maple syrup snow candy

For some reason the enormous snow blanket wrapping the house led me to contemplate maple syrup candy. I have never had it, but I thought I remembered reading about it in one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. At first I was sure it was in Farmer Boy, mainly because that's the one that I know I read several times as a kid. I skimmed it and found no such thing. A bit of googling revealed that it is actually in Little House in the Big Woods. The general idea is to ladle boiling syrup over a plate of snow, where it cools to a soft candy and is eaten immediately.

Since I happened to have on hand an astonishing surfeit of snow, a pretty good quantity of maple syrup, and two ravenous boys, it seemed like an obvious time to try it out.

It took a bit of experimentation. If the syrup doesn't boil long enough then it will be too thin. It needs to bubble and froth for several minutes.

If the snow is not packed tightly enough then the hot syrup will melt through the snow and you'll end up with something more like a maple syrup snowcone.

But if you have cold dense snow and thick syrup you can make something pretty nice!

I don't think this is exactly the consistency of the candy as I have read about it. It supposed to be soft and waxy and this is somewhat malleable but quit firm. It's a little more fun to make than eat, honestly, but we enjoyed it.

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