5 easy steps to make your own maple sugar

Granulated maple sugar is a great alternative to the white, refined variety. Pick up a bottle of maple syrup at your local supermarket and follow these easy steps for your own homemade maple sugar.

Maple sugar dates back to the days of Canada’s early settlers. Back then, cane sugar was an expensive import and only the wealthy could afford to use it every day. When it could be had at all, white sugar was for saved for special occasions.

To fill the void, savvy pioneers met almost all of their sugar needs with the maple trees right on their own land. They tapped as many maples as they could to gather the sap and then boiled it down to pure maple sugar for baking.

While today maple syrup is more common, it’s still possible to make sugar for a taste of the pioneer life right in your own kitchen.

Any grade of maple syrup can be turned into high-quality maple sugar. Grade A light amber is slightly easier to process, but is typically the most expensive.

In addition to syrup, you’ll need a heavy-bottomed stock pot with high sides, a pat of butter, a candy thermometer and a stand mixer.

If you don't have a stand mixer, an electric hand mixer or even a wooden spoon and a high-sided mixing bowl will do.

• First, rub a wide stripe of butter along the inside of the top rim of your stock pot. This will keep the syrup from boiling over the sides and making a mess.
• Next, pour the maple syrup into the stock pot, making sure that it fills no more than one-third of the pot.
• Turn the heat up to high and attach the candy thermometer to the side of the pot.
• Keep the syrup boiling until it reaches 124 degrees Celsius.

• Once the syrup is up to temperature, pour it into your mixing boil and begin stirring. This is easy with a stand mixer, but if you're using a spoon, you might want to have a partner on hand to take over you when you get tired.
• Keep mixing. The syrup will turn creamy, then will start sending out puffs of steam.
• Finally, the sugar will become grainy.
• Once it's a fine, fluffy, off-white sugar, you're done!

• Allow the sugar to cool completely.
• Store it in an air-tight container such as a crock with a gasket lid or a mason jar.
• The sugar will keep at room temperature indefinitely.

You can use granulated maple sugar just as you do white sugar, but its richer flavour is especially delicious in coffee and pies. Its fine and fluffy consistency also makes it perfect in treats with a creamy texture like custards or puddings, and works well for a cake with a fine crumb. You can even make a maple flan by using maple sugar for the custard and maple syrup instead of caramel for the topping.