making maple candy is a popular outdoor winter tradition at maple syrup festivals and carnivals in late winter and early spring. And you can easily make it in your backyard, too.

The recipe is simple. Basically, you need to cook the pure maple syrup until it reaches the soft ball stage (235º -240ºF). Then you need to pour the boiling maple syrup on a clean bed of snow. The cold snow instantly stops the syrup from cooking and cools it to the consistency of taffy in seconds. If there’s no snow in your area, the finely grated ice would do.

I used about two cups of maple syrup, and that’s quite a lot of taffy. Most recipes would offer you one cup. Again, you can easily adjust the amount to your needs. I would not recommend, however, taking less than 1/2 cup of syrup because the mixture will boil down significantly. You will still yield 2 or 3 taffies, but what’s even the point to make this mess just for a few candy, right? :)

Cooking Tips:

1. Take a large pot. The mixture while boiling will be increasing in volume and foaming a lot. For 2 cups of maple syrup, take at least 1,5 liter tall pan. Use a heavy-bottom pan, too.
2. You don’t need to measure your maple syrup precisely. You can use any amount as desired / you have on your hands. I will not recommend using less than 1/2 cup of the syrup though because it will significantly reduce in amount.
3. Roughly, 1 cup of maple syrup will yield in about 4-6 quite large taffies.
4. You will need a candy thermometer to measure reaching the “soft ball” stage (235-240 degrees Fahrenheit). Depending on your stove, it should take at least 10-12 minutes.
5. If you slightly pass the soft ball stage, don’t worry. The consistency will be something between a taffy and sucker, but it will be still super tasty! Another way is stop cooking few seconds before reaching the temperature if you don’t trust your thermometer.
6. You don’t need to use wooden popsicle sticks if you prefer individual candy.
7. You can make the taffy outside or bring some fresh snow inside, on a large tray.
8. Once you pour the syrup onto the snow, work fast as it solidifies almost immediately. So work with one taffy at a time.
9. It’s the best to enjoy the taffy right away. You can keep them inside, but they will start being sticky and then melt in a couple of hours. I believe you can easily preserve them outside.
10. While I haven’t tried this myself, I think some additions like a pinch of salt natural vanilla, or cinnamon would be good.
11. If you struggle with pan clean-up, there’s a trick. Fill the pan with water, add few teaspoons of baking soda and few tablespoons of lemon juice (The concentrated is okay). Bring to a boil then softly boil for 5 minutes or so – the hardened caramel will soften. Then discard the boiling water and wash, as normally.

If Canadian Maple Taffy is a new recipe to you, I hope you liked this ideas, and you will try it soon. If you make it, let me know in this post or send me an Instagram message or share you photos adding the hashtag #havocinthekitchen.

Cheers!