Cooking with Katie: Maple Chocolate Taffy

I remember making maple syrup candy in the snow back in preschool and as an eighth grader on a French class trip to Quebec. With three snow days in a matter of two weeks, I thought it would be perfect to bring back an old tradition. However, instead of wrapping the maple around a popsicle stick, I combined this recipe with chocolate as individual candies.

You will need a candy thermometer.

Heat the maple syrup in a saucepan on the stove. Once it starts to boil, you should start mixing.

Watch until the candy thermometer identifies that the syrup is at the soft ball stage.

Add your snow onto a flat surface.

Use a masher to pat down the snow into the surface.

After taking the syrup off of the heat, start to pour strips onto the snow. Leave it there to cool. Pouring the syrup onto the snow lets it stop cooking immediately and turn into a taffy-like consistency.

Pour the chocolate chips into a bowl and set aside.

On low to medium heat in a sauce pan, combine the butter and milk. Make sure the milk does not boil, because it could burn.

After the butter is completely melted into the milk and the mixture thickens up, take the mixture off of the heat and pour into the bowl of chocolate chips.

Mix the chocolate chips with the hot wet ingredients. This will melt the chocolate chips into a chocolate glaze. It will thicken up with continuous mixing.

While waiting for the glaze to thicken, go back to the maple strips and break into small pieces. The shapes of the pieces can be imperfect.

Dip the maple taffy into the chocolate glaze.

Put the chocolate dipped taffy into the snow to cool. Once ready to serve, transfer to parchment paper.

This is an easy recipe that anyone can make in the cold New England winter. Enjoy!