Sugar on Snow

Last week, just as the snow storm was ending, Colette and I made sugar on snow.  Remember the story in the “Little House” books where the Ingalls family drizzles maple syrup on fresh snow?  Well, that’s what we did!

First, you have to slowly bring maple syrup to a temperature of 240 degrees.  Patience required for this part.  I think it took us at least 20 minutes, because we were constantly adjusting the temperature to keep it from boiling over (since cleaning hot, sticky syrup off of my stove top does not rank high on my list of fun things to do).

Then Colette scooped up a plate of fresh, clean snow.



Then she drizzled the hot syrup on the cold snow.

The syrup does harden, but not as much as I was expecting.  I assumed it would harden up like a hard candy, but that’s not true at all.  It hardens to more of a rubbery, soft-caramel-like texture.  You can peel it right off the snow and eat it.





Delicious, intense maple flavor!