The Randolph School hosts an annual maple celebration called Maplefest, inspired by the maple curriculum. The day before Maplefest, we made our own maple leaf shaped maple candy. We used information from our previous sugar stage experiment and determined it would be best to work with maple syrup harvested at the school because it reached hardened candy stages and aimed to cook the syrup to about 270°F so it would reach the soft crack sugar stage.

We went outdoors and used a propane burner and a large pot to boil a quart of maple syrup and a long metal spoon to constantly stir the syrup. We used a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature of the syrup as it increased. To achieve a maple leaf shape, we printed out outlines of large sugar maple leaves and taped the prints to sheet trays. We placed parchment paper over the prints and taped it in place. Each student had his or her own print to work on. When the syrup reached a temperature of 270°F, we used a ladle to drizzle the syrup onto each print. The students smeared and shaped the syrup within the leaf outlines using metal spoons.

Students use a spoon and a pastry brush to manipulate the hot syrup in the maple templates. We found the pastry brushes did not work very well, and would not recommend them.

This is student made maple candy that has been shaped into a maple leaf, hardened, and cooled.

This is another example of a student made maple leaf. Each student made one and it was interesting to see the differences and similarities between each sugar leaf.