Retrieved February 11, 2014.įor help creating graphs, try this website: This resource has information on describing color using hue, saturation, and brightness: The Accidental Scientist: Science of Cooking. Cornell Sugar Maple Research & Extension Program.These resources give information about maple syrup and how maple syrup-based candies and other candies are made:

The Bibliography, below, has references to help you understand these terms. To quantify the color of the candy samples you make, you will categorize the colors by (Note that when making real maple syrup-based candies, typically more processing is involved than simply heating and cooling the maple syrup - for more details on this, see the resources in the Bibliography, below.) Maple candies can also come in different shades of brown, from honey-colored to dark brown. For example, maple syrup can be turned into sticky maple taffy (sometimes called maple toffee), as shown in Figure 2, below, or firmer candies such as soft sugar candy (often molded into the shape of maple leaves) or maple sugar-based treats, as shown in Figure 1, above.

Maple candies can have a variety of textures and consistencies. In this food science project, you will investigate how the temperature that maple syrup is heated to affects the type of candies it can make. For example, sucrose, which is the primary sugar in maple syrup, becomes caramelized at 320☏. Heating sugary solutions to very high temperatures can also cause them to caramelize, which is a complex chemical process that gives some foods a characteristic brown color and nutty/caramel flavor. The syrup used to make lollipops, though, is cooked until it reaches a 99 percent concentration of sugar in solution (at a temperature of 300–310☏), which makes drops of the syrup turn into hard, brittle, easy-to-break threads when placed in cold water. The syrup used to make caramels is cooked until it reaches 240–250☏, at which point it has an 87 percent concentration of sugar in solution and enters the firm ball stage (see the links in the Bibliography, below, for more information about this). Think about the difference between the texture of caramels and lollipops - the caramel is softer and chewier, while the lollipop is hard and cracks when it is bitten. (Image credits: elPadawan, Wikimedia Commons, 2008)īecause of this process, the final concentration of sugar in the solution determines the texture of the candy that forms when the syrup cools.

This is a maple sugar cube, made by boiling off all of the water from maple syrup. The amount of crystals that form depends on how concentrated the sugar is.įigure 1. As the heated maple syrup cools, the sugar molecules (the smallest particles of the sugar) can form crystals. How does boiling the sap change its consistency? When a sugary solution is heated, some of the water evaporates off and this makes the sugar become more concentrated in the solution. You can watch the video below to get a more detailed idea of how maple syrup is produced. The sap is gently boiled until it is the right consistency - not too watery (or the maple syrup could easily spoil) and not too thick (or the maple syrup could crystallize). The sap has a lot of sugar, primarily in the form of sucrose, although there are also small amounts of glucose and fructose. Maple syrup is basically made by collecting sap from certain maple trees and boiling it (at 219° Fahrenheit, or about 7° above the temperature of boiling water, 212° F). Some syrups also have nutty, buttery, floral (honey), cereal, chocolate, and coffee flavors! Overall, maple syrups have complex flavor chemistry that delight your senses of taste and smell.Ĭhemically speaking, maple syrup is a concentrated solution of sugar in water, with many minor flavoring compounds. Did you know that around 300 different natural flavor compounds have been found in pure maple syrup? A maple flavor compound is in all pure maple syrups, but maple syrups also often have sugar, caramel, and vanilla flavors.

Maple syrup candy